'Merica

[Guno צְבִי]

I was born in 1950. The America of the 1950s and 1960s was prosperous for many (although not all) Americans. We had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the planet.

First there was the Vietnam War. It was extremely expensive, causing deficit spending, and spurring inflation. It cost 58,000 young American lives and many thousands more lives that suffered long term physical or emotional damage.

Nixon precipitated our present health care crisis by overturning the regulation that had previously forbidden health care from being a profitable concern. The biggest cause of personal bankruptcy became medical debt.

Then there were the “trickle down” economic policies of Ronald Reagan. The principles of John Maynard Keynes were abandoned and programs helping the poor were curtailed. Taxes on the wealthy were sharply reduced. Subsidies for higher education were sharply curtailed. Higher education became so expensive that millions of college graduates are burdened with a lifetime of debt that they can never pay off. Many of them can’t afford to leave their parents’ basement, let alone get married and raise children.

The New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt instituted a number of banking regulations including the Glass Steagall act which separated commercial from investment banking. The Clinton Administration overturned this act. Lack of regulations on banking and real estate led to the crash of 2008, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes.

George Bush started two long term and unnecessary wars which caused thousands of American deaths, injuries and long term psychological damages to soldiers and vastly increased the federal debt. His tax cuts were also a large factor in increasing the federal debt.

Do tax cuts for the wealthy improve the economy? History shows that the answer is a resounding NO. The wealthy hoard the money or invest it abroad. Nothing has trickled down. The vast bulk of the wealth has flowed up to the already wealthy. We can expect the same results from the Trump tax cuts.

We are now in a situation where the middle class has been eroded to the point where fully fifty percent of American households live paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all. For these households a $500 auto repair bill can make them have to choose between paying the rent and utilities or putting food on the table.

Our wars and our economic policies that serve only the desires of a small clique of billionaire oligarchs are what have destroyed America.

'Merica

[Frank Apisa]

.

Our wars and our economic policies that serve only the desires of a small clique of billionaire oligarchs are what have destroyed America.

'Merica

I was born in 1936. My formative years saw a middle class where one person worked (usually the father)...and his wages (for 40 hours of work) provided food, shelter, a car, clothing, medical care, put the kids through school, radio (later television) and small vacations. AND THERE WAS MONEY LEFT OVER FOR SAVINGS.

Today...both parents work (sometimes more than one job) and it is still a struggle for many to meet most of those things.

Huge change has to happen...and happen fast...or the people are going to rip the roof off this house.

[Lightbringer]

Do tax cuts for the wealthy improve the economy? History shows that the answer is a resounding NO. The wealthy hoard the money or invest it abroad. Nothing has trickled down. The vast bulk of the wealth has flowed up to the already wealthy. We can expect the same results from the Trump tax cuts.

How are you defining "wealthy"? Are you restricting it to multi-millionaires parking money in tax havens or are you including small business owners?

[cawacko]

So you bitch about war but it was because of war that America had the economic success she had in the '50's and '60's due to much of Europe and Japan being destroyed and Russia and China being run by communists.

How can we go about recreating those geo-political conditions guno?


Edit: And the ultimate irony is the people who it was prosperous for are the ones you want to die.

[cawacko]

Guno, what should have America's response been to the 9/11 attacks?

[Bourbon]

Ugly republicans....

[Adolf_Twitler]

Republicans have been trying to squiggle out of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act for years.

You knew this was going to be the next step after their Tax Bill Abomination!

[Flash]

Median Family Income (adjusted for inflation)[Census Bureau]

1950: approx $23,000
2018: $62,175

Two earner families do not both work just to make ends meet but for a higher standard of living. Couples who both have college degrees are more likely to both work than those without degrees (who would need it more). They want a/c, 2+ cars, 2+ TVs, cell phones, and many other luxuries even two earner families did not have in the 1950s-1960's.

Because households are smaller today that increases the standard of living for a $62,175 family income.

[montgomery]

I was born in 1950. The America of the 1950s and 1960s was prosperous for many (although not all) Americans. We had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the planet.

First there was the Vietnam War. It was extremely expensive, causing deficit spending, and spurring inflation. It cost 58,000 young American lives and many thousands more lives that suffered long term physical or emotional damage.

Nixon precipitated our present health care crisis by overturning the regulation that had previously forbidden health care from being a profitable concern. The biggest cause of personal bankruptcy became medical debt.

Then there were the “trickle down” economic policies of Ronald Reagan. The principles of John Maynard Keynes were abandoned and programs helping the poor were curtailed. Taxes on the wealthy were sharply reduced. Subsidies for higher education were sharply curtailed. Higher education became so expensive that millions of college graduates are burdened with a lifetime of debt that they can never pay off. Many of them can’t afford to leave their parents’ basement, let alone get married and raise children.

The New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt instituted a number of banking regulations including the Glass Steagall act which separated commercial from investment banking. The Clinton Administration overturned this act. Lack of regulations on banking and real estate led to the crash of 2008, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes.

George Bush started two long term and unnecessary wars which caused thousands of American deaths, injuries and long term psychological damages to soldiers and vastly increased the federal debt. His tax cuts were also a large factor in increasing the federal debt.

Do tax cuts for the wealthy improve the economy? History shows that the answer is a resounding NO. The wealthy hoard the money or invest it abroad. Nothing has trickled down. The vast bulk of the wealth has flowed up to the already wealthy. We can expect the same results from the Trump tax cuts.

We are now in a situation where the middle class has been eroded to the point where fully fifty percent of American households live paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all. For these households a $500 auto repair bill can make them have to choose between paying the rent and utilities or putting food on the table.

Our wars and our economic policies that serve only the desires of a small clique of billionaire oligarchs are what have destroyed America.

'Merica

Your post could have fit well in the 'Above Plain Politics' section of the forum where Frank likely would have commented too, but the lowlife spammer childrent wouldn't have been able to chuck their shit.

[Anarchon]

I was born in 1950. The America of the 1950s and 1960s was prosperous for many (although not all) Americans. We had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the planet.

First there was the Vietnam War. It was extremely expensive, causing deficit spending, and spurring inflation. It cost 58,000 young American lives and many thousands more lives that suffered long term physical or emotional damage.

Nixon precipitated our present health care crisis by overturning the regulation that had previously forbidden health care from being a profitable concern. The biggest cause of personal bankruptcy became medical debt.

Then there were the “trickle down” economic policies of Ronald Reagan. The principles of John Maynard Keynes were abandoned and programs helping the poor were curtailed. Taxes on the wealthy were sharply reduced. Subsidies for higher education were sharply curtailed. Higher education became so expensive that millions of college graduates are burdened with a lifetime of debt that they can never pay off. Many of them can’t afford to leave their parents’ basement, let alone get married and raise children.

The New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt instituted a number of banking regulations including the Glass Steagall act which separated commercial from investment banking. The Clinton Administration overturned this act. Lack of regulations on banking and real estate led to the crash of 2008, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes.

George Bush started two long term and unnecessary wars which caused thousands of American deaths, injuries and long term psychological damages to soldiers and vastly increased the federal debt. His tax cuts were also a large factor in increasing the federal debt.

Do tax cuts for the wealthy improve the economy? History shows that the answer is a resounding NO. The wealthy hoard the money or invest it abroad. Nothing has trickled down. The vast bulk of the wealth has flowed up to the already wealthy. We can expect the same results from the Trump tax cuts.

We are now in a situation where the middle class has been eroded to the point where fully fifty percent of American households live paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all. For these households a $500 auto repair bill can make them have to choose between paying the rent and utilities or putting food on the table.

Our wars and our economic policies that serve only the desires of a small clique of billionaire oligarchs are what have destroyed America.

'Merica

Maybe ya'll should have heeded Ike's words.

[cawacko]

I was born in 1950. The America of the 1950s and 1960s was prosperous for many (although not all) Americans. We had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the planet.

First there was the Vietnam War. It was extremely expensive, causing deficit spending, and spurring inflation. It cost 58,000 young American lives and many thousands more lives that suffered long term physical or emotional damage.

Nixon precipitated our present health care crisis by overturning the regulation that had previously forbidden health care from being a profitable concern. The biggest cause of personal bankruptcy became medical debt.

Then there were the “trickle down” economic policies of Ronald Reagan. The principles of John Maynard Keynes were abandoned and programs helping the poor were curtailed. Taxes on the wealthy were sharply reduced. Subsidies for higher education were sharply curtailed. Higher education became so expensive that millions of college graduates are burdened with a lifetime of debt that they can never pay off. Many of them can’t afford to leave their parents’ basement, let alone get married and raise children.

The New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt instituted a number of banking regulations including the Glass Steagall act which separated commercial from investment banking. The Clinton Administration overturned this act. Lack of regulations on banking and real estate led to the crash of 2008, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes.

George Bush started two long term and unnecessary wars which caused thousands of American deaths, injuries and long term psychological damages to soldiers and vastly increased the federal debt. His tax cuts were also a large factor in increasing the federal debt.

Do tax cuts for the wealthy improve the economy? History shows that the answer is a resounding NO. The wealthy hoard the money or invest it abroad. Nothing has trickled down. The vast bulk of the wealth has flowed up to the already wealthy. We can expect the same results from the Trump tax cuts.

We are now in a situation where the middle class has been eroded to the point where fully fifty percent of American households live paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all. For these households a $500 auto repair bill can make them have to choose between paying the rent and utilities or putting food on the table.

Our wars and our economic policies that serve only the desires of a small clique of billionaire oligarchs are what have destroyed America.

'Merica

The ultimate irony of this post guno is you are just like those you mock for voting #maga. You are old and dream of a past industrialized time in America that isn't returning instead of having the ability to look forward to what America will become economically in a tech/AI driven global world.

[Nordberg]

Part of America's wealth problem is the destruction of unions. It was a deliberate act of the wealthy. It has left workers powerless. Of course not pegging the min. wage to inflation was another act to strip the small people of wealth and power. Hard to say whether it was driven by greed or philosophy, with the goal being a plutocracy, but we are well into the end stages. The wealth gap is worse than the Gilded Age and getting worse every day. America is being changed in fundamental ways to give more money and power to the few.
In Eisenhower's time, the top tax rate was over 90 percent. Since Reagan, every Republican president and some Dems have slashed the tax rates to help the rich over and over. We are gutting the estate tax. We are giving way to much financial power to bankers and investment banks. America is being changed and it cannot be stopped now.

[katzgar]

I was born in 1950. The America of the 1950s and 1960s was prosperous for many (although not all) Americans. We had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the planet.

First there was the Vietnam War. It was extremely expensive, causing deficit spending, and spurring inflation. It cost 58,000 young American lives and many thousands more lives that suffered long term physical or emotional damage.

Nixon precipitated our present health care crisis by overturning the regulation that had previously forbidden health care from being a profitable concern. The biggest cause of personal bankruptcy became medical debt.

Then there were the “trickle down” economic policies of Ronald Reagan. The principles of John Maynard Keynes were abandoned and programs helping the poor were curtailed. Taxes on the wealthy were sharply reduced. Subsidies for higher education were sharply curtailed. Higher education became so expensive that millions of college graduates are burdened with a lifetime of debt that they can never pay off. Many of them can’t afford to leave their parents’ basement, let alone get married and raise children.

The New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt instituted a number of banking regulations including the Glass Steagall act which separated commercial from investment banking. The Clinton Administration overturned this act. Lack of regulations on banking and real estate led to the crash of 2008, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes.

George Bush started two long term and unnecessary wars which caused thousands of American deaths, injuries and long term psychological damages to soldiers and vastly increased the federal debt. His tax cuts were also a large factor in increasing the federal debt.

Do tax cuts for the wealthy improve the economy? History shows that the answer is a resounding NO. The wealthy hoard the money or invest it abroad. Nothing has trickled down. The vast bulk of the wealth has flowed up to the already wealthy. We can expect the same results from the Trump tax cuts.

We are now in a situation where the middle class has been eroded to the point where fully fifty percent of American households live paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all. For these households a $500 auto repair bill can make them have to choose between paying the rent and utilities or putting food on the table.

Our wars and our economic policies that serve only the desires of a small clique of billionaire oligarchs are what have destroyed America.

'Merica

immediately after World War II the United States prospered hugely in part because Japan and much of Europe had been bomb to rubble.

[Heff]

Honest question, but why do entire generations of people look to the state as their savior? They want the state (funded by the wealthy), to provide healthcare, education, even housing. Is it because you guys refuse to provide such services to your fellow man?

[TTQ64]

Honest question, but why do entire generations of people look to the state as their savior? They want the state (funded by the wealthy), to provide healthcare, education, even housing. Is it because you guys refuse to provide such services to your fellow man?

BECAUSE WE PAY FUCKIN TAXES.

And as of now our tax dollars are going to the wealthy....the majority of whom are white and male.