Even back then I was saying that ‘TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS” doesn’t work, never will.
But if it only was in the field of economics we could possibly manage a recession or two and then try to equalize the redistribution of wealth. But Reagan stabbed deeply into the heart of America by sowing the seeds of division and hatred…he empowered all these fucking Evangelical-Fundamentalist making them believe that America needs a theocracy.
No, he didn’t stop there either…the President was so hell bent on changing the culture to one more of his liking and one of the super-conservative right wing that he unleashed a culture war that went side by side with the class war…it is still going on today, stronger than ever and it is threatening the very existence of this fine and noble experiment we call DEMOCRACY.
Reagan also went after labor unions Reagan's war on labor as US president began when he fired 13,000 striking air traffic controllers and destroyed their union. Unions in America have been on the decline ever since and that suits the big corporations just fine. Reagan did other awful things like stopping the Equal Rights Amendment for Women, the insensitive and ignorant stance against the Aids epidemic that was surging; Reagan also left the country with 3 trillion dollars in debt while he bragged of being fiscally conservative.
Other than that, there is always the Reagan legacy that government can’t do anything right, it is too big, government is the problem yada-yada-yada. And we have seen what that has created…a population that distrusts government and even a fringe element that is hell bent on destroying it.
I am sorry, the final results are such that I and millions of other Americans are not very happy with…as a matter of fact I am not thrilled about living under a theocratic plutocracy…If Republican-Teahadists have their way America is not going to be a place many people would like to live in.
We then had a period of a pendulum swing from center to right…never to the left and it culminated in the election of the most incompetent, inarticulate and arrogant President we have ever had: George W. Bush. President Bush proceeded to cut taxes even more and got our country involved in two stupid wars after 9-11 when he should have been trying to get Osama bin Laden in the first place. His economic policies were the nail on the economic coffin…we all saw what happened and we should never forget nor should we ever allow the Republicans not to take ownership of the mess Bush and his cronies made.
I like to have you read this post that Jerry Critter did Links to this post onTuesday, May 10, 2011
“What 30 Years of Reaganomics Has Done For You
In general, no matter what we do, the economy continues to grow. We have our recessions, but over the long term, the economy, as measured by GDP, continues to increase as shown in the figure below.
From here.
It shows about a 2.1% annual growth over the last 60 years. Republicans and Democrats have both contributed to this growth, one better than the other at times, but in general it just keeps growing with a few bumps along the way.
Since we all contribute to the growth, I think we all should benefit from the growth. From 1950 to 1980, the GDP roughly doubled. The next figure shows how much our income grew during this period.
Not too bad. Income growth is about the same as GDP growth. The people in the 99 to 99.99 income percentile didn't do as well as the others, but their income is pretty high anyway so they probably did not suffer too much.
Then along came Reagan. He essentially said, taxes are too high. It is stifling the economy and stealing money away from those who create jobs and wealth. We need to cut taxes and shrink government. Get it out of peoples' way.
Well, we already know what happened to the economy when he did that. It kept plodding along with about a 2.1% annual growth. At least he didn't hurt it, but he didn't help it much either. Over the next 28 years, 1980 to 2008, the GDP roughly doubled again...but what happened to incomes? Well, let's take a look. The next figure adds the time period 1980 to 2008 to the figure above.
WOW!!!
Talk about INCOME REDISTRIBUTION!!!
The lower 90% of all Americans saw their income increase an average of 1%. ONE FUCKING PERCENT! Even the people in the 90 - 95 percentile and the 95 to 99 percentile did worse from 1980 to 2008 than they did between 1950 and 1980. Let me say that again. 99 PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE SAW THEIR INCOME INCREASE MORE BETWEEN 1950 AND 1980 THAN IT DID BETWEEN 1980 AND 2008.
Who made all the money from the increase in the economy? Remember, the economy continued to grow at an average of 2.1% per year. Why, it was the top 1 percent, the one percent that the Republicans cater to. In fact, the top 0.01 percent saw their income increase 403%.
So, let's recap. 99 percent of the people saw their income increase significantly less between 1980 and 2008 than they did between 1950 and 1980 thanks to republican economic policies started by Reagan. The bottom 90% of people saw their income increase by only ONE PERCENT, while the top ONE HUNDREDTH OF ONE PERCENT saw their income increase 403 percent. That is a 40,300 percent greater increase than the bottom 90% of the people.
40,200 percent greater increase than the bottom 90% of the people
And the republicans want to give them more tax cuts. Are they out of their fucking minds???”
