My thoughts on the modern economic history of the United States
I consider Liberal Democracy (Liberal-Conservative), Democratic Capitalism (Capitalist-Union) and Social Democracy (Private market-Large Government) as the area of reasonable conversation.
I consider Liberal Democracy (Liberal-Conservative), Democratic Capitalism (Capitalist-Union) and Social Democracy (Private market-Large Government) as the area of reasonable conversation. I aim to discuss and examine how the modern United States moved away from this.
The pre-1970s economy was better for the average person. Post that through the Reagan revolution and the collapse of the USSR, the modern world emerged as friendly to capital but hostile and exploitative towards labor.
This is the breakdown of how we got here:
I would say that the lowest point in the USA economy was the 1850s with slavery being seen as an alternative to free labor and the 1890s with the Gilded Age.
Add another one, the 1920s ending with the crash and the misery of the 1930s.
In all these cases, there were brave leaders who risked everything to do the right thing and improve the situation, even if risking war. Lincoln in the 1860s, Roosevelt in the 1900s and FDR in the 1930s and 1940s.
Lets focus on the modern period. The most history I studied is from 1914 to 1991, called the Short 20th century (the age of extremes).
The United States was very free market. Child labor was challenged at the Supreme Court and it was deemed that it was unconstitutional to ban child labor.
With the Keating–Owen Act of 1916, the United States Congress had attempted to regulate interstate commerce involving goods produced by employees under the ages of 14 or 16, depending on the type of work. The Supreme Court found this law unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918).
(The supreme court played a key role in protecting capital. FDR had to do borderline illegal court changes to alter this course.) But seriously, it was bad. The original idea was that the more money you have the more freedom you have.
There used to be company towns, that ran the coal mines where it was slavery in anything but name, but this time for all colours.
"You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt."
"I owe my soul to the company store"
With Amazon we are back in this age, as South Park satirized it so well.
Regulation was low, and government became a sort of enforcer for business. While alcohol was banned, the best profits were made then, because there was no regulation. But a lot of deaths from poor quality alcohol.
"All the Gods are dead, and the flapper girls are alive." was a common phrase used.
It was a time of the hight of poverty but lots of money to be made.
The whole thing came crashing down in 1929.
FDR came and completely reset the economy. Like if you are American you should have a portrait of FDR and Truman and kiss them. (Ignore the nuking Japan part.)
He brought in the modern standards, he regulated the banks.
All these modern problems; starting with the Nixon shock; of leaving the gold standard caused everything to go downhill.
So the American golden age for everyone was from 1940 to 1975. (Sure there was a war on, and Civil Rights, but they ended well, Nazism dead, Civil Rights won.)
Then it got dismantled step by step. The Key players being Nixon (But he brought in the EPA so he still had the spirit of the New Deal), Reagan, Bill Clinton, W Bush, Trump and Biden, with the destruction speeding up.
From Nixon to Trump the system set up in the 1930s by FDR got dismantled with tax cuts, bank deregulation and shifting towards a cyberpunk style distopia where the Corporation is more powerful than the State. The old American notion of the People in contrast to the USSR’s State is also gone.
Business doesn’t exist either, but only the Corporation.
But surely Nixon had little choice in ending Bretton Woods, which met its end from the profligate Great Society spending (on which we pay to this day).