"When America was 'Great,' Taxes were High, Unions Strong"

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...ns-were-strong-and-government-was-big/407284/

 

The 50's were good times.

 

Hell yeah. It's going to be fun destroying all the other developed nations infrastructure through world war till we're the only one left standing. Then we can let the top men in this country run through the wealth and do it again.

 

Thanks for saying it so I didn't have to. I suppose we would also benefit from a China dealing with famine and an India that is less than ten years old.

 

I honestly wonder if the people who write these articles have ever taken an economics class and learned a little history. amazing.

 

I remember when Obama was going to destroy the country. I remember how him getting re-elected would mean the end of America.

Here we are.

 

worst economic recovery in American history combined with obamacare which is going to bleed us dry for decades. i'm not sure he didn't destroy the country.

 

*yawn

 

I apologize if reality is boring to you.

 

I won't apologize for resisting your redefining of reality.


The real point is that the "era" people are yearning for is not going to be attained by moving further away from those things that defined.

 

you seriously think unions and taxes were why we had a dominant economy in the 50s? or are you trolling?

 

Does this address that we were the only major player internationaly so unsustainable practices didn't hurt till the rest of the world made strides in closing the gap between us.

 

I seriously think private sector unions are good for the economy. We have a consumer-driven economy, and when wages are suppressed that consumerism declines.

I also think a strong and active government keeps a more level playing field than an anemic government that has it's strings pulled to pick and choose where it focuses.

 

You make it sound like I want to try to compete with China and India for labor. I don't. Winning that competition doesn't look much different than losing it.

 

how could they possibly be good for the economy? take a look at the US auto sector and how wonderfully we competed with the Japanese having labor costs 40% higher. consumer spending is at it's highest level ever. Americans have never spent more money inflation adjusted.

strong govt doesn't mean high taxes.

 

What are you wanting to compete for then, because the same things you want stifle and hold back innovation.

Large government holds back the market through cumbersome regulations that slow and hinder innovation and lack of market choice, while private union wages are too high in a global market for most jobs today so we've had huge declines in them since the 70's.

 

we have a causality problem there. He could similarly argue that having the Wall in Berlin was great for the 50s boom, rather than massive industrial expansion brought on by the postwar years.

 

Now we're going in circles. I'm telling you I don't want to be competing for labor, you're telling me about jobs moving overseas.

 

I didn't just tell you that. I think union labor has reached and passed the tipping point for usefulness in American so union labor is decreasing. That doesn't mean it is going overseas, but into the South and other areas of America as well.

I think over regulation, poor government policies, and our large welfare state is what hurts the economy the most. We have more open jobs available in America today than at any point in our history, but have horrible labor participation to fill them.

 

McJobs. These are viable careers. It's the 1950's equivalent of rolling out a couple million skating carhop positions and wondering why they aren't being filled.