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THE GREAT PROSPERITY
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Government & Elections
THE GREAT PROSPERITY
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(some of you have lived it ) "The Great Prosperity" is a term some use to refer to the post-WWII period, from the mid-40s to the late-70s, when the ec
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Cat:d51398b3-89f9-463d-bf1b-4b885f02c9eeForum:af978875-5bc6-4b07-a6fb-b18062132f95
Cat:d51398b3-89f9-463d-bf1b-4b885f02c9eeForum:af978875-5bc6-4b07-a6fb-b18062132f95Discussion:101a7920-7723-46c7-bb1b-e32cf0277ab7
Forums » Politics & Society » Government & Elections » THE GREAT PROSPERITY
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THE GREAT PROSPERITY
posted at June 17, 2012 12:52 PM EDT
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Posts: 12532
First: February 29, 2008 Last: May 17, 2013 |
(some of you have lived it )
"The Great Prosperity" is a term some use to refer to the post-WWII period, from the mid-40s to the late-70s, when the economy in the US was strong and the middle class was thriving. Robert Reich uses the term in his 2010 book Aftershock. The Great Prosperity was a time when the US was making massive taxpayer funded investments in America, from the building of the interstate highway system to the GI Bill which promoted home ownership and subsidized college tuition for returning veterans. This ambitions set of programs were funded by a very progressive tax system with top income tax rates in the 80 to 90% range, which were also used to pay off the war debt. Unions were also still strong during these years and globalization had not yet taken hold. According to Census Bureau data, from 1947 to 1979 the bottom 20% of Americans saw a 116% growth in their income after adjusting for inflation, the middle 20% saw growth of 111%, and the top 5% saw their incomes grow by 86%. It's a period when prosperity was clearly shared across the board and the middle class was growing. This stands in stark contrast to the period Reich calls "The Great Divergence," from the late-70s onward when the US radically shifted courses and began dismantling many of those former programs while giving large scale tax cuts to the wealthiest premised on the concept of "trickle-down" benefits. Instead, the income growth that did take place went almost entirely to the wealthiest Americans while the wages for most Americans remained stagnant. During this period, 1979 to 2008, the bottom 20% actually saw their incomes decline by 4% after adjusting for inflation, the middle 20% of income earners saw their incomes grow by only 14%, while the top 5% realized income growth of 73%. By 2008, income disparities had reached their highest level since 1928, just before the Great Depression. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_Great_Prosperity#ixzz1xrupWtr7 |
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Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY
posted at June 17, 2012 3:25 PM EDT
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Posts: 471
First: December 21, 2011 Last: May 20, 2013 |
IThe blame can be squarely laid upon the shoulders of public education. Before the days of teacher unions, teachers had to teach or they were let go. Now that teachers have joined the ranks of organized labor, how they teach is no longer important. They know that no matter how incompetent they are their union rep will come to their aid. In NYC its impossible to fire a teacher. It's also impossible to find out how effective a teacher is. Teachers accused of abuse, sexual misconduct and out and out incompetence stay on the job. As with any union its not how good you are at your craft, but rather how many years you've been on the job. When there are layoffs good teachers that have less seniority are let go while those with more seniority, no matter how bad they are, are kept on. In private industry those that cannot perform are let go, no matter how long they've been there. We are a technology based society, education is important. Response to THE GREAT PROSPERITY: (some of you have lived it ) "The Great Prosperity" is a term some use to refer to the post-WWII period, from the mid-40s to the late-70s, when the economy in the US was strong and the middle class was thriving. Robert Reich uses the term in his 2010 book Aftershock . The Great Prosperity was a time when the US was making massive taxpayer funded investments in America, from the building of the interstate highway system to the GI Bill which promoted home ownership and subsidized college tuition for returning veterans. This ambitions set of programs were funded by a very progressive tax system with top income tax rates in the 80 to 90% range, which were also used to pay off the war debt. Unions were also still strong during these years and globalization had not yet taken hold. According to Census Bureau data, from 1947 to 1979 the bottom 20% of Americans saw a 116% growth in their income after adjusting for inflation, the middle 20% saw growth of 111%, and the top 5% saw their incomes grow by 86%. It's a period when prosperity was clearly shared across the board and the middle class was growing. This stands in stark contrast to the period Reich calls "The Great Divergence," from the late-70s onward when the US radically shifted courses and began dismantling many of those former programs while giving large scale tax cuts to the wealthiest premised on the concept of "trickle-down" benefits. Instead, the income growth that did take place went almost entirely to the wealthiest Americans while the wages for most Americans remained stagnant. During this period, 1979 to 2008, the bottom 20% actually saw their incomes decline by 4% after adjusting for inflation, the middle 20% of income earners saw their incomes grow by only 14%, while the top 5% realized income growth of 73%. By 2008, income disparities had reached their highest level since 1928, just before the Great Depression. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_Great_Prosperity#ixzz1xrupWtr7 Posted by JANMB |
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Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY
posted at June 17, 2012 5:28 PM EDT
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Posts: 1923
First: November 27, 2011 Last: May 18, 2013 |
In Response to THE GREAT PROSPERITY: Posted by JANMB It seems many still want "trickle down" except you want it f from the government. Yes, my father was a laborer after WWII and my mother stayed at home. Our means were modest but we did have a home built with their hands, piece at a time, with never a mortgage. It was a time when the INDiVIDUAL thrived and made their own mark and instilled those same values in their children. My brother and I went to college, on our own nickle, not that of the government, after taking full advantage of our wonderful public school system. A public school system that was not laddened with rules and regulations and gave children responsibilities to grow. Remember those "safety patrols". I looked to the success of others and learned how to make myself successful. I turned out to be just as big a success, if not moreso, than my parents. Because of what I learned from that time, I became self-employed and created a very good life for myself although very, very different from my parents. My daughter did the same with no school loans or other government subsidies. I still see friends of mine from those early years; that is, the one's that didn't either die in Vietnam or never shook off the drug culture of the 60's and have died as a result. Some of them have similar stories to mine, others never put away a penny and will be on the government's bill from now until they die. To me, it is NOT what government can do for you or for that matter, what a company can do for you, it is what you are able to do with yourself and the opportunities that have already been provided in this great nation. The time of which you speak was a time when there was a very small government that had very specific (defined) purposes laid out for it. Today, government is huge and requires a lot of resources in people and money just to function on a day to day basis - government rules and regulations permeate every aspect of our lives. If those in the middle class want to survive and prosper, they need to help restrict government and make it smaller because it is government that is slurping up all of the money - trillions and TRILLIONS of it that those that will come after us will be paying and paying . . . . . . . |
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Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY
posted at June 17, 2012 5:49 PM EDT
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Posts: 12532
First: February 29, 2008 Last: May 17, 2013 |
In Response to Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY: [ I brought this article up to show how we have DETERIORATED in this country. I don't believe you read it through to the end. I have two boomers....I have worked with mothers who had two jobs....I have experienced the struggles in the 1940's with my parents struggled out of it like I did. My generation was different. READ THE LAST PARAGRAPH. But The GOVT is HUGE today in your words because the middle class is not growing it's been disappearing and all those opportunities with it for most people ....ding ding ding. FOR most people... most people... most people. It's not about you or me it's about everyone else. Collecting less taxes than you need to solve problems is what right wingers like you are demanding. But all this BS about less govt and taking the country backwards to 1920's is just that because I see that some people want government to give them as much as possible .....like security, FAA , the FDA, CDC , nice highways....while Gov't should be demanding little or no money via taxes from them. Then the underpaid folks who do the hard labor that is the spine of this country will get mocked for being poor by people like yourself here when they won't even raise the minimum wages to $10 an hour !! Especially the old-folks who made so little money that helped to build this country up and took it through wars and depressions. "It's hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing. " Helen Keller |
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Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY
posted at June 21, 2012 3:36 PM EDT
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Posts: 1923
First: November 27, 2011 Last: May 18, 2013 |
In Response to Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY: In Response to Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY : [ I brought this article up to show how we have DETERIORATED in this country. I don't believe you read it through to the end. I have two boomers....I have worked with mothers who had two jobs....I have experienced the struggles in the 1940's with my parents struggled out of it like I did. My generation was different. READ THE LAST PARAGRAPH. But The GOVT is HUGE today in your words because the middle class is not growing it's been disappearing and all those opportunities with it for most people ....ding ding ding. FOR most people... most people... most people. It's not about you or me it's about everyone else. Collecting less taxes than you need to solve problems is what right wingers like you are demanding. But all this BS about less govt and taking the country backwards to 1920's is just that because I see that some people want government to give them as much as possible .....like security, FAA , the FDA, CDC , nice highways....while Gov't should be demanding little or no money via taxes from them. Then the underpaid folks who do the hard labor that is the spine of this country will get mocked for being poor by people like yourself here when they won't even raise the minimum wages to $10 an hour !! Especially the old-folks who made so little money that helped to build this country up and took it through wars and depressions. "It's hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing. " Helen Keller Posted by JANMB You do understand that the middle class can move both ways - a lot of kids that grew up with middle class families, got degrees and are now in the upper middle class if not farther up the scale. You do understand that it is now a widely accepted rule, especially with all the technology at our command to WORK SMARTER; NOT HARDER. With so much technology at our command, those laborers should make new arrangements or they will get left further and further behind. That is to say, the likihood of a machine (or a Chinese person) taking their job is of high probability. The country has changed; the world has changed. When a job requires some level of expertise; there is more pay to be had for the job depending upon how many people have the expertise. When a job can be done by any Tom, Dick, Harry or Jane with little if any skill attached - the pay will be determined by the masses who can apply and perform. Easy Come and Easy Go. Look, Jan, I want everybody to have a (better than) living wage but the problem with giving it to them, not based on their own merits & skills, makes them less likely to take the next step forward to get to the next level on their own. |
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Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY
posted at June 21, 2012 5:33 PM EDT
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Posts: 12532
First: February 29, 2008 Last: May 17, 2013 |
In Response to Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY: In Response to Re: THE GREAT PROSPERITY : You do understand that the middle class can move both ways - a lot of kids that grew up with middle class families, got degrees and are now in the upper middle class if not farther up the scale. You do understand that it is now a widely accepted rule, especially with all the technology at our command to WORK SMARTER; NOT HARDER. With so much technology at our command, those laborers should make new arrangements or they will get left further and further behind. That is to say, the likihood of a machine (or a Chinese person) taking their job is of high probability. The country has changed; the world has changed. When a job requires some level of expertise; there is more pay to be had for the job depending upon how many people have the expertise. When a job can be done by any Tom, Dick, Harry or Jane with little if any skill attached - the pay will be determined by the masses who can apply and perform. Easy Come and Easy Go. Look, Jan, I want everybody to have a (better than) living wage but the problem with giving it to them, not based on their own merits & skills, makes them less likely to take the next step forward to get to the next level on their own. Posted by GailL1 What a bunch of BS about the need of expertise in jobs....for crynout loud there are plenty of college grads- plus BOOMERS WITH experience that cannot find a job and it's in every kind of career there is....their cries just aren't being HEARD by some people. Its about the unsustainable population growth ..loss of plant and animal species around the globe and technology-automation taking jobs away forever. . The article The Great Prosperity shows what changes have occurred while it was interesting to read a review of your family history it was not intended to be all about ME-ME-ME. It's about the vast numbers of people who are NOT doing okay with the numbers that have been growing in this decade ..that may have been once been doing okay and now they are not. Wages ALL AROUND are TOO LOW. except for the ones making millions $$ a year off the backs of taxpayers and other workers. We live in a country where the super rich pay a far smaller share of the income they get than the average middle class taxpayer because etched into tax laws is that which heavily favor "capital gains" (the kind Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers rake in) over "earned income" (wages and salaries of store clerks, mechanics, and assembly line workers.)
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Forums » Politics & Society » Government & Elections » THE GREAT PROSPERITY
