Keynes, on how society will eventually view excessive wealth acquisition as a mental illness.

[Trust Buster]

87. It's the 80 year cycle

American economic history shows that boom and bust cycles seem to follow an 80 year pattern. As an example, take the Great Depression. The country was accepting of the regulations that Roosevelt placed on the markets and business in general as well as the social safety net. Business had no choice but to succumb to the will of the people.

But, 40 or so years into this rebirth, the citizens most directly affected by the Great Depression had died out and were replaced with a new, more naive generation. As we've seen during Reagan and since, the financial powers have been able to convince the new generation that regulation of markets is bad. They convinced the population to accept tax codes favoring the financial power brokers. Trickle down was not Reagan's brain child. It's happened before. The 2008 financial crisis should have brought this most current 80 year cycle to it's conclusion clearing the way for another rebirth.

The salient question is: Has today's pervasive effects of financial influence over our government coupled with the insidious emergence of citizen apathy make a new rebirth unattainable ? In the shadow of 2008, new regulation has been weak, worker organization weak, higher education funding weak while the weakening of the social safety net is gaining traction. Will we be the first generation not to witness the rebirth of this historical 80 year cycle ?