General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What must it have been like to be a Democrat after the 1984 election? [View all]Cresent City Kid
(1,621 posts)I was just starting college to study computer science at a time when the field was taking off. Pell grants dried up and I had to work at Pizza Hut, not as a temp job to keep me going through college, but as the only source of income for then and into the foreseeable future. I managed to learn the printing trade and make more than minimum wage, but missed out on being a programmer and making a middle class living.
The Reagan "recovery" was a lot of expansion of personal credit card debt and the businesses that expanded the most were fast food places. The rich benefited the most but the middle class received enough to get them voting to keep the gop on top. Basically, they "fixed" the economy by reducing the number of people they were fixing it for. Being poor in the 80's became a life sentence.
The difference between then and now is that now they are feeding on the middle class that got a pass in the 80's.