In 1979, I wrote my economic thesis against "Reaganomics".

[mmonk]

Back then, it was pushed hard by Jack Kemp and was adopted by the Reagan campaign. My thesis centered around what I thought would be its ultimate problem, bankruptcy or drained local and state governments through it's reworking of federalism. I came to that summation even without all free trade agreements to come. I guess my ultimate question is where do those of us against its structure turn now? Do we that philosophically disagree with it vote for people that advance it if that person belongs to the right party or limit our voting to the few that take it on? Or do we turn primarily to local governments and municipalities and try new things to counter its effects? I do not know the answer so I ask all of you for advice whether you support its advancement or not. I'm tired of verbal battles at this point. I'm also tired of working in the confinement of structures that don't fight it as I sometimes feel I'm working against myself and had rather my efforts be more concentrated. Where is our place going forward rather than the attitude "where are they gonna go"? I am a former Democratic Party precinct treasurer and former state delegate for Obama from the last election.

[Motown_Johnny]

1. you should write a book with your '79 thesis as the introduction

and then document all the destruction this economic principle has done


followed with further projections of what will happen if we don't abandon it



working title "It Only Gets Worse"

[mmonk]

2. Funny you should mention writing a book as I was planning on starting one

in the first quarter of the year though it is not centering on Reaganomics per se, but broader on secrecy and secret money.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Good luck on your book

all things are inter-connected.

[mmonk]

21. Thanks. I'm finding it rather daunting.

Yes, it's interconnected.

[Motown_Johnny]

5. excellent

but I think that with the 30th anniversary of the implementation of this failed policy the time is right to bring to light all the predictions of what would occur after 30 years of it.



Your thesis may not have had a time frame for the destruction but others who spoke out against it did.




Reagan took office in 1981, 2011 is the perfect time for this book.




New working title "Thirty Years Of Failure"

[mmonk]

15. The university retained it and I do not have a copy.

I suppose it could be rehashed.

[Motown_Johnny]

33. there must be some way to gain access to it

mustn't there?

[mmonk]

57. I have no idea if it still exists.

I never inquired what they do with what they retain.

[csziggy]

47. Is it in the university library? Many do put student theses in theirs

It's got to be stored somewhere and the library is the logical place. See if the university has an online catalog and check.

[mmonk]

55. I have no idea. It's been quite a while now and I wasn't given any

data as to where it was going to be kept.

[csziggy]

58. Which university - I can try to find it

Even without your name, with the subject I should be able to locate it if the university has an online catalog and if they put it in the library.

[mmonk]

59. The University where that was written is Campbell.

[csziggy]

60. Odd - I do not see theses in their libraries

Here are the closest entries in the right time frame on Reaganomics in their libraries. You might try contacting the library to see if they do have a repository for theses: http://www.lib.campbell.edu/refq.html

HC106.7 .H35 1981
A guide to supply-side economics / Thomas J. Hailstones.
Hailstones, Thomas J.
1 copy available at Wiggins Memorial Library in Wiggins Basement.
• Campbell University Library Catalog


HC106.7 .B37 1981 1981
Reaganomics : supply side economics in action / Bruce R. Bartlett ; foreword by Jack Kemp.
Bartlett, Bruce R., 1951-
1 copy available at Wiggins Memorial Library in Wiggins Basement.
• Campbell University Library Catalog

[mmonk]

61. Maybe they are kept in departments.

I do not recall going through or seeing them in the library but I never checked or was looking for them when I was there.

[csziggy]

62. Different universities have different policies

The one academic library I have experience with - FSU's Strozier Library - had theses from alumni as part of their collection.

I'd check with Campbell University to see what their policy is and if they still have a copy of your thesis. They should be willing to make a copy for you, maybe at cost, but since it is your work, there should be no objection.

[JVS]

36. I'd buy it.

[mmonk]

51. If it comes to fruition, I'll send you a copy.

I don't know if it will be worthy or not yet.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

4. K&R

I'd like to follow this discussion, mmonk

:thumbsup:

WTH

[tavalon]

6. I'm with Motown

Thirty Years of Failure is a rocking book title. Not happy, but catchy. I could get you a book deal with that name. Well, I could if I were a book publisher or at least played one on TV. But I don't, so never mind. But still, I'm happy to be here at the birth of a good book.

[baldguy]

7. Learning from history is not among America's strengths.

And the corporate media ensures that by crucifying anyone who says the emperor has no clothes.

[toastbutter]

24. Learning from history is not among the WORLD's strengths

We are hardly unique there.

[xchrom]

8. it's a difficult question. what to do about

neo-libs in the democratic party and pushing those policies?

[mmonk]

43. I don't have answers anymore in that regard.

So I'm starting to look inward at our society and maybe we all could create an organic (ground up) alternative society within to counter it.

[KharmaTrain]

9. I Wrote A College Final On The "Depression of 1980"...

Interest rates were at 12% and climbing, so was unemployment and a global economy held hostage by large corporations and, in specific, big oil.

The ugly truth is there are no simple answers only expidient ones. Every day the elite who dominate the economy kick the can a little further down the road and those below pay the price. Ultimately they will but for most of my life I've seen them time and time again to speculate and monopolize and when their games blow up on them, it's the government (fearful of its own shadow) who "rides to the resuce" but instead defecit spends on one end and cuts services to those who can least afford it on the other. Be prepared, we're in for another cycle starting soon. The economy will "recover" and for some it already has...but for those who got frozen out from this latest economic shakedown, you're on your own.

Cheers...

BTW...got an A+ on that final...only time I ever pulled that trick off...

[mmonk]

22. Great.

An A+. They seem to get by without the greater problems surfacing to become evident to larger numbers of people (except maybe this time).

[BeFree]

10. MONEY

It is this country's God. It is what everyone concentrates on in mass unity. Daily. 24/7.

So, those who have the most money get the most from the concentrated minds of the masses.

Try not to think about it? Hard not too, eh?

[Hydra]

32. Funny how a tool has come to own us

In such a spectacular way.

"Can it be done?"

"Do we have the money?"

"No."

Instead of

"Can it be done?"

Do we have the materials and labor?"

"Yes."

[femrap]

11. Sometimes when I ponder the

future of our country, I think the nation will divide into different 'countries.' I think there is some power at focusing our attention on the local level and building cooperatives.

2011 is going to be the year where the Debt will eat us alive. Last month food prices were up 1%...that's 12% annualized. And I think this will continue. Hell, for all I know, TPTB want to starve us.

Don't work against yourself....work with others around you to build a decent local community. Does that make any sense to you? I've given up on DC and all of the politicians. And to be frank, I've given up on many of my fellow, greedy citizens who care about nothing but themselves. And never mind that Willful Ignorance is so prevalent.

Personally, I just want to :hide: I haven't found a good place yet. Google Transition Towns. I just discovered them...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. My fondest wish for the ultra-right is that they should have to live by themselves

in the hell-on-earth they are creating.

The trouble is that I wouldn't wish a right-wing Libertarian government on any section of this country.

Now I feel that the best hope would be for the "states' rights" movement that the neo-Confederates are proposing to result in more socialist experiments in the most left-leaning states. Then I would move there.

[MadMaddie]

26. I have been thinking the same thing for years.

They should be walled off and they can do what they want. The rest of the country could move forward.

[mmonk]

46. Thanks.

I just googled them as well.

[DefenseLawyer]

12. They all know it doesn't "work"

as a national economic policy. They do know that it "works" to redistribute wealth to the capitalist class. Pointing out the "flaws" in reaganomics is a waste of time. They already know exactly what it does and they are perfectly happy with the results.

[Hannah Bell]

20. +1. A waste of time to point them out to our "leaders" -- but not a waste of time

to point them out to the people.

[DefenseLawyer]

25. Point taken

I just don't agree with the notion that these are all unintended consequences and the proponents of these policies just "don't get it". Do not for give them, for they know exactly what they do.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

29. indeed +1

[MadMaddie]

13. I for one would love to ready your economic thesis

From the summation you have given you foresaw our countries current state.

To answer your question, I think that you are right the current structure is a failure and we have to turn this country in a new direction.

One of my big frustrations is that people don't understand that it has taken 32 years since you wrote your thesis for the economy to collapse, and they are expecting the country to be fixed in 2 years by one man. He had to stop the immedieate hemmoraging. He has done a great deal but to erase Reagonomics and the trickle down theory it's going to take at a minimum a decade to start seeing significant changes.

I do not support the Reagan path it is destructive. Nafta has to be eliminated and HB1 Visas need to be stopped. The government should incentivize companies to start replacing those HB1 Visa's personel with qualified unemployed American citizens. We need a "Works Program" that looks at critical manufacturing industries that we desperatly need on U.S soil and either help an American citizen create jobs or encourgage industries to bring the jobs back to America.

[Little Star]

17. I agree.

[mmonk]

40. The critical failure I think of this downturn is the failure to use

government to jump start jobs. Demand has to be brought to a point where business activity has heated to a point hiring is required. Tax cuts don't take care of that and is a false profit scenario.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

16. K&R, I know exactly how you feel.

[rucky]

18. Start a credit union.

Not kidding. Write your charter in a way so that members can leverage their collective assets for investment in member-owned businesses. The employees of these businesses will also become members of the credit union and own a piece of their own business along with the new job.

Not sure if you can get a charter for that, but private investment groups do it all the time with less people and on a larger scale.

Obviously I don't have the skills to have thought this through all the way, but some pooling of resources is necessary (while we still have resources to pool), and I think it can be done within the existing capitalist & regulatory framework.

[mmonk]

45. One of the small businesses I owned was a cleaning company

and one of our cleaning contracts was a community credit union called Self Help (follow the link).

[kentuck]

19. It's amazing how many people were fooled by "Reaganomics"

I remember taking an economics class about supply-side and Reaganomics during the early 80's at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs and taking issue with almost everything the professor taught in the class. It simply did not make sense.

[somone]

23. People are still fooled by Reaganomics

including the man in the White House.

Makes ya wonder if he ever took an economics course, or read something not written by the U of Chicago crowd.

[MadMaddie]

27. I will have to disagree with you

Growing up he saw Reaganomics from the bottom up as many of us did.

I do believe that his greatest mistake is putting Geitner in charge of anything. I think he needs to replace him and others that were associated with the downfall.

[Hannah Bell]

28. he was never at the bottom. that's myth-making.

[Motown_Johnny]

34. didn't he spend some time on food stamps?

and if so isn't that close enough to the bottom for you?



Although that would have been prior to Reagan. He would have been old enough to vote in the 1980 election.

[Hannah Bell]

35. in the 70s? two of my college roommates were on foodstamps in the 70s.

their fathers were both engineers at boeing.

like obama's mother was a college student while her mother was a bank vice-president.

[MadMaddie]

53. not to some

There could be pictures of him at food banks as a child and they would claim they were doctored.

Almost as if there is no way possible a mixed black child could not live in poverty.

[Hannah Bell]

54. what does his being half-black have to do with anything?

his mother worked for the ford foundation.

his real father worked as a senior economist to the government of kenya, & his family had been compradors to the brits & americans for two generations.

his stepfather worked for the indonesian government & an american oil company.

his great-grandparents managed oil leases for standard oil.

his grandmother was a bank vice-president.

his grandfather was a "furniture salesman".

his mother was attending the university of hawaii & studying russian when she was supposedly on food stamps.

none of this suggests any deep poverty.

[Hawkowl]

30. Hello? Tax cuts?

The Laffer curve? Free trade agreements and subsidies for offshoring, and an expanding Defense budget? That pretty much sums up Obama's and Reagan's economic policies. It's like they are fucking twins.

My question for you is which one is Danny Devito and which one is Arnold Schwarzenegger?

[DireStrike]

42. You can't make a "mistake" like that.

Everybody knew what geithner was about from the minute he was appointed. Accept for the white house, I guess.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

31. UC, the bastion of "free-trade" economics, Milton Friedman, the Chicago Boys...

...and the like.

Maybe he did spend too much time with the professors there. Liberal school, libertarian economics department.

[mmonk]

49. Glad you took issue with it.

It probably helped with other students questioning the logic.

[Octafish]

37. Way to go, mmonk!

Reverse Robin Hood is criminally insane, in addition to being most immoral, un-democratic, and un-American fiscal policy ever.

What bothers me is so many people -- including the last two Democratic presidents -- believe Reaganomics is anything more than a pyramid scheme.

Count me as one who'll fight for what's right and true for ALL Americans in the best tradition of the Democratic Party. That means no more welfare for the rich, get the hell out of policing the world for Wall Street, and let's get on with the New Deal for the 21st Century. As for Social Security, don't even think about it.

[Major Hogwash]

38. Outstanding! It is amazing that we have to knock it down as a theory every 4 years or so.

It will never ever work.

My grandfather compared his plan to Hoover's and he told me "they already tried that once in this country. It was a monumental disaster."

I hope you do write a book about the economy. I'd buy one for sure.

[Major Hogwash]

39. There must be reindeer piss in my telephone lines.

I just got a really weird error message.

[mmonk]

48. It's the season.

:)

[craigmatic]

41. The only way to end reaganomics is by changing federal tax policy by shifting the burden back onto

the rich. Only then can we restore the authority that the federal government used to have over the state. We should've done that while we had congress.

[TBF]

44. Reportedly Mr. Obama is reading a book about Reagan on this vacation -

perhaps you should send a copy of your thesis as well so he gets both sides of the story. I don't think I can take much more austerity ...

[mmonk]

50. Maybe I should send him this thread.

[OneGrassRoot]

52. Wish I could recommend...

No answers here but I have similar questions and am grateful for the discussion, and add my support for your book idea.

:hi:

[mmonk]

56. Thanks.

I know you have similar questions and you have good ideas.:hi: