The golden years of the post WWII boom were an aberration.

[raccoon]

I mean the years of approximately 1945-1970. When GOOD jobs were plentiful (at least for white males) and a family could live what we would today consider a modest lifestyle on one income. When a majority of Americans could expect their standard of living to continue to rise, and for many it did.

Those days are gone with the wind, and I don't think things will be like that again in this country. I would love to be proven wrong, but I don't think I will.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Ot was a bref moment in history,

following the Depression & WWII, when America was under somewhat enlightened, liberal rule. Ike was far to the left of Clinton, believe it or not. He apparently did a lot of things behind the scenes to spike McCarthy's wheels, for one thing. Not t mention getting us out of Korea pretty quickly, appointing Earl Warren to the Supreme Court, etc.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Don't neglect the role of progressive taxation in the prosperity of those years

You'll never hear a conservatroid admit to the economic benefits of wealth distribution, but there's no denying that the postwar years occurred during a time when the uppermost tax bracket was 95%. Suck on THAT, supply-siders!

[raccoon]

4. Good point. I'd like to see that progressive taxation again.

I'm sure a lot of us would.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Great Point

That's a sticking point for me too. Nobody wants to mention that when taxes were at their highest, those were the "good old days" to which the anti-tax nuts want to return.

Also, a counterpoint for you and me to use against supply-siders: All economic systems are designed to redistribute wealth. So, distributing it outward or distributing upward are merely two sides of the same coin. There is nothing socialist about distributing outward. It's the same effect, but one of them is more beneficial to the overall macroeconomy.

The Professor

[Tracer]

7. I can recall my mother ranting about "confiscatory taxes".

I was just a kid, but apparently one didn't have to be really, really wealthy to fall into that category.

(My parents were well-to-do, but certainly not uber-rich).

[sinkingfeeling]

3. You won't see that again, ever.

[logosoco]

5. I think a lot of it had to do with the

"proliferation" of TV and cars. Those two things coming into the culture so quickly had a huge impact. Travel became so much easier, news was easier to get.
On the same hand...I think those are the two things that have been the root of what's messed up about where we are now.

[European Socialist]

8. I agree--The USA was the only game in town back then....

The ruling class couldn't stand the average person being prosperous, so they dumped us overboard with cheap labor.

[GTurck]

9. I got married...

on the cusp of that period (1945-1970) in 1961. We struggled, especially the first 10 years, but given that all who owed them paid taxes in this country we did not feel like we were spinning our wheels just to survive. When we concentrate on the tax rates and advocate for a flat tax we are not looking at what is left to live on. During those years most working class people like ourselves had more to live on than many of us do now. Life wasn't idyllic or easy but then too our expectations were more in line with what we could actually do.
The flat tax then was known as sales tax and there were many exempt items, such as food and OTC medicines - even magazines for heaven's sake. The rich were only a sub-set of the entire body politic and not the dominators of the whole culture.
Now,of course, we know they were already hard at work to dismantle the very systems and institutions that helped us live a stable and forward looking life.
For most of those I have known and met who were like us money in and of itself was not the goal. What we aimed for is not to worry about our families health, education, and ability to sleep at night in a home not owned by someone else.
All of these things began to change when RR took office and unions and regulations became targets of supply-side economics. That is the legacy our children and grandchildren have to live with.

[90-percent]

10. Another factor

America's major economic competition was pulverized by the War. The rebuilding of the manufacturing capability of the Germans and Japanese was remarkable. Then they had new factories and new technologies to compete with the older and unravaged USA manufacturing.

Plus we got overconfident and thought we did everything the best and disregarded geniuses like Edwards Deming, who was embraced by the Japanese especially and then became a management guru back in the states in the late 70's through the 90's. He's one of the proponents of statistical quality control and that helped immensely with the US War effort, which was righteous might at it's best. The US immediately forgot all that rot right after the war.

The prosperity of the 50's through 70's was indeed the real aberration. We are slowly being transformed back in to the economic serfs our overlords always intended us to be.

-90% jimmy

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Back in the '50s and 60's, the economy was more local. You wanted to buy a house, you went to

the locally owned 'building and loan association'. You wanted a loan to plant crops, you went to the local bank. You shopped for groceries in locally owned stores. Almost every city or county owned their own electric company, hospital, and gas company. It cost me $15 a visit to my doctor's office, who took on everything (not sent to 3 or 4 specialist). You knew who you were dealing with.

From the 1970's until the present, it's all about business consolidation and mergers. We will soon be a country with only one or two mega corporations running every sector. There will only be Wal-Marts and Sam Clubs for 'cheap' items and groceries. (Remember all those wonderful 'dime stores'?) One giant telephone company. One or two mega-insurance companies. Citibank will handle all loans.

Choices are going away and fast. Look at the airlines in the USA. True competition is dying out. How people use their money has changed. Don't just buy a home, speculate to make money from that house! Invest in stocks, not in shares of a co-op or building association! And the advertising 24/7 of all things (lawyers, drugs, and gadgets) has made people think they need all that stuff NOW. Don't have any money, put it on the credit card. Maxed out, take it as equity in your family's home.

[LucyParsons]

12. I agree

That was the high point of all human history in terms of an "easy life" being available to a large number of people.

No, I am not discounting racism, sexism, war, etc. But I agree with the OP. It was an aberration. But because most of us came out of that era, we think it's what normal looks like. We're about to experience the same type of lifestyle our grandparents used to go on and on and on about (walking to school with no shoes, picking cotton, etc., etc., etc.).