The postwar boom was a demographic and economic situation that is not applicable today. The US had been in a depression for a decade, and then spent another 5

The postwar boom was a demographic and economic situation that is not applicable today. The US had been in a depression for a decade, and then spent another 5 years producing nothing but military hardware. There were 15 years to catch up on -- all economic growth is faster when you're starting from a low state (see: China) Just as importantly, the demographic pyramid of the 50s looks absolutely NOTHING like today. The vast majority of the population was either working age or younger -- families had 3-4 kids average, we had no pension / medicare / SS liabilities to worry about (not to mention: end-of-life health care was incredibly cheap in comparison to today). Nobody would be crying for austerity politics if we didn't have a massive population of retirees supported by a wobbly 1.9 fertility rate. It is not comparable to the 50s.