4 ms·

Yeah, then do you remember 14% inflation under Carter? That wasn't a picnic, either. Part of the pain under Reagan was because he was letting Volcker deal wit

Yeah, then do you remember 14% inflation under Carter? That wasn't a picnic, either. Part of the pain under Reagan was because he was letting Volcker deal with inflation.

bsder 3y ago
I do remember. However, there is a world of difference between "Things are getting a bit expensive" and "You have no job starting tomorrow and no hope of getting another one for the foreseeable future."
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  It sounds like you're blaming Reagan for things that were going to happen anyway. What did you expect/wish him to do, exactly?
  - bsder 3y ago
    Not allowing the pension funds to be raided by the big steel and mining companies before bankruptcy? Job retraining and education programs? Relocation assistance? Healthcare and assistance for children so families didn't break up? You can help cushion some the results of a disaster even if you can't stop the disaster. I can go on and on. None of it ever materialized. Reagan and Co. were definitely in the "We've done not a damn thing, and it didn't work." camp.
    - refurb 3y ago
      Can't you blame every single president since then for the same thing? Why single out Reagan? Keep in mind the Democrats controlled Congress during much of Reagans tenure. The President can't create laws, only support them. Clinton ('93 to '95), Obama ('9 to '11) all had periods where the Democrats held every single office - the House, Senate and Presidency and could have passed whatever they wanted along party lines. Yet they didn't.
      - bsder 3y ago
        Because they weren't in charge during the problem? Because by the time Clinton got elected we had been through 12 years of Voodoo Economics? By the time Clinton got elected, the damage was done. The pension funds had been looted. The companies had declared bankruptcy and were gone. Families were divorced and torn apart due to men working 200 miles away for 10+ years. etc. And I DO have beef about Clinton--NAFTA in particular. But nothing that Clinton or Obama did is even remotely on the level of the devastation during Reagan/Bush.
        refurb 3y ago
        > By the time Clinton got elected, the damage was done. But presumably the damage can be reversed? If so, then you should blame every president after. If it can't be reversed, then I guess it's not really worth arguing about?
refurb 3y ago
Exactly. The 80's were a revival for the US. The 70's were stagflation, the president talking about the "great malaise", a humiliating defeat in Vietnam, and a general view that it was "the end of America". Then comes along Reagan, defeats inflation (sure Carter started it, but Reagan didn't falter when the recession hit), then ushers in the biggest uninterrupted economic boom since the 60's and said "you should be proud to be American". He was elected with 51% of the vote in 1980 and remarkable 59% in 1984 (carried every state except MN). Of course along with that came things the left finds abhorrent - belief in capitalism, minimal government, pride in being American (basically hate speech to the left), so Reagan became a punching bag for the left and despite 30+ years having passed, they still love to blame him for things that happen today. But put into perspective, it shouldn't be surprising he was so popular at the time.

Yeah, then do you remember 14% inflation under Carter? That wasn't a picnic, either. Part of the pain under Reagan was because he was letting Volcker deal with inflation.

bsder 3y ago

I do remember. However, there is a world of difference between "Things are getting a bit expensive" and "You have no job starting tomorrow and no hope of getting another one for the foreseeable future."

CamperBob2 3y ago
It sounds like you're blaming Reagan for things that were going to happen anyway. What did you expect/wish him to do, exactly?
- bsder 3y ago
  Not allowing the pension funds to be raided by the big steel and mining companies before bankruptcy? Job retraining and education programs? Relocation assistance? Healthcare and assistance for children so families didn't break up? You can help cushion some the results of a disaster even if you can't stop the disaster. I can go on and on. None of it ever materialized. Reagan and Co. were definitely in the "We've done not a damn thing, and it didn't work." camp.
  - refurb 3y ago
    Can't you blame every single president since then for the same thing? Why single out Reagan? Keep in mind the Democrats controlled Congress during much of Reagans tenure. The President can't create laws, only support them. Clinton ('93 to '95), Obama ('9 to '11) all had periods where the Democrats held every single office - the House, Senate and Presidency and could have passed whatever they wanted along party lines. Yet they didn't.
    - bsder 3y ago
      Because they weren't in charge during the problem? Because by the time Clinton got elected we had been through 12 years of Voodoo Economics? By the time Clinton got elected, the damage was done. The pension funds had been looted. The companies had declared bankruptcy and were gone. Families were divorced and torn apart due to men working 200 miles away for 10+ years. etc. And I DO have beef about Clinton--NAFTA in particular. But nothing that Clinton or Obama did is even remotely on the level of the devastation during Reagan/Bush.
      - refurb 3y ago
        > By the time Clinton got elected, the damage was done. But presumably the damage can be reversed? If so, then you should blame every president after. If it can't be reversed, then I guess it's not really worth arguing about?

refurb 3y ago

Exactly. The 80's were a revival for the US. The 70's were stagflation, the president talking about the "great malaise", a humiliating defeat in Vietnam, and a general view that it was "the end of America". Then comes along Reagan, defeats inflation (sure Carter started it, but Reagan didn't falter when the recession hit), then ushers in the biggest uninterrupted economic boom since the 60's and said "you should be proud to be American". He was elected with 51% of the vote in 1980 and remarkable 59% in 1984 (carried every state except MN). Of course along with that came things the left finds abhorrent - belief in capitalism, minimal government, pride in being American (basically hate speech to the left), so Reagan became a punching bag for the left and despite 30+ years having passed, they still love to blame him for things that happen today. But put into perspective, it shouldn't be surprising he was so popular at the time.