// on the backs of the Reagan 80s boom // chuckle if you were even alive back in 1990, you would remember that the economy was pretty bad--or at least, we tho

// on the backs of the Reagan 80s boom // chuckle if you were even alive back in 1990, you would remember that the economy was pretty bad--or at least, we thought it was pretty bad; our scale of just how bad "pretty bad" can get has expanded throughout this century. Fun Fact: Ronald Reagan raised my taxes. Graduate student stipends did not used to be subject to federal taxation---and then they were. Just a bit more than $100 was taken out of my pay check. $100 is a lot of money, when you are only making $800 a month. So yeah, Reagan gave tax cuts to one class of people, and paid for them by raising taxes on another class of people (as I recall, he started taxing me to 'fix social security.' I hear that fix is about to run out, and they'll need another one if it is to last through my retirement.). Forgive me if I don't look back on the Reagan years with a golden, warm, fuzzy glow of nostalgia.