4 ms·

The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly (2018)

67 points by Tomte 2y ago

jmclnx 2y ago
Looking back, I think Pres. Carter was far better then he if given credit for. I do fully believe, even at the time, he would have been much much better than Reagan ever was. Plus we would not be saddled with Trump at this point.
- FilosofumRex 2y ago
  [flagged]
- hylaride 2y ago
  Reagan benefited from the hard choices Carter made, including deregulation of the transport industries (especially trucking, but also airlines) that made it expensive and hard for companies to get their goods shipped to market. It was also Carter that appointed Volcker to jack up interest rates to end stagflation (that Carter gets blamed for, but inherited from Nixon). There's a (probably apocryphal) story that Carter asked Volcker if he could end the whole inflationary mess and Volcker said he could, but that it'd likely cost him election. Carter said do it. Carter's deregulations (including many other industries, like allowing home brewing and therefore the entire microbrewery market) have mostly stood the test of time because they were market-oriented. Most of the deregulation that has happened since (especially under Reagan and Clinton) was more "business friendly" and has led to lots of financial crisis (savings and loan, long term capital, 2008 crisis, etc). It didn't help that for all his character and long term thinking, Carter was a terrible public speaker. Even though I admire him, I never feel inspired when I see any video of him speaking as president. He felt unpresidential for the opposite reasons that Trump is - he feels too meek.
  - Ylpertnodi 2y ago
    >It was also Carter that appointed Volcker to jack up interest rates to end stagflation (that Carter gets blamed for, but inherited from Nixon). Genuine question: how much credibility should then people give to Trump's "I inherited this mess from Biden..."?
    - poulsbohemian 2y ago
      None - because it wasn't a mess. We had a strong and growing economy and a legit plan to boost American manufacturing. Everything we are experiencing right now is a Trump foot-gun.
    - hylaride 2y ago
      > Genuine question: how much credibility should then people give to Trump's "I inherited this mess from Biden..."? Pretty much none..except maybe the deficit, but republicans don't exactly deserve a pass on that, either. I mean, just listen to Trump talk. Any "good" news is because of him; any "bad" news is because of Biden. He's a grifter. The tragedy is that of all the developed countries, the USA had the most growth and lowest inflation under Biden - if anything his administration did pretty darn well, but they just couldn't communicate it or it wasn't good enough to voters. Because monetary inflation tends to take time to work its way through the economy, the COVID pumping and cheques sent out under Trump could arguably be more to blame than anything Biden did (this is arguable either way at this point, though - it takes a lot of time to sift through and understand all the economic data). Trump has no basic understanding of economics. Unless you want to hoard dollars to sit and do nothing with, you cannot have a trade surplus with every country in the world - and the deficit is only in goods. The USA has service surpluses with most of the world and investment dollars are still coming back into the USA. Trade deficits in durable goods are actually a symptom of wealth.
- intermerda 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - icedchai 2y ago
    I won't disagree. Still, I'd gladly take the Reagan/Bush era Republicans of the 80's over what we see today...
    - karmakurtisaani 2y ago
      Well Bush had his wars with millions in casualties and cost in the trillions, causing a refugee crisis that boosted the far right all over Europe. So, you know, it's a tight race.
      - icedchai 2y ago
        I was referring to Bush H, not W. I agree W was terrible.
        karmakurtisaani 2y ago
        Ah of course, honestly didn't even remember H existed. That's the kind of R presidency you want (if you have to).
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- jauntywundrkind 2y ago
  Carter told America it faced hard problems, and that it has soul searching to do, that it had to keep improving its moral and spiritual (and economic) fiber. Reagan stood up and said, "It's Morning again in America", that all the hard and bad was behind, economically but also spiritually. We didn't have to do anything other for the future, for other people, for social wellbeing: we can just enjoy right now however we want. https://youtu.be/pUMqic2IcWA https://youtu.be/pUMqic2IcWA The American temperament alas resoundingly went with option #2. It'll be interesting to see if Dear Leader today inspires a fanaticism or belief willing to make people sacrifice today. The tariff test will surely shake a lot of people. I'm not sure what or how Carter sold the difficulties faced, and how tough times were necessary, but I sure don't see much but bluster anger and vague gesticulation as we are being steered directly into extreme hardship today. Sorry but like, factory jobs are shit servitude, and the American cost of living forever make us incredibly uncompetitive, and now trying to build the factories is fantastically expensive because of tariffs.
bastardoperator 2y ago
I would consider us lucky to ever have a person like this serve us again. Instead we're on the Biff Tannen timeline.
- koolba 2y ago
  Jimmy Carter was a terrible President. He’s a fine person, but a terrible commander and chief. Heck, he even gave away the Panama Canal! That’s some serious lack of forward thinking.
  - bilbo0s 2y ago
    And most of America would gladly trade out Trump, Vance and the current crop of idiots in favor of Jimmy Carter or Bush the Lesser any day of the week. That's how far the steward class of this nation has fallen.
    - ashoeafoot 2y ago
      Trump is the weakest muppet of them all, biden, obamas redline reappears in ukraine. The commander in chief does nothing ..
    - koolba 2y ago
      > And most of America would gladly trade out Trump, Vance and the current crop of idiots in favor of Jimmy Carter or Bush the Lesser any day of the week. I doubt that. In the 2024 election he won the electoral college handily and also won the popular vote. Kind of hard to argue he wasn’t America’s choice.
      - jjulius 2y ago
        >... and also won the popular vote. Kind of hard to argue he wasn’t America’s choice. I guess the smartass ("teeeeechnically") way to argue against that is that for the popular vote Harris/Walz won 48.34%, Trump/Vance won 48.81%, and "other" candidates got 1.85%, for a total of 50.19% to Trump/Vance's 48.81%.
snkzxbs 2y ago
[flagged]
giraffe_lady 2y ago
IMO it should be an expectation that all former presidents live the rest of their lives in quiet contrition and penitence. No matter how careful, how conscientious, you are leaving that office with blood on your hands and stains on your soul. It should be considered a calling with a very high personal cost, not a position of victory or honor.
- dehrmann 2y ago
  My great grandfather's joke was always "There's only one man I'd vote for, and I won't run." The office attracts people who are there for the wrong reasons, with Carter being the exception that proves the rule.
  - zanecodes 2y ago
    "The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams
  - CoastalCoder 2y ago
    > with Carter being the exception that proves the rule. Could you clarify what you mean by this?
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - alexanderchr 2y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule#Proving_the_validity_of_a_rule_of_thumb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
valeg 2y ago
that was then, and this is now "Inside Trump's 100 days of presidential profit": https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/trump-crypto-world-liberty-business-profit https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/trump-crypto-world-liberty-...
- jauntywundrkind 2y ago
  The crime family grift is only getting started, alas. UAE using Trump coin to do a $2B transaction, days before they get approval for a big weapons purchase. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-open-corruption-hits-next-194013720.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-open-corruption-hits-next-1... All while basically shutting down crypto regulations or enforcement. Emoluments have never been so obvious & visible.
  - cowboylowrez 2y ago
    I'm thinking congress should award Trump a one time trillion dollar "performance bonus" for his first three months. He won the white house fair and square and lets face it, the happier we keep Trump, the better off we'll be in the long run. And I just do not see how one trillion dollars wouldn't just make Trump's day! The US can just print the money after all. This way, the sudden influx of that much cash would at once let Trump be the "first trillionaire" (an obvious ego win), AND a trillion fucking dollars has GOT to keep Trump occupied for at least a bit of his term and every day we can last without another tariff just means that much more of a soft landing in our new roll as the newest third world country. If we can all get on board and write our senators and congress people we can get this done, and I just don't see any downsides to this at all? Cause lets face it folks, as marvelous and miraculous as Trumps days in office have been, I just don't think he's going to get the pope gig.
ikeashark 2y ago
I'm still baffled how he sided with the Khmer Rouge when Vietnam invaded Cambodia and justifiability so, even after what they did during the Ba Chúc massacre.
- karmakurtisaani 2y ago
  Noam Chomsky liked the KR as well. I suppose for a time they had a very good image among the left, and it's easy to judge things in hind sight without knowing what they knew at the time. There might have been info about the atrocities, without it being credible yet.
techlatest_net 2y ago
[dead]

67 points by Tomte 2y ago

Looking back, I think Pres. Carter was far better then he if given credit for. I do fully believe, even at the time, he would have been much much better than Reagan ever was. Plus we would not be saddled with Trump at this point.

FilosofumRex 2y ago
[flagged]
hylaride 2y ago
Reagan benefited from the hard choices Carter made, including deregulation of the transport industries (especially trucking, but also airlines) that made it expensive and hard for companies to get their goods shipped to market. It was also Carter that appointed Volcker to jack up interest rates to end stagflation (that Carter gets blamed for, but inherited from Nixon). There's a (probably apocryphal) story that Carter asked Volcker if he could end the whole inflationary mess and Volcker said he could, but that it'd likely cost him election. Carter said do it. Carter's deregulations (including many other industries, like allowing home brewing and therefore the entire microbrewery market) have mostly stood the test of time because they were market-oriented. Most of the deregulation that has happened since (especially under Reagan and Clinton) was more "business friendly" and has led to lots of financial crisis (savings and loan, long term capital, 2008 crisis, etc). It didn't help that for all his character and long term thinking, Carter was a terrible public speaker. Even though I admire him, I never feel inspired when I see any video of him speaking as president. He felt unpresidential for the opposite reasons that Trump is - he feels too meek.
- Ylpertnodi 2y ago
  >It was also Carter that appointed Volcker to jack up interest rates to end stagflation (that Carter gets blamed for, but inherited from Nixon). Genuine question: how much credibility should then people give to Trump's "I inherited this mess from Biden..."?
  - poulsbohemian 2y ago
    None - because it wasn't a mess. We had a strong and growing economy and a legit plan to boost American manufacturing. Everything we are experiencing right now is a Trump foot-gun.
  - hylaride 2y ago
    > Genuine question: how much credibility should then people give to Trump's "I inherited this mess from Biden..."? Pretty much none..except maybe the deficit, but republicans don't exactly deserve a pass on that, either. I mean, just listen to Trump talk. Any "good" news is because of him; any "bad" news is because of Biden. He's a grifter. The tragedy is that of all the developed countries, the USA had the most growth and lowest inflation under Biden - if anything his administration did pretty darn well, but they just couldn't communicate it or it wasn't good enough to voters. Because monetary inflation tends to take time to work its way through the economy, the COVID pumping and cheques sent out under Trump could arguably be more to blame than anything Biden did (this is arguable either way at this point, though - it takes a lot of time to sift through and understand all the economic data). Trump has no basic understanding of economics. Unless you want to hoard dollars to sit and do nothing with, you cannot have a trade surplus with every country in the world - and the deficit is only in goods. The USA has service surpluses with most of the world and investment dollars are still coming back into the USA. Trade deficits in durable goods are actually a symptom of wealth.
intermerda 2y ago
[flagged]
- icedchai 2y ago
  I won't disagree. Still, I'd gladly take the Reagan/Bush era Republicans of the 80's over what we see today...
  - karmakurtisaani 2y ago
    Well Bush had his wars with millions in casualties and cost in the trillions, causing a refugee crisis that boosted the far right all over Europe. So, you know, it's a tight race.
    - icedchai 2y ago
      I was referring to Bush H, not W. I agree W was terrible.
      - karmakurtisaani 2y ago
        Ah of course, honestly didn't even remember H existed. That's the kind of R presidency you want (if you have to).
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
jauntywundrkind 2y ago
Carter told America it faced hard problems, and that it has soul searching to do, that it had to keep improving its moral and spiritual (and economic) fiber. Reagan stood up and said, "It's Morning again in America", that all the hard and bad was behind, economically but also spiritually. We didn't have to do anything other for the future, for other people, for social wellbeing: we can just enjoy right now however we want. https://youtu.be/pUMqic2IcWA https://youtu.be/pUMqic2IcWA The American temperament alas resoundingly went with option #2. It'll be interesting to see if Dear Leader today inspires a fanaticism or belief willing to make people sacrifice today. The tariff test will surely shake a lot of people. I'm not sure what or how Carter sold the difficulties faced, and how tough times were necessary, but I sure don't see much but bluster anger and vague gesticulation as we are being steered directly into extreme hardship today. Sorry but like, factory jobs are shit servitude, and the American cost of living forever make us incredibly uncompetitive, and now trying to build the factories is fantastically expensive because of tariffs.

bastardoperator 2y ago

I would consider us lucky to ever have a person like this serve us again. Instead we're on the Biff Tannen timeline.

koolba 2y ago
Jimmy Carter was a terrible President. He’s a fine person, but a terrible commander and chief. Heck, he even gave away the Panama Canal! That’s some serious lack of forward thinking.
- bilbo0s 2y ago
  And most of America would gladly trade out Trump, Vance and the current crop of idiots in favor of Jimmy Carter or Bush the Lesser any day of the week. That's how far the steward class of this nation has fallen.
  - ashoeafoot 2y ago
    Trump is the weakest muppet of them all, biden, obamas redline reappears in ukraine. The commander in chief does nothing ..
  - koolba 2y ago
    > And most of America would gladly trade out Trump, Vance and the current crop of idiots in favor of Jimmy Carter or Bush the Lesser any day of the week. I doubt that. In the 2024 election he won the electoral college handily and also won the popular vote. Kind of hard to argue he wasn’t America’s choice.
    - jjulius 2y ago
      >... and also won the popular vote. Kind of hard to argue he wasn’t America’s choice. I guess the smartass ("teeeeechnically") way to argue against that is that for the popular vote Harris/Walz won 48.34%, Trump/Vance won 48.81%, and "other" candidates got 1.85%, for a total of 50.19% to Trump/Vance's 48.81%.

snkzxbs 2y ago

[flagged]

giraffe_lady 2y ago

IMO it should be an expectation that all former presidents live the rest of their lives in quiet contrition and penitence. No matter how careful, how conscientious, you are leaving that office with blood on your hands and stains on your soul. It should be considered a calling with a very high personal cost, not a position of victory or honor.

dehrmann 2y ago
My great grandfather's joke was always "There's only one man I'd vote for, and I won't run." The office attracts people who are there for the wrong reasons, with Carter being the exception that proves the rule.
- zanecodes 2y ago
  "The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams
- CoastalCoder 2y ago
  > with Carter being the exception that proves the rule. Could you clarify what you mean by this?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - alexanderchr 2y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule#Proving_the_validity_of_a_rule_of_thumb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

valeg 2y ago

that was then, and this is now "Inside Trump's 100 days of presidential profit": https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/trump-crypto-world-liberty-business-profit https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/trump-crypto-world-liberty-...

jauntywundrkind 2y ago
The crime family grift is only getting started, alas. UAE using Trump coin to do a $2B transaction, days before they get approval for a big weapons purchase. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-open-corruption-hits-next-194013720.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-open-corruption-hits-next-1... All while basically shutting down crypto regulations or enforcement. Emoluments have never been so obvious & visible.
- cowboylowrez 2y ago
  I'm thinking congress should award Trump a one time trillion dollar "performance bonus" for his first three months. He won the white house fair and square and lets face it, the happier we keep Trump, the better off we'll be in the long run. And I just do not see how one trillion dollars wouldn't just make Trump's day! The US can just print the money after all. This way, the sudden influx of that much cash would at once let Trump be the "first trillionaire" (an obvious ego win), AND a trillion fucking dollars has GOT to keep Trump occupied for at least a bit of his term and every day we can last without another tariff just means that much more of a soft landing in our new roll as the newest third world country. If we can all get on board and write our senators and congress people we can get this done, and I just don't see any downsides to this at all? Cause lets face it folks, as marvelous and miraculous as Trumps days in office have been, I just don't think he's going to get the pope gig.

ikeashark 2y ago

I'm still baffled how he sided with the Khmer Rouge when Vietnam invaded Cambodia and justifiability so, even after what they did during the Ba Chúc massacre.

karmakurtisaani 2y ago
Noam Chomsky liked the KR as well. I suppose for a time they had a very good image among the left, and it's easy to judge things in hind sight without knowing what they knew at the time. There might have been info about the atrocities, without it being credible yet.

techlatest_net 2y ago

[dead]