• Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Quick history of inflation in America. President Eisenhower started the US/Vietnam War, and JFK kept it going. Ike and Kennedy both wanted to keep it small, but LBJ made a major commitment of troops and air power to deliver a knockout punch. That turned into a quagmire where the US couldn’t pull out without looking like losers. President Johnson [LBJ] started printing money to pay for the War, rather than raise taxes. Nixon was elected as a peace candidate. Nixon’s Vietnam policy alone is worth several books, but we’ll just talk about the US dollar.

    Nixon doubled down on Johnson’s bombing policy; the US factories were working 24/7 to make more weapons. Great, except the money was all paper. When the Arab Oil boycott hit the price of everything went through the roof. Suddenly stay at home moms were forced to get jobs to keep the family fed. In 1968 ‘middle class’ was one job to support a family, by 1980, two income families were becoming the norm.

    Then came Reagan. Big tax cuts for the rich were supposed to make everything golden again. In 1980, $1 million was considered a vast fortune; by 1992 it was what a really rich guy paid for a party.

    • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Que the Iraq war part deux. Immediately followed by the Afghan invasion.

      Paid for on credit card. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

      Don’t forget the giant expansion of the government under Bush² either, the TSA, DHS, Medicare expansion

      The aughties fucked over the entire upcoming century. Obama swaging the wall street plutocrats after 2008 with, not just the bail outs, but with relaxing corporate control of rental property is looking really, REALLY short sighted about now

      Trump repealing Obama’s DoddFrankLite is gonna come back and haunt us too, when wall street implodes in the inevitable 2008 repeat, because if you can trust a banker to do anything, it’s to suck as much blood out as possible and let the public pay for life support. It’s gonna happen again. Guaranteed.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Suddenly stay at home moms were forced to get jobs to keep the family fed. In 1968 ‘middle class’ was one job to support a family, by 1980, two income families were becoming the norm.

      This was not because of inflation, but because women were beginning to be seen as fully human

      Frankly between this and “but the money was paper” just makes you sound like some kind of neotraditionalist goldbug.

      • tory@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        ‘Were forced to work’

        VS

        ‘Were permitted to work’

        I’m not sure what went wrong with your brain to not be able to distinguish between these two. You’re responding to someone who said the first version. You clapped back with serious attitude about the second version.

        They’re not the same though.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yes I am aware that this person used slanted and incorrect language. That’s sort of my entire point.

          You’ll forgive me for not taking someone, who wants the gold standard and traditionalist housewives back, very seriously.

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            You funny. I never mentioned the gold standard or ‘traditional’ roles. If you’re going to put words in my mouth, I’d like them with an order of nachos and a fruit punch.