Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America.
Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated.
"It's
morning again in America" - that was a campaign slogan by President
Ronald Reagan in 1984. But, in retrospect, the average American has been
stuck since the Reagan era in a predawn darkness of stagnation and
inequality, and we still haven't shaken it off, particularly since 2000.
Even with the global Great Depression, the United States performed
brilliantly in the first three-quarters of the 20th century, with
incomes and education mostly rising and inequality flat or falling - and
gains were broadly shared by poor and rich alike. High school
graduation rates surged, G.I.'s went to college, and the United States
led the world in educational attainment.
And, in part of this remarkable era, the top federal income tax rate exceeded 90 percent.
Republicans might remember that point when they warn that Obama's
proposals for modestly higher taxes would savage the American economy.
Then,
for average Americans, the roof fell in around the end of the 1970s.
The '70s were "the end of normal," Afterward, the economy continued to grow over all, but the spoils went
to the wealthy and the bottom 90 percent barely benefited.
More young American men today have less education than
their parents (29 percent) than have more education (20 percent). Among
industrialized countries as a whole, 70 percent of 3-year-olds go to
preschool; in the United States, 38 percent do.
I wonder if the
celebration of unfettered capitalism and "greed is good" since the
Reagan era didn't help shape social mores in ways that accelerated
inequality.
In America, we have subsidized private jets,
big banks and hedge fund managers. Wouldn't it make more sense to
subsidize kids? So if higher capital gains taxes can pay for better
education, infrastructure and jobs, of course that trade-off is
worthwhile.
Congressional Republicans seem focused on a pipeline
that isn't even economically viable at today's oil prices. Let's hope
that the national agenda can broaden along the lines that Obama
suggests, so that the last 35 years become an aberration rather than a
bellwether.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/opinion/nicholas-kristof-reagan-obama-and-inequality.html?ref=opinion
Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated.
"It's
morning again in America" - that was a campaign slogan by President
Ronald Reagan in 1984. But, in retrospect, the average American has been
stuck since the Reagan era in a predawn darkness of stagnation and
inequality, and we still haven't shaken it off, particularly since 2000.
Even with the global Great Depression, the United States performed
brilliantly in the first three-quarters of the 20th century, with
incomes and education mostly rising and inequality flat or falling - and
gains were broadly shared by poor and rich alike. High school
graduation rates surged, G.I.'s went to college, and the United States
led the world in educational attainment.
And, in part of this remarkable era, the top federal income tax rate exceeded 90 percent.
Republicans might remember that point when they warn that Obama's
proposals for modestly higher taxes would savage the American economy.
Then,
for average Americans, the roof fell in around the end of the 1970s.
The '70s were "the end of normal," Afterward, the economy continued to grow over all, but the spoils went
to the wealthy and the bottom 90 percent barely benefited.
More young American men today have less education than
their parents (29 percent) than have more education (20 percent). Among
industrialized countries as a whole, 70 percent of 3-year-olds go to
preschool; in the United States, 38 percent do.
I wonder if the
celebration of unfettered capitalism and "greed is good" since the
Reagan era didn't help shape social mores in ways that accelerated
inequality.
In America, we have subsidized private jets,
big banks and hedge fund managers. Wouldn't it make more sense to
subsidize kids? So if higher capital gains taxes can pay for better
education, infrastructure and jobs, of course that trade-off is
worthwhile.
Congressional Republicans seem focused on a pipeline
that isn't even economically viable at today's oil prices. Let's hope
that the national agenda can broaden along the lines that Obama
suggests, so that the last 35 years become an aberration rather than a
bellwether.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/opinion/nicholas-kristof-reagan-obama-and-inequality.html?ref=opinion
