Graphing Reagan

I think it's pretty widely acknowledged that our country took a turn in about 1981, when Ronald Reagan became president. Some may believe it was for the better, but I think the evidence shows that for most people in the country it wasn't, as I recently noted.

This Twitter thread by a guy who calls himself Ward Q. Normal provides a bunch of graphs that pinpoint that turn in a range of economic ways. His graphs are something to have access to when you want to look back on where our country went wrong, and what needs to be set right.

My new hobby is taking graphs of economic data over time and indicating the year that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, in case people find that helpful or informative.




Oops. Forgot to add my favorite one: "Total Public Debt as Percent of GDP," or as I like to call it, "Thanks, Ronnie!"


Seriously, though. I don't think Reagan and "Trickle Down" get nearly enough credit for how they led to the economic and moral bankruptcy in this country. We need to bring back the pre-Reagan tax structure in this country.

Funny how the slogan "Make America Great Again" never acknowledges that the era of "greatness" they all want to return to had top tax rates more than double what they are now.

A few more from my collection...

Oh, and one more thing. Given the holidays and all the other hell-in-handbasket that's been going on over the past week or two, you may have missed the New York Times story from December 29 that documented how David Rockefeller worked with Reagan's campaign to thwart efforts by Jimmy Carter's administration to end the Iran hostage crisis in fall 1980, essentially assuring Reagan would win the election.

One operative who worked on this monkeywrenching was later named Reagan's ambassador to Morocco. (Rockefeller was also instrumental in bringing the shah to live in the U.S., which was the proximate cause of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the hostage crisis in the first place, but that was not an intended effect, on assumes.)

So yeah, there's another one for those of us who like to think about alternate history: an America where the hostages are released in October 1980, Carter wins reelection, and the Reagan Revolution never happens. Where would we, and the planet, be now?