Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011
From: The Old Pueblo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: vincentML
quote:
I do remember the Carter Administration and the generally cynical attitude of the 1970s (which actually flowered in the 1960s). Vietnam, Watergate, energy crisis, inflation, and a widespread belief that we would eventually blow ourselves up in a nuclear conflagration. Either that, or our future would be something like The Omega Man or Soylent Green.
I agree with you that Reagan made people proud to be Americans again, but that was only on the surface. Our "pride" at that time was more like a chemically-induced temporary high, but without any significant changes in the policies which got us into the mess in the 1970s in the first place. Reagan seemed to want to recapture the magic of the 1940s and 50s when America was on top of the world and we were in a kind of golden age. The main problem with that was that the world had changed by then, including the Soviet Union.
This talk of America's decline or resurgence seems to be tied to the economics of the era. Carter and Reagan are exemplars. We were in recessions caused by oil hike trauma in the 70s when Carter was president. Reagan made his optimistic "morning in America" speech during the 1984 campaign when the economy was again growing and the stock market was breaking upwards.
We have been in recession and credit squeeze since 2008. which accounts for the current pessimism. I think we can also include more than a decade of war news. This all shall pass. Hopefully. 
I sometimes wonder if it will pass. I keep thinking of the old saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
I also remember back in 1984 when the Reaganites kept talking about how the economy was doing so well, yet there were others who were saying that we were teetering on the edge of disaster. The massive budget deficits and the growing national debt were serious problems back then, too, but there were a lot of loud-talking economists back then who kept saying that debt was a good thing. They kept going on and on about how great Reaganomics was, but look at us now. The consequences of outsourcing, deregulation, privatization, free trade agreements, and gross fiscal irresponsibility have taken their toll on America.
Of course, it's not all about economics, but also foreign policy. Most of the criticism of America (both within and outside of America) seems to revolve around our foreign policy, while our economic philosophy has only been a peripheral issue since the fall of the Soviet Union. Much of America's self-image has also related to how we treat other nations. The tumult of the 1960s, for example, was related to America's war in Southeast Asia. A lot of Americans from well-to-do, comfortable families went out and protested - not because they were starving or oppressed, but because they were beneficiaries of policies which they believed caused others to be starving or oppressed. So, perhaps there may be some upper-class liberal guilt involved in all of this as well.
Reagan mitigated some of that guilt to some extent, and many of those same protesters by that time realized that they enjoyed being well-to-do and comfortable and weren't about to allow issues of social consciousness to impede that. I like George Carlin's summary on baby boomers which perfectly sums up the attitude I'm referring to.
What appears to have happened in this country is that whole generations have been raised to want to have their cake and eat it, too. But now, we've eaten the cake, gotten fat, and now we're all scratching our heads wondering what happened to the cake.
quote:
ORIGINAL: BamaD
And the people have to relearn to take care of themselves not wait for the government to take care of them.
I agree, as we've put ourselves in a tough situation. Of course, removing the welfare state will have to mean certain changes in trade policy. There has to be jobs available for people to do, beyond burger flipping. We need to end outsourcing and bring back real manufacturing jobs to the United States. I agree that ending the welfare state and putting people back to work would help a great deal to putting us back on our feet, but we have to have something to replace it with. Can't just let the Rust Belt sit there and rust. Some of the Sacred Cows held by economists might have to be challenged, since their zealous worshiping of those Sacred Cows is what got us into this mess in the first place.
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Possible solutions for America's problems - 
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