Republican candidates for President, Senator and Representative positions all hammer home one economic theme. Roughly speaking it's, "We should return to the good old days when the economy was better." What they consider better is still subject to debate.
The question is, which economy are they trying to return us to? More after the orange sideways semi-monetary sign.
By any reasonable measures, the best times economically for the greatest number of Americans were from the late 1940s to the 1970s. We were very productive, saw more people going to college (usually for very inexpensive or free), more people owning homes, and more people living a decent middle-class life than any time before in our history. What distinguished those times were high taxes, high government regulation, high union rates, high education, high sharing between management and labor, and an increasingly effective social safety net.
Since that time, we have seen colleges become ever more expensive, more homes becoming assets for distant owners, and the middle class very impressively hollowed out. Taxes have gone lower for the wealthy, regulations and enforcement have been more loose, union rates are a third of what they were at their peak, take home pay has been flat for labor but ever-increasing at the top, and the social safety net has been shredded.
You would think that this should mean Republicans would want a relatively heavily regulated economy, higher taxes and a better social safety net. You know better, of course, because you're here at Daily Kos. The Republican prescriptions are reduced government oversight and regulation, reduced taxes on the wealthy and reduced safety net protections for the rest of us.
However, that's not the government of the 1950s. That's the government of the 1850s. There were no income taxes in the 1800s, no social safety nets, and minimal regulation of commerce compared to today. Sounds like Republican Heaven.
Pity it would be a an economic hell for most of us, many Republicans included.
Most people don't study the early economy of the US, meaning anything before the Great Depression. Truth be told, our early economy was not something to envy. We had a very fast boom-and-bust cycle. We've had 49 recessions and depressions since our country came into being under the Articles of Confederation. Thirty-eight of those happened between 1785 and 1945, the period of generally low government regulation--though to be fair, government started doing a lot more regulation during the 1930s. That's an average of a recession or depression every 4 years 2 months. Our shift to a regulated economy was pretty well finished by the end of WWII. Since the end of WWII we have had 11 recessions and no depressions, at least not formal ones, meaning that from 1946-2015 we've averaged a recession about every 6 years 4 months, and on average they were both shorter duration and not as bad as the financial crises of the less-regulated period.
So remember: the next time a Republican says they want our economy to return to the good ol' days, ask them what years they mean. Then ask them what they think the economic policies were during those years for taxes, regulation and social infrastructure (aka safety net spending).
Here's the important point: Don't tell them the answers. They are predisposed to ignore any answers from "unreliable sources" (sadly, meaning you) if it goes against their programmed narrative. Tell them you'll look up the answers with them, even let them run the search, but tell them nothing. They need to arrive at the answers for themselves for it to mean anything. If they do come to the answers themselves, that is the best chance they have of questioning their own assumptions.
10:38 AM PT: I am honored by the Community Spotlight and the social media shares. Thank you :-)