Friday, February 14, 2014

THREE FORGOTTEN POST-WAR LESSONS

Americans learned a lot from World War I and the Great Depression. We decided that we weren't going to rebuild the disastrous world that led us toward WWII.

Building on the New Deal policies that were put in place in 1933 we created an economic and social environment in the post-war era - President Truman's Fair Deal - that brought the Western world greater prosperity. Perhaps more importantly, these policies effectively eliminated "meltdown" and "depression" from our vocabulary for almost 50 years.


Robert Reich discusses the three biggest post-war economic lessons that Americans seem to have forgotten today ...

First, America’s real job creators are consumers, whose rising wages generate jobs and growth. If average people don’t have decent wages there can be no real recovery and no sustained growth.
Second, the rich do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy than they do with a large share of an economy that’s barely growing at all.
Third, higher taxes on the wealthy to finance public investments — better roads, bridges, public transportation, basic research, world-class K-12 education, and affordable higher education – improve the future productivity of America. All of us gain from these investments, including the wealthy.

You can read Reich's entire article here.

- Mark 

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