I hear you.
I wasn’t trying to school you.
I am sorry.
I was trying to illustrate the depth and breadth of Reagan’s fuckery (or, as a fan of The Juice Media would put it, his shitfuckery). I was using your words as a starting point to shine a light on… that… man…
I admit my hostility to Reagan’s “ideas” and actions are based on his (and his enablers) very real impact on my friends and I, and our [economic et al.] lives: those who came of age in the 1980s as well as all who came after us.
The way he screwed the working class really did accelerate–and normalize–the destruction of the lives of working people and the precariat at the sharp end of… late stage capitalism? our Puritan-based culture’s war on poor people?
… which bring me to this:
… During his two terms in the White House (1981–89), Reagan presided over a widening gap between the rich and everyone else, declining wages and living standards for working families, an assault on labor unions as a vehicle to lift Americans into the middle class, a dramatic increase in poverty and homelessness, and the consolidation and deregulation of the financial industry that led to the current mortgage meltdown, foreclosure epidemic and lingering recession. …
Reagan’s fans give him credit for restoring the nation’s prosperity. But whatever economic growth occurred during the Reagan years mostly benefitted those already well off. The income gap between the rich and everyone else in America widened. Wages for the average worker declined and the nation’s homeownership rate fell. During Reagan’s two terms in the White House, the minimum wage was frozen at $3.35 an hour, while prices rose, thus eroding the standard of living of millions of low-wage workers. The number of people living beneath the federal poverty line rose from 26.1 million in 1979 to 32.7 million in 1988. Meanwhile, the rich got much richer. By the end of the decade, the richest 1 percent of Americans had 39 percent of the nation’s wealth. …
So yeah, I can see what @Purplecat 's posted image was on about. I get it.
Reagan, the accelerant.
Was the man responsible for all the injustices against workers in the U.S.?
No, of course not.
We’d have to spin that clock back to at least 1526 or maybe 1493.
