Nostalgianomics: Liberal economists pine for days no liberal should want to revisit. - Reason Magazine.
Almost everyone can look back on periods of their youth and recall, with nostalgic wistfulness, what a wonderful time it was to be alive! However, for most, it was wonderful because we were young and naive. For me, the period from 1976 to 1988, ages 10-21 were the "Wonder Years" - playing baseball every day during the summer, football every day during the fall and winter, hanging out with friends. But, at that time, the U.S. was dealing with the end of the Vietnam War, the post-collapse fallout of the Nixon Administration, the Carter years with the Iran Hostage Crisis, double-digit inflation, and then as I was graduating from college, the post 10/87 market and economic slowdown. Wow, no so great after all!
That's the point of this article - it serves as a counterpoint to a recent article by Paul Krugman arguing that the country needs to return to the "relatively equal middle-class society" of his youth. Except, it wasn't so equal, or fair or much of anything else Krugman et al, want today. Be careful what you wish for.
Almost everyone can look back on periods of their youth and recall, with nostalgic wistfulness, what a wonderful time it was to be alive! However, for most, it was wonderful because we were young and naive. For me, the period from 1976 to 1988, ages 10-21 were the "Wonder Years" - playing baseball every day during the summer, football every day during the fall and winter, hanging out with friends. But, at that time, the U.S. was dealing with the end of the Vietnam War, the post-collapse fallout of the Nixon Administration, the Carter years with the Iran Hostage Crisis, double-digit inflation, and then as I was graduating from college, the post 10/87 market and economic slowdown. Wow, no so great after all!
That's the point of this article - it serves as a counterpoint to a recent article by Paul Krugman arguing that the country needs to return to the "relatively equal middle-class society" of his youth. Except, it wasn't so equal, or fair or much of anything else Krugman et al, want today. Be careful what you wish for.
