When America Was 'Great,' Taxes Were High, Unions Were Strong, and Government Was Big

[portlander23]

The Atlantic: When America Was 'Great,' Taxes Were High, Unions Were Strong, and Government Was Big

The ’50 were, as Stiglitz puts it, “a time of war-induced solidarity when the government kept the playing field level.” In other words, they were a time of Big Government. And Big Labor: As Alternet reports, “By 1953, more than one out of three American workers were members of private sector unions. That means there was a union member in nearly every family.”

Though a conservative writer at Bloomberg View scoffs at the oft-cited statistic that the top marginal tax rate in the ‘50s was an astounding 91 percent, even she admits that “the Internal Revenue Service reckoned that the effective rate of tax in 1954 for top earners was actually 70 percent”—vastly higher than it is today. Indeed, for most of the past 100 years, tax rates have been much higher than they are now, including during some boom times.

If bigger government, stronger unions, and higher taxes on the rich are what it takes to make America great again, Republican primary voters might be surprised to learn that the candidate who truly shares their values is not Donald Trump, but Bernie Sanders.

[liberal N proud]

1. That is not what the republicans are talking about when they say they want to take the country back

They want to take it back to the days of sweat shops and oligarchs. When monopolies ruled the country and raped the land and paid little or no taxes.

[HereSince1628]

2. I am not at all sure the teahad wants the country back.

What they keep talking about is destroying the federal government, perhaps tolerating in it's place some sort of shared alliance for the purpose of covering the costs of very long fences with big beautiful gates.

[Thav]

7. Most of them don't have any idea what they want.

The "take back our country!" dog whistle is a great rallying cry. They have zero clue what to do with it once they "take it back!" They'll probably tell you they'll "make america great again!" Press them on the "how" that will be accomplished. They'll probably spout some nonsense that Trump is bloviating about, but they won't have any ideas - concrete or otherwise.

[valerief]

10. Thinking isn't their strong point. nt

[NewJeffCT]

8. not to mention

"colored" folks having "separate, but equal" facilities.

[randys1]

26. To be fair, the only BACK they wanna take us to is before we had this

?itok=DdEuMSzP

[world wide wally]

31. I think they mean back to 1856 or so

[randys1]

32. Even better. Make no mistake, they want to own slaves.

Bad news for them, if anybody is gonna own anybody, they are likely the ones who will be owned.

For obvious reasons

[merrily]

3. It was a time when there was a war tax to pay for wars and a draft.

Both things were checks on necons. Both things are gone.

It was a time when both World War II and the Korean War were over, but the war tax imposed to pay for World War II was still in effect.

It was a time after World War II had crippled manufacturing by our then two largest competitors, German and Japan, but American manufacturing was still flourishing.

It was a time when war stimulated the economy instead of only draining it.

It was a time when the Eisenhower Administration was implementing the National Highway System conceived by others and cars were being manufactured to fill demand created by, among other things, the new highway system and the dearth of new car production during war time.

It was a time when a booming economy put labor in short supply and therefore conferred bargaining leverage on workers, rather than employers.

There were so, so many things, including stronger unions

[brewens]

4. I wish I had a copy of this email that went around a couple of years back. It was all

about how much better off the country was 100 years ago, and all the things that weren't taxed that are taxed now.

It was pure bullshit, starting with the taxes. Most of those things, or their early 20th century equivalent, were in fact taxed.

It also made the idiotic claim that the middle class was much stronger 100 years ago, and mothers stayed home to care for the kids! I countered to the person that sent that to me with a link showing how many miners we killed in (I think) 1913. Almost 3000 in one year alone, many of them children. If mom was at home, she wasn't caring for those kids and never had to again.

It kills me that anyone that grew up middle class can support those taking the middle class down. They have no clue where it all came from.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. "That means there was a union member in nearly every family"

unless you were black and the unions excluded you.

In fact, right here in Philly in 1944, the transit system union went on strike because of the push to have blacks promoted to be drivers. My mother often talked about the National Guard on the trolleys as she was in high school at the time.

[Major Nikon]

12. There's also another side to that coin

http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/12/the-racist-roots-of-right-to-work-laws.html

[zeemike]

6. No one has said it yet but they will.

That it was also a time of racism, sexism, and homophobia...and that will be a reason to not want economic change. As if you can't have one without the other.

A lot of the time our biggest problem is we through out the baby with the bath water.

Yes I want to go back to those times but not in all ways, just in the things that count for most people, and are consistent with the promise made in our constitution of all men being equal and the promotion of the general welfair...and corporations were not considered people and existed on.y as long as they lived up to the ideals.

[jwirr]

14. There is a lot I would not want to go back to. Most of it

involves social justice. But on the economic side I want to go back to FDR economics that recognizes the error in trickle down economics and austerity. That works for the good of all of us not just the 1%.

I want to use things like the Marshall Plan to help others but I want to keep America strong when it comes to the economy.

And I want to stop being the worlds policemen. No more empire.

[zeemike]

17. Well said.

And I want us to stop being afraid. It sees to me that fear dominates our country, and is used to sell us soap and war.

[jwirr]

18. It sells us a lot more than we even know about. Fear to

use a phrase "is the tool of the Devil."

[zeemike]

19. Yep, without fear evil is impotent.

[gcomeau]

16. Actually, the article in the OP said it itself.

...when clarifying it was making the argument that it was extending the benefit of the doubt that the people yearning to "make America great again" were talking about the economic rather than the social conditions that existed back then.

"Most of Trump’s supporters (but not all) deserve some benefit of the doubt that when they look wistfully at the past, they aren’t yearning for Jim Crow laws, Communist witch hunts, or an age before women could own credit cards."

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. The job market was pretty good back then...

...if you were a white male. You didn't have to compete with women and minorities for the best-paying jobs.

[valerief]

9. And everyone knows this but the teabag-brains. nt

[dae]

11. Thanks for the link, just retweeted it.

[vkkv]

13. Yep ... that was back when we were FIGHTING communists - not BORROWING MONEY from them.

The U.S. MIDDLE CLASS was better off in the 60's when the top tax bracket was 70%!

Yep ... that was back when we were FIGHTING communists - not BORROWING
MONEY from them.

[KansDem]

22. I remember a few years ago I was shopping for t-shirts...

I was in a Target and saw some I thought I might buy. I checked their country of origin and discovered they were made in Vietnam and Cambodia. I thought, "What the...?! Weren't these countries our sworn enemy a few decades ago?"

[Elmergantry]

15. Yes America was better off economically

Becasue we were supplying the rest of the world as they rebuilt from the devastation of WWII...we didnt have much competition. There was enough money to be made that unions could be strong, and government could be large.

[MineralMan]

21. You know, I remember the 50s very well.

Do you? It was great if you were a white male. If you were anything else, not so much. I have no interest in returning to those days for any reason, and I am a white male. In fact, those were not when America was "Great." Ask anyone of color who was an adult in those years. Ask a woman who was trying not to have babies every 18 months. Let them tell you just how "Great" it was.

The town I lived in still had covenants against selling or renting to anyone who was black, so there were zero black people there. And that was in Southern California. Contraception was illegal over the counter. Domestic violence went unpunished almost universally. The Hispanic kids in my school were all treated as idiots who couldn't learn. Almost none of the Latino kids in my class went on to college, because they were told they weren't smart enough.

Smog blanketed Los Angeles with a yellow haze that choked people. We had "Atom Bomb" drills at school. Any form of cancer was a death sentence. There was a polio epidemic. Screw all that!

Nope. The 50s weren't so hot, really, unless you were a white male. Then, they were OK, I guess, if you wanted to be in charge of everything. No thanks!

[rhett o rick]

25. No one is advocating returning to the social issues we had in the '50's. That's

a convient strawman. If we raise the tax rate on the wealthy it won't take us back to the '50's. Progressive think that social justice is absolutely crucial but ignoring the growing economic problem isn't going to help any social justice issues.

The Third Way will tease us with social justice gains while allowing health care prices to skyrocket. I hope you don't subscribe to their ideology.

[wolfie001]

23. And the Republican party wasn't run by religious kooks!

I still wouldn't vote for 'em, I'm just saying.

[WillyT]

24. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[upaloopa]

27. There were a lot of unskilled jobs back then

Also it was right after a world war. That time existed from the early 50's till the late 70's. It isn't the way this country has always existed.

[Beartracks]

28. “We know [Trump's] goal is to make America great again..."

“It’s on his hat.”



===================

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. I say, "Oh yeah, in the 1950s when the tax rate on the rich was 90% and NOBODY had a job."....

Followed by "Under that commie Ike."

[hughee99]

30. Yes, if only we go we go back to those economic policies

And cripple the economies of Europe and Asia with devastating wars, I'm sure the economy here will improve dramatically.

[taught_me_patience]

33. Times have changed

Those old policies will not work anymore