While the trauma of the Great Depression echoed in the memories of people who came to adulthood in the 1930s (and who carried its lessons into the 1940s and 50s), their children became adults during the Golden Age, and took it for granted. And their grandchildren, born during the Golden Age, had no actual, distinct memory of their grandparents experience of a fallible and unreliable government. When this last generation became adults (from around the end of the 1970s onward), all they recalled was the failure of government and the apparent success of the market. This made them particularly susceptible to the seductive rants of the free marketeers, who wanted to blame the government for the economys failings and return to the America before the Great Depression.
A common misconception is that history is progressing but it is not. It's is cyclical and part of the reason for that is what you just mentioned.
You lost me there when saying grandparents experienced "a fallible and unreliable government" and then saying their children "recalled the failure of government and apparent success of the market." The reality is that 1930s government did fail by not giving people high expectations of the future. When people have higher expectations of the future, then the markets work best when 70-percent of GDP is currently consumption. The government can only create the best economic environment for the market to grow, that is not direct involvement in the economy. Businesses and consumers perform the actual economic improvement. Obama is also failing at providing consumers and businesses with high expectations of the future. Crushing regulations are a big part of the problem. Another is illegal immigration competing for jobs (and lower wages). It is resulting in low labor force participation, aka employment. With a nickname of Keynes, you should know all about "expectations of the future." That is TRUE Keynesian economics (Post-Keynesian economics), not the orthodox economic misrepresentation of Keynes (gov spending). Steve
Uncle Ferd says there's no sense of deja vu for those who haven't gone before... Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills & Nash One Two Three Four... If I had ever been here before I would probably know just what to do Don't you? If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel I would probably know just how to deal With all of you And I feel Like I've been here before F-e-e-l Like I've been here before And you know it makes me wonder What's going on under the ground, hmmm... Do you know? Don't you wonder? What's going on down under you We have all been here before, we have all been here before We have all been here before, we have all been here before We have all been here before, we have all been here before
In other words, Baby Boomers decided that free money was even better than free love and we pay for that greed every day. I agree, but at least nature is making them go the way of the dinosaur despite their protests.
