A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 32

We now have the greatest level of inequality in the United States since the Gilded Age.  The Gilded Age was that halcyon time, according to right wingers, when the "achievers" could really do their stuff.  They didn't have to deal with troublesome things like taxes, unions, minimum wage laws, and a variety of regulations.  It was the age of J. D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie.  Most people were poor and had absolutely no social safety net except for private charities.

We can thank Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush for a Gilded Age 2.0.  Reagan's administration was the first not to raise the minimum wage.  People living below the poverty line went from 11.7% in 1979 to 13% at the end of Reagan's administration.

Reagan's devotion to deregulation led to the savings and loan crisis.  Taxpayers shelled out $160 billion to bail out over 700 failed savings and loans.  That began a pattern that we saw repeated when the economy crashed in 2008 under George W. Bush.

Based on the number of indictments, Reagan also led the most corrupt administration in U. S. history.  One hundred thirty-eight Reagan administration officials were convicted, indicted, or subject to official investigations.

More to come