AZGrizFan wrote:Interesting that the beginnings of the deficit spending and debt burden almost exactly coincide with the development and implementation of Roosevelt's New Deal.
The New Deal represented a significant shift in political and domestic policy in the USA, its more lasting changes being increased federal government regulation of the economy. It also marked the beginning of complex social programs and growing power of labor unions.
Looks like the chickens came home to roost in about 1970. 35 years of living on the government teet hit the fan in 1970 and we've never really been able to recover. Obama's election really just expedited the inevitable.
We're fucked.
/takes off partisan hat
that graph corresponds directly to rise of television and other mass communication mediums. has nothing to do with the new deal - or even the war... but rather the policies and decisions that came after - that were a result of having to campaign via mass communications... the military industrial complex arose because no pol anywhere wanted to be "soft on defense" domestic spending rose because nobody wanted to be accused of "turning their back on the children"
and sure as shit nobody wanted to raise revenues for this because to be a dreaded "tax raiser" is electoral suicide... not for nothing... but voters are reaping what they've sewn, they want everything but not to pay for it... and, not to be a total dick about it - but the debt has EXPLODED as the Baby Boomers have become the ones making the decisions... the same boomers who never could live within their means...
/puts partisan hat back on