over-involvement in their lives.

Economically, somewhere along the line (probably around the final triumph of Capitalism over Communism), the idea of sensible government and checks on the private sector became un-American. Financial markets were dramatically deregulated, mergers consolidated major industries, unions were crushed, infrastructure and R&D spending fell out of favor, prisons were privatized, etc. Look at how the middle class has fared in the last 30-40 years; some of it is unavoidable (technology, more competition from abroad), but a lot of it is policy.

Too much government is definitely bad. But I'm guessing there wasn't the intense level of paranoia around government until Reagan took over from Carter's stagnant economy.* The ironic thing is Reagan powered the 80s economic boom through a big shot of military Keynesianism, deficit-exploding tax cuts, and a huge expansion in the extension of private credit. Which worked, but was hardly a libertarian project.

Trump's going to try the same trick and there's a decent chance it succeeds. The sad part is Congress will then turn around and say "whoops, deficit's too big now, gotta cut SS and Medicare and Medicaid."

*I wasn't alive during Carter, so the ideas about when the needle of popular opinion moved significantly toward a libertarian economic ideal are based on reading and observations of my family's political views.




[Post edited by hoodeyo at 01/10/2017 8:09PM]