i generally stay out of politics stuff since it doesnt concern my country afaik. im also not a US citizen. due to the re-election of trump i did some research about the history of the US and when it all went downhill. now im not saying that is exactly this, but i think most people agree something bad happened in the 70s or 80s. after further research the most prominent thing seems to be that the US changed its whole economic strategy around that time
they apparently started cutting taxes a lot, especially for rich people and corporations. from what i found, the top income tax rate was like 70 percent in 1980 and by the end of the 80s it was down to 28 percent. same deal with corporate taxes. the idea was called trickle down economics which is basically the theory that if rich people and businesses keep more money, they will invest more and it will help everyone. but from what i can tell, that just led to more wealth for the top and not much improvement for the average person
there was also a big push for deregulation. they removed a lot of rules from industries like banking, airlines, and telecom. it was supposed to make things more competitive and efficient, but it kinda looks like it just led to monopolies and long term instability. some people even say this contributed to the 2008 crash
another thing was the decline of labor unions. reagan fired a bunch of air traffic controllers in 1981 who were striking, and that was apparently a big turning point. after that union membership dropped hard and wages stayed pretty flat for a lot of workers while executive pay kept rising
on top of that, there were cuts to social programs. stuff like public housing and welfare support got reduced and more responsibility was shifted to private companies and markets. maybe that worked for some people but it seems like it left a lot of others behind
nowadays you have extreme income inequality, jobs with no security, massive student debt, healthcare scams, and a housing market that is cooked beyond belief. most of it seems to trace back to those free market policies that got locked in during the 80s. and it wasnt just republicans doing it. both parties kept pushing the same general direction. clinton carried the torch, obama did not really undo much, and biden is barely different. it feels like the whole system just kept drifting further in the same direction no matter who was in charge
i could be wrong on some of this, its not really my area and again im not from the US. but if youre looking for when things started getting worse for the american middle class and working class, this era keeps coming up. seems like a lot of decisions made back then had long term consequences that are still felt today
anyone who actually lived through that time or knows more about it, feel free to correct me or add context. just trying to understand the bigger picture here
