Comment on People who say 'the rich get richer, the lazy live for free, and the middle class pays for it all' don't realize how expensive it is to be rich and how close middle class is to being below the poverty line.

• DagwoodIII@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Lyndon Johnson wanted to have a massive war in Vietnam without raising taxes, so he printed money to pay for it. Nixon doubled down on LBJ’s plan. The OPEC oil embargo really made inflation soar. Jimmy Carter hired a man named Paul Volker to run the Fed and bring it under control. Carter’s plan worked, but only after Reagan won. Then Reagan turned around and started cutting taxes without a way to pay for the cuts.

  In 1968 when Nixon came in, ‘middle class’ was one Union job supporting a family of four with enough left over for a few luxuries. By the time Bush Sr finished, ‘middle class’ was two incomes. In 1968 $1 million was a massive fortune; by 1993 it was what a rich guy paid for a party.

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• Today@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Mortgage rates were in the teens in the early 80s.

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  • ch00f@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah, that’s why I brought it up. I always assumed they were high in the 60s too.

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