Conservatives talk about the "Good Old Days" of the 50s and 60s--aren't they right?

Question

The purchasing power of minimum wage was higher in the 50s and 60s. Today, it takes TWO minumum wage workers to match the buying power of one minimum wage woker in 1968.

The current effective rate on the richest 1 percent, whose income is at least $900 billion per year, is about 25 percent. During the prosperous decades of the 1950s and 1960s, an effective tax rate of 50 percent on the very richest 1 percent of Americans was imposed.

The effective tax rate on corporate profits was 50 percent in the 1950s. Today, corporate profits have risen dramatically, to over $600 billion per year, while taxes have remained at an effective rate of about 25 percent.

I think we should strive to get back to these good old fashioned values! What say you?

Answer 1

Hi Dumdum,
Of course, nobody gets your point. The situation is actually worse than you've described. Back in the 60s, the minimum wage was $2.25 per hour, a home was $25,000, a loaf of bread was 25 cents. Today, a home is over $250,000, a loaf of bread over $2.50. Prices have increased 10 times, but the minimum wage has only doubled. If the minimum wage had been tied to the inflation rate for the past 40 years, it would be $22.50 per hour! The avg. U.S. wage is only $12.50. We're falling behind the rest of the civilized world, but we're too arrogant and ignorant to recognize it.

Over 70% of U.S. workers are employed by small businesses, and small businesses look to the minimum wage as the starting wage for many positions.
If everybody had a college degree, a college degree would be the new high school diploma. A Masters or PH'D would be required for the few high paying jobs in this country.
The minimum wage in Australia, Britain, France, Germany, and many other European countries are double the U.S. minimum wage. Luxembourg's minimum is over $17.00 per hour, and all those countries also have national healthcare. The elite in this country are in complete control with their puppet political parties, politicians, and control of the Federal Reserve. We don't talk about U.S. economic health relative to the quality of life for the avg. American. It's all about Wall Street investors, and the buying power of the rich. Only 2 things adversely affect the wealth of the wealthy; taxes and inflation. Both parties have been lowering the rates of the rich, and when the Federal Reserve recently had some concerns about the possibility of an increase in inflation, they quadrupled the discount rate forcing tens of millions of families into bankruptcy and foreclosures. So long as the rich stay rich, that's all they care about. And how many Americans are rich? There are less than 3 million millionaires in this country. Fewer than 1% of our people are being represented by this govt.
Give a billionaire $10 million and he doesn't do anything productive with it. Yes, it's in the bank being loaned out, but that would be true regardless. Doesn't everybody keep their money in the bank? On the other hand, divide $10 million between 10,000 workers and they'll buy 10,000 cars, 10, 000 homes, etc. Which is better?

Also for those of us who've studied economics, they're still teaching old economics, prior to the development of service economies, which is a fairly new phenomenon. Inflation isn't as much of a threat in a service economy since higher paying manufacturing jobs have been exported to low wage 3rd world countries. Now that we're a service economy, this is a great time to increase our minimum wage by one dollar per hour each year for the next decade.
Now that the U.S. dollar is losing ground to many other currencies, it's just a matter of time until those manufacturing jobs come back to the U.S., which means other countries will be using us as cheap labor!! This is why I say we're the leader of the 3rd world. Once this happens, it'll be more difficult to increase wages without causing cost-push inflation.

Answer 2

One of my favourite subjects, Fonzie :) Long list coming up! 'Sunny' & 'Getaway' ~ Georgie Fame {my mum saw him live} 'High In the Sky' ~ Amen Corner 'I Only Have Eyes for You' ~ The Flamingos 'Wade in the Water' ~ Ramsey Lewis 'Green Onions' ~ Booker T & the MGs '(I'm A) Roadrunner' ~ JR Walker & The Allstars 'Baby Please Don't Go' & 'Here Comes the Night' ~ Them 'Bus Stop' & 'Just One Look' ~ The Hollies 'Itchicoo Park' & 'Tin Soldier' ~ The Small Faces 'Go Now' ~ The Moody Blues 'Sweets for My Sweet' ~ The Searchers 'I'm A Believer' ~ The Monkees 'Time Has Told Me' ~ Nick Drake 'Keep On Running' & 'Gimme Some Lovin' ~ Spencer Davis Group 'Out of Time' & 'Handbags and Gladrags' ~ Chris Farlowe 'Hippy Hippy Shake' ~ The Swinging Blue Jeans 'Apache' ~ The Shadows 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' ~ Manfred Man 'California Dreaming' ~ The Mama's and The Papa's 'God Only Knows' & 'Good Vibrations' ~ The Beach Boys 'The Clapping Song' ~ Shirley Ellis 'Angel of the Morning' ~ PP Arnold 'Rescue Me' ~ Fontella Bass 'I'm the Urban Spaceman' ~ The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' ~ James Brown 'Matthew and Son' ~ Cat Stevens 'Goin' Up the Country' & 'On the Road Again' ~ Canned Heat 'Son of A Preacher Man' ~ Dusty Springfield 'Games People Play' ~ Joe South 'For What It's Worth' ~ Buffallo Springfield 'That'll Be the Day' ~ Buddy Holly 'Bye Bye Love' ~ The Everly Brothers 'Eve of Destruction' ~ Barry McGuire 'It's Good News Week' ~ Hedgehoppers Anonymous 'Wipe Out' ~ The Surfaris 'Sabre Dance' ~ Love Sculpture 'Someone to Love' ~ Jefferson Airplane 'Diamonds' ~ Jet Harris and Tony Mehan 'You Really Got Me' ~ The Kinks 'Got to Get You into My Life' ~ Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers Edit :~ Yes Fonzie, all these and a few more on my 'home-made' compelation albums! My parents raised me to appreciate good music!

Answer 3

People, I think she's referring to the taxes and incomes of people in the 50's and 60's. I agree with her. I would be a much better place if everything wasn't so lopsided in favor the of the top 1% of the country.

I don' think Dumdum was suggesting we all throw away our cell phones and rebuild our nuclear bunkers. This was just in reference to the average income and potential of the middle and lower classes.

Answer 4

The 50s & 60's were 'good old days' for the libs, too - the history of those decades (and the 70s, for that matter) is a litany of liberal victories. From the early civil rights marches and the failure of McCarthyism, through the loss of the Vietnam war, to Roe v Wade, it was a glorious time to be liberal. Now that aging liberals have become the 'establishment,' they're having a harder time, since they haven't all adjusted from the role of opposition to that of leadership.

Answer 5

Back in the "good ole days", women stayed home and raised their family. There was only maybe one TV and it was black and white. The family had one car. Kids walked or rode their bikes everywhere. Families ate at home every night. Families went to church on Sunday. Kids did chores and lots of them. It was standard for kids to get swatted if they were bad, or if they got in trouble at school they got it worse at home. In many ways it was better back then. There were bad parts of that time too.

Answer 6

Of course someone will say that civil rights did not exist back then, a knee-jerk reaction.

So long as conservative in this context means moderate, ethical, and logical, then of course we should bring back old-fashioned conservatism. Not the false conservatism we have in the GOP.

I have to say, most of the other answers here have nothing to do with conservatism, and are completely ignorant. Conservatism does not always mean pro-war. You are oversimplifying.

Answer 7

Sounds good to me.

The 50s and 60s good times were in part because of FDR's New Deal policies.

Answer 8

In the 50's and 60's we also had the Korean War and the Viet Nam War. The country was thrown into civil unrest in the 60's and the "flower power generation" forever changed the way families are viewed. In addition, in the 50's there were few opportunities for women in the workplace. Abortion was illegal and women were dying in the back alleys. In the 50's there was still racial segregation and civil unrest over blacks going to "white" schools.

I'm not so sure you want to go back to that.

Answer 9

Polio was rampant then. The 50's & 60's look good if you hust look at the good and forget the bad.

Answer 10

I'm Conservative, and I don't think about the "good old days" as the 50s and 60s. I consider the "good old days" to be the post-Carter era. Unprecedented growth and prosperity, with rare, mild, and short-lived recessions.

Regarding your views on excessive taxation and minimum wage, I think you should take an economics class before drawing conclusions about something that you obviously have such limited knowledge of.