Is the Reagen administration responsible for todays obsession with materialism?

Answer 1

No. It's just that the tax cutting Reagan created a great economic boom that lifted people out of poverty so they had more money to buy things.

Answer 2

Why is it that Sociologists and the ultra-left always blame everything on Ronald Reagan. Reagan never really followed through with his rhetoric (though that never stopped left-liberals from whining that he was "slashing" their favorite programs because the budgets for those programs went up 6% instead of 10+%).

It is a myth that Ronald Reagan was a staunch fiscal conservative. While he definitely wasn't an extreme fiscal leftist like Clinton or the Bushes, he certainly was not a fiscal conservative either. There is nothing fiscally conservative about raising the federal budget every year.

As some true supporters of laissez-faire Capitalism at the Ludwig von Mises Institute have pointed out, the complaints about materialism are never heard from the poor (who desire to stop being poor, which no sane person would oppose), but from the ultra-rich, who are admitting that yes, they do personally value material goods less than non-material goods. If your goal is to reduce materialism, you should actually support laissez-faire because material goods have diminishing marginal returns and therefore nonmaterial goods become far more valuable at a certain point. Under an unfree economy, the total amount of wealth (true wealth, without the governmental counterfeiting known as inflation factored in) decreases, while under a free eeconomy, the total amount of wealth increases. As wealth increases, people's preferences shift toward non-material goods.

Answer 3

The real people in power needed to settle the masses after all the unrest in the 60's. The best way to do that was to distract them. the massive credit card industry helped them turn people materialistic. It gave people the "power" to buy almost anything they wanted. Massive advertising campaigns did the rest. People are convinced that they always need the newest and the best. If you are busy buying you tend not to concern yourself with the rest of the world.
Lenin said that religion was the opiate of the people:
I think that now credit and advertising have become the new opiate.

Answer 4

Reagan's tax cuts, like Bush's, put a lot of money into the hands of wealthy people who then went on huge shopping sprees, all at the expense of massive growth of the national debt. The 1980s coined the phrase 'greed is good.' We saw lots of corporate hostile takeovers, S&L failures, insider trading, junk bonds, and little control over business. Credit card debt as a percentage of GDP quadrupled. Personal savings dropped.

Then the 1988 market crash and the 1991 recession hit and people came to their senses. But we still buy more on credit, save less, and own more than we did in the 1970s. Bush's tax cuts did the same thing, only in his case, coupled with the Iraq war, the national debt had soared to four times the nation's annual revenues. Would YOU charge up to four times your annual income on your credit card?

Answer 5

There have always been people obsessed with materialism. People obsessed in the US get it from a constant barrage of advertising.

The Reagan administration built up the economy. That was a good thing.

Answer 6

I think that would honor should properly go to the "Greatest Generation" and they were because they stopped Hitler.

And then they saw the greatest economic prosperity ever. Which they spoiled their children the "Baby Boomers" with.

Now we have the adult children of the "Baby Boomers" who are having a rough time, because we have ALL been spoiled rotten.

I am a gen-x'er and I am indicting myself with this answer.

We are so spoiled as Americans and we need to try to change this for our children so they can do better. Because as difficult of a time as the working and middle class thinks they're having, you ought to see the inner city.

Answer 7

I am not sure about that.
They are responsible somewhat for the recession that is about to occur. It seems the failed fiscal policies of the past cannot stay buried Where they belong.

They are also responsible somewhat for the huge size and spending of the Federal Government today. The present Administration saw how borrowing and overspending was ignored by the faithful as long as you could talk tough.

Answer 8

No.
But a funny question.

That started hundreds of years ago at the beginning of civilization.

The Greedy Clintons brought it to a head by all their Corrupt Dealings.
They even stole the Silver Ware and Furniture from the Whitehouse when they left.

Answer 9

Not completely but Reagan set the standard of Greed is Good. Bush recently told Americans to go shopping. Good for fat cat Republicans but back to the wall Democrats not so good.

Answer 10

1. My choices are mine and no one elses ... if I want to spend my money on a bunch of useless crap, that I entirely my choice!

2. I would have to say that the strongest INFLUENCE over the increased consumerism should be attributed to popular media (i.e. tv, movies, celeb magazines, etc)