Kling vs. Krugman

Arnold Kling takes Paul Krugman down a peg.

I note only that it is one of those it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren't-so-sad phenomena that so many of today's Liberals are now ascribing a kind of Golden Age to America of the late 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Incomes were growing! There was relatively little economic inequality! Unions and government helped and protected the working man! The whole world loved and respected America! Children played and adults danced!

Then Reagan was somehow elected and America ran right off a cliff.

But I was alive for most of the "Golden Age" and all I can remember Liberals talking about back then was how much America stunk and how truly, terribly unhappy they were. About almost everything.

One might hypothesize that they'll never be happy. Too bad for them.

Comments

[JorgXMcKie]

Yep, I remember those wonderful decades. Polio epidemics, 'duck and cover' drills, only about 3 antibiotics, big bulky radios and stereos, 3 channels on tv, and that was just the '50s.

I wonder how many of these retro-Lefties would choose (as they can of course) to live today in the style that was available in any decade prior to the '80s? Probably about as many as moved to Frawnce or Canada after Bush's re-election.

[kyle8]

I am old enough to remember the 1960's. I would say that if you were an average middle class person who was not a nihlistic lefty, then times in the 50's-60's were pretty good. But they started to suck big time in the seventies. Yeah, I remember race riots, meat shortages, gas lines, stagflation, and those horrible polyester suits and bell bottoms. The Seventies were crap, then Reagan came in and everything was much better until about 1999, (except for music and movies, those have been going steady downhill since 1991.)

In that year, the campaigns started and everything became much more politicized than at any time in my life. And we have all suffered for it.

[david foster]

In particular: today's liberals talk a great deal about the awfulness of the decline in manufacturing in the US. But if you read stuff written by liberals in the 50s through the 70s, it was about how "degrading" manufacturing jobs were.