Stockton University near Atlantic City, NJ is having a??Great Debate???about ??Economic Inequality?.?The new Liberty and Prosperity Club at Stockton will talk about this at its meeting, Thursday, March 23, at 4:30 PM?in Room F-206. Pizza and Drinks. Open to all students.
Associate Professor of Economics Oliver Cooke outlines that debate in?29 Power Point charts, including the one on?right.??
That chart confirm that the American economy was ?great??for 25 years between 1948 and 1973.??Inventions, investment, and?efficiency made American workers more productive every year. During those years,?American workers earned more as their productivity increased. Professor Cooke calls these 25 years??the Great Compression?. Production and wages went up together.
Most Trump Republicans grew up during these years.?They have personal memories of what America was like during those 25 years of that ?Great Compression?. That is why they think?most Americans??were much better off back then. That is why they agree with?President Trump when he says ?Make America Great Again?.
Professor Cooke and most Trump Republicans both agree that starting around 1973, ?something happened?.??Productivity continued to increase, but suddenly wages went flat.???Each year there was a bigger gap between what American workers were producing, and how much they were paid.????Professor Cooke?s slides call this ?The Great Divergence?.
We all agree that the gap between rich elites and most ordinary Americans is bigger than ever.??What caused this????How can we fix the problem??
However, Professor Cooke?s Power Point charts falsely blame the problem on??Corporate America?.?? They claims that???Corporate America? became more powerful in politics, and used government to grab a bigger share of America?s wealth.
They also seem?to support anti-American, socialist, and ?Political Left???demands for more powerful unions, regulations, new laws to regulate political speech, higher taxes on the rich, a smaller, weaker military, and ?politically correct? education.
Trump Republicans blame Communists, socialists, and ?progressive? Democrats for causing ?The Great Divergance? which crushed the American Middle Class since 1973.? They want to ?Make America Great Again? by bringing back the economy we had before.
We at LibertyAndProsperity.org are not professors or experts.???We are ordinary citizens from every walk of life who lived through both the ?Great Compression? and the ?Great Divergence?.???We think these facts are important,?and that Stockton students should know about them when having a real debate on ?Economic Inequality?:
1.???Between 1948 and 1973, most Americans were married, and two parents shared the responsibility and cost of raising their children.
2.??Until 1966, immigration was limited, and immigration laws were enforced.
3.???Both Republicans and Democrats supported the Taft-Hartley Law of 1948, and opposed?Communism and corruption in America?s labor unions.?? Most of today?s union leaders care more about their own political power than what is good for their members.
4.??Until 1966, there were very few Federal government welfare programs for housing, medical care, welfare, food stamps, college tuition, etc. Most Americans were qualified for good jobs with a high school education, and students could pay for a year of college with a summer of work.
5.??Before 1966, there were fewer government programs and government employees.???Government employees could not form unions, and most government employees were paid less than those who worked in private jobs because they had civil service protection.???Americans paid far less taxes than they do today.?? New Jersey, like most states, did not have an income tax or a sales tax, and property taxes were much lower.??Although there were high 90% income tax rates for the very rich, very few people paid them because the tax code had more than 30,000 pages of?loopholes.
6.??There were fewer laws, regulations, and lawsuits. There were fewer lawyers. If people were treated unfairly at their job, it was easy to form their own business.
7.???The United States had sound money and little inflation.???Every paper dollar could be redeemed for an ounce of silver coins.???The dollar was backed by gold.
8.?? ?Public Private Partnerships?.??Government loans and tax breaks did not build casinos, hotels, sports stadiums, or shopping centers for private corporations.
9.?? We had fair and mostly uniform tariffs (sales taxes on good from other countries) instead of the complex crooked trade deals of today.
We want Stockton University students to be aware of what New Jersey and most of America was like before 1973.? Only then will they understand why President Trump and so many Americans talk about wanting to ?Make America Great Again?.
That is why we want to establish a Liberty and Prosperity Club at Stockton.? Stockton Students can sign up directly through OspreyHub.?? We also have a few openings for paid, part-time work in doing this.