(kinda) A great website to share if you have no idea how to explain the downfall of the US economy.

Edit: Thanks to everyone who provided insight on this website. I’ve had this in my bookmarks for a very long time and was curious how it held up.

  • leadore@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    Propaganda site. You are supposed to superficially read the graphs’ titles and notice the big arrow, then uncritically accept the narrative that something happened around 1971.

    When you see a personal blog site or social media post with a graph or graphs on it, stop and think.
    First, are these real and accurate graphs? What is their source? Look up the same info on reputable sites that track these numbers to verify.
    Second, notice attempts to manipulate. All those big arrows pointing to 1971 as if they mean something. In most cases there isn’t even an inflection point or other notable feature of the data at 1971, but the arrow makes you think there is if you don’t look closely.

    edit to add: if you start looking up graphs of things like wages vs productivity and wages compared between income groups, you’ll find that things started going to hell during the Reagan era, when Reagan and Thatcher devastated the economy by slashing income taxes on the wealthy and corporations, deregulated industry, and busted the unions, and more.

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    While there is no doubt that the Nixon shock and gold standard had huge effects in 1971, that website pushes a goldbug agenda that isn’t supported by other sources.

    For example the labor productivity gap didn’t start until after 1979. Which is no surprise given that 1980 was the start of Reagan pushing his trickle down economics.

    https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

  • Krono@lemmy.today
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    5 months ago

    Leftists: its deregulation and reagan and the destruction of labor unions and forever wars and wall street and the death of manufacturing and and and

    Libertarians: “GOLD!”

    • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      I’m kinda tired of seeing this fucking website being passed around. Several of those rocketing charts begin their launch sequence in the 80s. Must be the gold! Regulations are bad!

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Something indeed happened to cause the decoupling of wages and productivity, but dropping the gold standard (like that site would have you believe) ain’t it.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      China is #1 and Russia is #3 in global gold production.

      Could you imagine the US being able to support Taiwan and Ukraine if China and Russia had complete control of the US monetary supply?

      • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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        5 months ago

        The US doesn’t need to be supporting Taiwan, Ukraine. The US needs to be supporting the US. Let Taiwan and Ukraine support themselves.

        • orrk@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          ok there, Mr. Chamberlain, you know what happened to every isolationist nation throughout history… right?