Posted on 06/06/2004 5:27:39 PM PDT by wagglebee
It is being restated over and over again in these days of remembrance that Ronald Reagan brought about the collapse of Communism, and there can be no serious doubt that the policies he pursued with regard to the Soviets worked. Neither the mass demonstrations against him in Europe, the carping of his domestic enemies, nor the softer temptations of Mikhail Gorbachev ("See what an improvement I am; help me succeed"), could deter Reagan from firmness in the right, as God gave him to see the right.
But Reagan did more than merely accomplish the negative, defensive goal of defeating communism. He also did something positive, something without which the meaning of the defeat of communism would have much less meaning. Ronald Reagan reinvigorated capitalism.
It is hard, and for young people quite impossible, to remember how low the intellectual fortunes of capitalism had fallen in the 1970's. But the truth is that aside from the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party and the University of Chicago Economics Department, it had almost no defenders left anywhere.
Reagan's election changed all of that.
On January 29, 1981, just nine days after taking office, the new President issued an order terminating the Council on Wage and Price Stability. This was the office President Jimmy Carter had charged with fighting inflation in 1978. Carter, noting that the Consumer Price Index was going up, urged action by COWPS, which promptly made things worse. In 1978, the CPI went up 9%. In 1979, it went up 13.3%. In 1980, Carter's last year in office, 12.5%.
In 1981, it dropped to 8.9% and averaged 3.6% for the remaining seven years of the Reagan presidency.
You mustn't think that this was just a case of a good Republican taking over from a bad Democrat in the White House. Prior to Reagan, there was no real sense even within the Republican Party that government regulation of the economy was a bad thing, and that if the free market were allowed to be free, things would be better for everyone.
In August of 1971, President Richard Nixon shocked, and for at least a brief time heartened, the nation by announcing the program that came to be called "Nixonomics."
It was nothing less than an attempt by the Federal Government to set all wages and prices in the country. Convinced that capitalism – the free market – had broken down because of the enormous and collusionary power of big business and big labor, Nixon and his advisors abandoned traditional, business-oriented Republican principles, and opted for a more draconian set of government controls than had ever been known in peacetime. In addition, they took the US off the gold standard.
"I am a Keynesian," Nixon had declared earlier that year. Such was the state of the national commitment to capitalism in the decade preceding Reagan's presidency.
After two wage and price freezes and a variety of other attempts to control the uncontrollable, Nixon abolished most of the program in April 1974; he resigned that August, leaving President Gerald Ford to fight inflation with the most laughable program of all, the toothless "Whip Inflation Now" public relations scheme, which featured the famous "W.I.N." lapel buttons and regrettably little else.
At least no one ever called the W.I.N. program Fordonomics. But the two sobriquets Nixonomics and Reaganomics have remained in the language; as used by partisan Democrats, they are often conflated into a single pejorative, but in fact they are virtually polar opposites, the one a response to the presumed death of capitalism; the other a reaffirmation of its vitality and strength.
By demonstrating, through deregulation, tax cuts, privatization and other initiatives, and most assuredly by the effective use of the bully pulpit that is the presidency, Ronald Reagan fostered a revitalization of capitalism not only in the United States, but also throughout the world.
Today, national leaders everywhere, especially the old third world endorse capitalist economic principles; even many of those who don't really believe at least give lip service. This is a stunning turnaround. In the 1960's and '70's, one heard none of this, not here, not anywhere. Then, even those who did believe refused to give lip service, rather like today's liberals who disavow their own name.
Even in the media and academia, the apostles of capitalism have made progress, grabbed a beachhead here and there. If you're young, you'll just have to trust me on this one, but in the bad old days when there were only three TV networks, no talk radio and virtually no conservative think tanks, things were worse.
Only in the area of culture and entertainment has there been no discernable rightward movement. There, the villain still almost always looks like a capitalist, and he is cheating and defrauding, polluting and wrecking.
What a tribute it would be to the memory of the greatest American of his times if those who honor him would undertake to reform the industry in which he began his career.
But...but...what about the homeless? The gap between rich and poor? We are the world.... < /Liberal whining >
Actually, the media is implicitly admitting that they were, in some respects, wrong about Ronald Reagan during his presidency. Even though Reagan has been away from the public for a decade, I will miss him. He was the only truly great president in my lifetime, and the way he brought America from second-tier status is still being felt today. I can only hope that his memorial and funeral are worthy of him. His place in history has clearly been secured.
Didn't reagan give us the largest (up till then) tax increase in american history by raising fica c1983? wasn't this engineered by none other than alan greenspan, and we were told this would make social security solvent for at least 50 yrs? the money was skimmed to fund his tax cuts, and now that the baby boomer bill is coming due..well,...
they dont seem to have the money....
and don't forget those taxpayer funded leveraged buy outs! anybody with a brain in his head would have halted that crap.
No...that was Clinton ten years later, (after promising tax cuts);you putz.
I said "up till then". since clinton didn't come along for 10 years, your comment makes no sense. maybe you're in the first stages of alzheimers...or, hopefully, the last!
rot in hell
To suggest or allude that Reagan, (and NOT the demorat congress), wanted to, or was in any way responsible for raising taxes proves your insanity has come full turn. Turn off CNN, move to the country, up the medication...putz.
you obviously know one four letter word, ever hear of another one "VETO". which wasn't used much then or now in fiscal matters.
your simply too stupid to deal with so I wont bother anymore.
Your ridiculously ignorant attempt to portray Reagan as a president trying to raise people's taxes, speaks volumes on not only your own intelligence (i.e. lack thereof) level, but more-so on your vast distance from elementary knowledge of domestic politics, current events, and community accepted levels of sanity.
putz.
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