How They Did It

Destroy America's post-war prosperity, that is.  Gather 'round, children, for within living memory it was possible to put yourself through college working a minimum-wage job - without any loans. With just a high-school diploma you could land a job that paid enough with benefits to support a family with a house in the suburbs and two cars. And the rich paid enough taxes to support new highways, schools, parks and water systems.

What happened was not a natural disaster. It was carefully planned and meticulously carried out by the plutocrats who now insist a lords-n-serfs economy is just the way it has to be.

There are dozens of superb books on this subject, but if you want a quick overview, these two articles are excellent.

From Firedoglake:

 “Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed.  Was it an inevitable process–or . . . engineered by self-interested elites?”

 “How Republicans Made America A Top Poverty Creator”.

And this: