When Was America’s Peak Wealth?
- This topic has 16 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Times Square New York City, 1958 A few days ago, I wrote an essay entitled “Not Nearly Enough Growth To Keep Growing”, in which I posited, amon
[See the full post at: When Was America’s Peak Wealth?]Except Nixon didn’t have to go off the gold standard. A return to honest policy is always an option.
“I am drawn to wonder if civilization could ever have worked any other way. I’m calling it not very likely.”
I concur, as people naturally take the path of least resistance just like electricity, always doing what is easiest, most enjoyable yet not necessarily, if ever, most prudent.
I remember when it was considered “normal” to swap cars for newer ones every 12 months. At least, that is how it was portrayed in the American magazines I used to read as a kid.
I remember 1969 as better than 1970. That first moon landing was a real high point for all of us.
Everybody thought 1971 sucked.
Things were different after November 1963. LBJ was a “sonofabitch”, as he put it.
It’s hard to nail a year down, but after we lost our president, things were never the same.If you do a Google search for “Study: Global warming is shrinking river vital to 40M people”, you will get 9.740 online publications that are publishing this article:
Study: Global warming is shrinking river vital to 40M people
This study covers the period of 2000-2014. The readers are carefully not reminded that nature has changed its course over the past year.
That is how biased, dishonest and centrally-controlled Western media has become.
Here is a useful website if you enjoy climate porn. If you read this article carefully, you will see mentioned the fact that the temperature of New Zealand has been dropping – much to their horror. You would not know it if you read the rest of the paper. The title is totally misleading and designed to throw people off.
At least 58 New Zealand glaciers advanced between 1983 and 2008, with Franz Josef Glacier advancing nearly continuously during this time.
“Glaciers advancing is very unusual, especially in this period when the vast majority of glaciers worldwide shrank in size as a result of our warming world,” said lead author Associate Professor Andrew Mackintosh, from Victoria’s Antarctic Research Centre.
“This anomaly hadn’t been satisfactorily explained, so this physics-based study used computer models for the first time to look into it in detail.
“We found that lower temperature caused the glaciers to advance, rather than increased precipitation as previously thought.
“These periods of reduced temperature affected the entire New Zealand region, and they were significant enough for the glaciers to re-advance in spite of human-induced climate change.”
Mackintosh said the climate variability, which includes the cooler years, still reflected a climate that’s been modified by humans.
Why the future doesn’t look good for our glaciersa>
They refer to other glaciers shrinking. Well, the data for the Himalayas shows quite a different picture:
IPCC Intentionally Uses Catastrophic Non-Science To Incite Policy Action
Ken Latta:
Wow, great thread. I’m 72 and was there also; I remember it pretty much as you tell it.
I’d agree with your time-line also as to when peak wealth occurred. The beginning of the downturn was very late in the 50’s/early 60’s with our war in Vietnam and then; Nixon going off the gold standard. That allowed the next chapter of crony capitalism. I attribute an accelerating deterioration to Friedman and his Chicago School of Economics and the age of the neo-liberal.
Don’t forget Reagan; I felt the effects of his union busting first hand with stagnant wages until I retired over seas in 2007.
I hope to read more of your writings from time to time.
CheersI don’t know who’s writing those stats, but I call bullshit:
Seriously, go for a walk on Franz Joseph glacier. I have – I live in NZ.. Not only it hasn’t advanced, but you’ll be walking for a long time before you even *see* any ice/glacier. That shit is receding faster than liberal honesty in the face of a Trump win.
Don’t quote BS stats about climate change not occurring – it’s fucking obvious to anyone with their eyes open.
Which doesn’t mean it’s a linear process up or down. Its *change*. Sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes chaotic.
But if someone gives you a BS stat about glaciers advancing that is contrary to what other people are generally reporting, then FFS get on a plane and verify it before you burst into print about how it proves anything, other than your own credulity.@ Huskynut
Yeah, I knew who you were talking to; I no longer engage his insistence to constantly go off topic regardless the issue at hand. He’s like, obsessed with that shit. Every bloody post includes his private war against his version of the anti-Christ.
Cheers…Ken Latta,
Thank you for your thought provoking article. I sometimes look at the health of the surviving car companies after WWII as a bellwether to the shape of the economy. Hudson, Nash, Studebaker, Packard all were struggling mightily by the mid 50’s.
For the farming community the peak was about 1952. After the post war demand had been met, and greatly exceeded, farming declined into a real recession during the middle and late 50’s and never was quite the same. Since then, machinery and technology, mostly purchased on credit, has kept production up and prices down for farmers, typically at or below the cost of production. Many of these labor saving and production enhancing tools stand unused, but are still being paid for. The only exception to this situation is massive drought, or massive flooding which can temporarily insert profitability to those not affected.
Thank you Mr. Latta for your interesting reflection. I am also in my early 70s. Interpretations of what was “really” happening are so difficult, colored as they are by our individual circumstances and life trajectories and the internal honesty/rigor with which we search for truth. Rather than focus on specific events, I have come to value “social mood” or “hope” and “crossing unwritten social lines” or a “tolerable degree of fairness” as the main drivers of human history. Only in the late 60s and early 70s was my own personal frustration as great as it is today.
I am worried. Everybody who comments here is in their 70s as I am. Is that because we have more time to reflect and write down our thoughts or is it because the youth of today aren’t interested in anything except Facebook? If that is the case then I am so glad I am at the end of my life but what about my darling grandchildren.
@ Patricia
I don’t know the answer to your question; but I am somewhat surprised as well, at the ages here.
Posting on a couple of sites like TAE, is about all the social media I do; no twitter, facebook, snapchat, etc..
With forced education now world wide; I hold little hope for the younger generations. The U.S. has led the world to hell…Thank you Ken Latta, a most interesting and timely article. I also grew up during this period and now nearing my 70s. Surely I am not the only oldtimer who has seen the development in technology over the past few decades. While there are many benefits to reading and researching around the Internet for personal learning, the younger generations seem to be more self-absorbed into social media apps for minute-by-minute communication with their friends. It is worrisome that many no longer have face-to-face social communication skills and are lacking in basic life skills. How will they cope in a world without their electronic devices?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.