Economic Conditions Outlined In Frontline Program Retirement Gamble Set Up By Reagan Presidency.

[TheMastersNemesis]

Boomers and other retirees can thank Ronald Reagan and his allies for creating the economic conditions that exist today. Reagan said he was creating a "service economy". No one questioned him or challenged him about that. And at DOL it was obvious that such an economy would be low paying with no future.

The American voter, particularly hard nose GOPPERS, are responsible for where we are today. They kept the GOP in power in significant ways and even gave the House to the GOP. And to top that off the 2000 election was close enough for the GOP to steal it. And to add insult to injury the voters even gave the GOP all three branches of government for a while.

It is bad enough to suffer all the GOP political fools. What is worse are the fools that continued to vote for them for over 30 years. Gays, guns, racism & religion as well as anti labor and anti unionism attitudes allowed the GOP to sell its kool aid.

When I was at DOL I would just dread each election cycle because so many voters were so damned stupid. When Dems ran on a pro worker agenda they got their asses handed to them. The only way to win was to go right. To be a moderate with a weak pro worker message.

The public bought all the GOP and business bullshit about jobs, retirement, health care etc. I simply do not understand the level of ignorance that has led us here. If you voted GOP all these years and cannot retire it is your fault. The sad part is that you have ruined the American Dream for everyone else too.

Things still can change if the GOP is driven to extinction and voters vote for pro worker pro organized labor candidates. Things can change when politicians who will regulate corporations properly are elected.

[KansDem]

1. "Reagan said he was creating a 'service economy'."

I never could understand how we all could make a living waiting on each other.

[Fumesucker]

2. Mourning in America indeed

The forces that power the GOP aren't going away even if the GOP itself becomes as dead and buried as Carthage, they are busy putting moles in the Democratic party and anywhere else an opportunist with more money than morals might possibly be able to buy some influence.

[Skittles]

3. so-called "Democrats" who voted for Reagan, SHAME ON THEM too

I will NEVER understand how people were fooled by that fraud

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. Because Of The Reagan Agenda And Its Aftermath Just About Everything A Train Wreck

Are we better off today than we were before Reagan? At every level we are in the crapper. I am not sure if we will ever recover. I see a bleak future for the younger generations because so much of the country has been compromised.

The GOP is very clear about what it wants to achieve. For the most part workers are where workers were in 1900. There were no pensions, no health care insurance, no labor laws, no minimum wage, no job safety laws, no 40 hour weeks. It was if you did not work or could not work YOU DID NOT EAT. In fact there were no benefits of any kind even for our veterans. Look at what happened to WWI veterans when they demanded their war bonus early. The GOP murdered them in Washington. And that is what Hoover and the GOP controlled Congress did. They called the military on them and burned down the shanty town.

Also gone are long term employment, decent wages, decent benefits, week ends, defined pensions, etc. Now we have an economy where you will be dead, broke or still working until you are 6 feet under. And if you are disabled you will be selling apples in the street .

The GOP is playing the same themes now as they were then. And the GOP did the same thing during the Depression that they did with the 2008 Depression. They gave tax breaks to the rich. If McCain would have won and the GOP were in control of Congress, they would have done nothing in 2008 except cut the budget, end Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They would have ended unemployment insurance and sent it to the states.

Now the commons are under attack. They want to privatize government where ever it is. Sell off the highways, the bridges, national parks, water systems, sewer systems, fire departments, police departments, etc.