Author Topic: What really did happen in the '70's  (Read 677 times)

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Offline zeitgeist

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What really did happen in the '70's
« on: October 24, 2013, 03:23:46 PM »
There are some real golden moles working this thread.  Kudos if to you anonymous souls who may be their handlers.  

That not withstanding, this is a great thread demonstrating DUmmy's lack of economic knowledge and reliance on idealogical rose colored wishful thinking.  They are right about Disco, however.


http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10023912956


Quote
Whiskeytide (615 posts)

So... What did happen in the 70's...?
This chart was recently posted by Xchrome:

{chart of wages as share of GDP over time}

Here's the link to this excellent post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023911945#post1

I'm re-posting it because I think this deserves some discussion. And I'm going to get the movie "Inequality for All" - maybe it will help answer this question:

 What exactly did happen in the 70's that turned this around?

Was it the "anti-union, anti-US worker" mantra? I remember as a teenager in the 70's hearing about how US auto workers were "pricing themselves out of the labor market" and the Japanese car makers were taking advantage of it.

Was it cheap labor available overseas? Outsourcing American jobs was a problem long before anyone noticed, right? I remember that for a while you could buy a "Craftsman" hammer made in the US $X and it would likely last you a lifetime, or you could buy a "Crossmen's" hammer made in Taiwan for half that price, and the head fell off after a year. There was, for a while, a very real difference in the quality. Now, they're all pieces of shit made overseas for as little as possible, and most of us expect to replace a hammer every couple of years or so.

Was it the extension of easy credit to Americans, so everyone could now afford the G.I.Joe with the kung-fu grip on a credit card plan regardless of whether they could actually "afford" it? Who needs to advocate for a "raise" when you can "charge it" and pay for it later? It seems the "company store" - to which you quickly found yourself owing your soul to - just re-invented itself as CitiBank (or whatever it was back then). It was easy to "feel" like you had made it, when in reality you were just borrowing yourself into a deeper and deeper hole.

Was it a shift to a consumer based economy? We don't MAKE shit, we BUY shit!!! - on CREDIT!!

Was it rampant narcissism nurtured by the advent of sophisticated advertising campaigns? - having two chickens in every oven wasn't enough anymore - I want a BIGGER chicken than my neighbor... I think advertising came of age in the 70's - TV had been around for a couple of decades, and was reaching more and more consumers. The retail industry suddenly discovered they could "manufacture" demand with good advertising, rather than create a product people actually needed and wanted - you know, actual demand.

Disco, maybe? I don't know how, but DAMN - it was evil!!!

I have to go for a while - meetings for work. But I'd love to hear the input and insight from the big brains here when I check back in.  


I would hate to burn anyone's mole so I am not brining over what may be mole specific posts but I do feel compelled to complement a few for spreading the truth among the DUmmies.  
Here is an example of the low information brown acid voter's post on the thread.

Quote
DevonRex (22,056 posts)

25. The 70s were a blast.
 
We didn't do anything we were supposed to do after high school . We partied. We wore really cool clothes. Not like you see on TV. We were all skinny. We traveled all over the place. We went to concerts. We rode motorcycles. I had a '68 VW bug, navy blue. I ironed my hair. It was long and blonde - down to my waste. We tie-dyed our own clothes.

It was a lot more fun than your graph. But we were either broke or rich and didn't much care which as long as somebody bought the gas, tickets and beer. Somebody always did.

< watch this space for coming distractions >

Offline njpines

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2013, 03:45:35 PM »
Quote
DevonRex (22,056 posts)

25. The 70s were a blast.
 
We didn't do anything we were supposed to do after high school . We partied. We wore really cool clothes. Not like you see on TV. We were all skinny. We traveled all over the place. We went to concerts. We rode motorcycles. I had a '68 VW bug, navy blue. I ironed my hair. It was long and blonde - down to my waste. We tie-dyed our own clothes.

It was a lot more fun than your graph. But we were either broke or rich and didn't much care which as long as somebody bought the gas, tickets and beer. Somebody always did.

And now they want us to do the same for them via big gov't  :rant:
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Offline Chris_

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2013, 03:46:48 PM »
Gas, tickets, and beer have been replaced by food stamps, Obama phones, and unemployment checks.

Party on, dudes.
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Offline Ralph Wiggum

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2013, 04:10:31 PM »
Who was that DUmmy that used to post something like "I am due beer and travel money"?  :???: :???:

I've forgotten.
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Offline JakeStyle

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2013, 04:40:19 PM »
Who was that DUmmy that used to post something like "I am due beer and travel money"?  :???: :???:

I've forgotten.

That was RandomThoughts, he was  given the granite for cursing out skinner after skins asked him to remove some pictures from his sig.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=437&topic_id=3505&mesg_id=3529
« Last Edit: October 24, 2013, 04:44:56 PM by JakeStyle »

Offline ChuckJ

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2013, 05:06:43 PM »
Quote
Was it cheap labor available overseas? Outsourcing American jobs was a problem long before anyone noticed, right? I remember that for a while you could buy a "Craftsman" hammer made in the US $X and it would likely last you a lifetime, or you could buy a "Crossmen's" hammer made in Taiwan for half that price, and the head fell off after a year. There was, for a while, a very real difference in the quality. Now, they're all pieces of shit made overseas for as little as possible, and most of us expect to replace a hammer every couple of years or so.

Thank the unions. Not all pieces of shit are made overseas.
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Offline Ralph Wiggum

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2013, 05:13:15 PM »
That was RandomThoughts, he was  given the granite for cursing out skinner after skins asked him to remove some pictures from his sig.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=437&topic_id=3505&mesg_id=3529

Thanks JakeStyle!
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Offline zeitgeist

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2013, 05:13:41 PM »
Gas, tickets, and beer have been replaced by food stamps, Obama phones, and unemployment checks.

Party on, dudes.

When I graduated college I  worked for a Federally funded State run Human Services program (briefly, funding was cut).  Lots of USDA food got given out. Cheese, macaroni, canned ham, dry milk, peanut butter, and fruit cocktail seemed to be the most common I was aware of.  I worked with unwed mothers and GED candidates (dropouts).  Quite a zoo collection but they sure could party.  They were always trying to get beer money by selling the food.    
< watch this space for coming distractions >

Offline franksolich

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2013, 05:21:04 PM »
I was a teenager in the 70s.

What I remember most were the double-digit inflation, the double-digit unemployment, the double-digit interest rates, of the Carter years, the later part of that decade.

The "black license-plate people" going through Nebraska on their way south or west from the rust-belt states, like the Okies of old, migrating to where they hoped to find jobs.  (License-plates in Michigan about this time were black, hence the appellation.)  Their cars were old, held together with scraps of wire, and stuffed to the gills with household goods.  One saw hundreds of these every day, and wondered where they'd end up, and how they'd do.

Just like the Okies of old.

The insane kicked out of the asylums and left to survive on the streets (wrongfully attributed to Reagan; it began under Carter).

Driving from Pennsylvania back to Nebraska, miles and miles of abandoned shopping-centers and big stores, their windows boarded up, all the way from there through Iowa, and most particularly so in Ohio.

Lines at the gasoline stations.

"America Held Hostage, Day xxx."

A president bitten by a rabbit.

Price-stickers on groceries overlaid on older price-stickers (UPCs were not in common use yet), some items having three or four such stickers, graduating in price.

The sneering condescension of the administration towards significant portions of the public (religious believers, southerners, whatnot).

The mean grimacing bitch Rosalynn trying to be "co"- president.

&c., &c., &c.

This was the latter half of the 1970s, not the whole 1970s.  Like after January 20, 1977.
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Offline I_B_Perky

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2013, 05:51:05 PM »
I was a teenager in the 70s.

What I remember most were the double-digit inflation, the double-digit unemployment, the double-digit interest rates, of the Carter years, the later part of that decade.

The "black license-plate people" going through Nebraska on their way south or west from the rust-belt states, like the Okies of old, migrating to where they hoped to find jobs.  (License-plates in Michigan about this time were black, hence the appellation.)  Their cars were old, held together with scraps of wire, and stuffed to the gills with household goods.  One saw hundreds of these every day, and wondered where they'd end up, and how they'd do.

Just like the Okies of old.

The insane kicked out of the asylums and left to survive on the streets (wrongfully attributed to Reagan; it began under Carter).

Driving from Pennsylvania back to Nebraska, miles and miles of abandoned shopping-centers and big stores, their windows boarded up, all the way from there through Iowa, and most particularly so in Ohio.

Lines at the gasoline stations.

"America Held Hostage, Day xxx."

A president bitten by a rabbit.

Price-stickers on groceries overlaid on older price-stickers (UPCs were not in common use yet), some items having three or four such stickers, graduating in price.

The sneering condescension of the administration towards significant portions of the public (religious believers, southerners, whatnot).

The mean grimacing bitch Rosalynn trying to be "co"- president.

&c., &c., &c.

This was the latter half of the 1970s, not the whole 1970s.  Like after January 20, 1977.

Yep Frank. The late 70's. Glad the dumpmonkies remember them fondly. The late 70's were really, really, really hard times for the Pa Perky household. There was just no damned work around these parts back then. What we grew on Grandpa Perky's farm is what we ate.

To say that I do not remember those days fondly is putting it mildly. Pa Perky never gave up though. Better times came around eventually and we survived. Didn't take a damn bit of welfare either.

I learned how to make do with what you got.

That is what real Americans are made of dummies.
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Offline zeitgeist

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #10 on: October 24, 2013, 06:17:36 PM »

I found it telling that not one Dummy on that thread mentioned Carter.  They mention both Nixon and Reagan but avoid any mention of Jimmah.  Nixon was actually a better Democrat than Clinton based on what he actually accomplished that DUmmies like. 

There were a couple very interesting posts that I did not bring over.
< watch this space for coming distractions >

Offline JohnnyReb

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2013, 06:31:02 PM »
Diesel fuel went from  15.9 cent a gallon to $1.39/9 for off road fuel and I paid 22% interest on a loan for a piece of equipment. Couldn't hardll raise prices fast enough to keep up with inflation.....as a matter of fact, it got so bad that when I called for prices for parts etc.....they gave me the price for THAT DAY....order tomorrow and I had to call back to see what the price had gone up to.....I damn Nye starved....screw damn democrats.
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Offline diesel driver

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #12 on: October 24, 2013, 06:54:19 PM »
Dad USED to be a die-hard Democrat, until Carter.

Carter had the USDA start PIK (short for Payment In Kind) as a way to rid the country of surplus corn and to raise the prices farmers received for their grain.

It worked like this:  a farmer would set aside X acres that he would normally grow corn on, and in return, would receive 85% of what the average yield for those acres in grain.  We normally shelled around 10,000 bushels of corn a year, so we got 8,500 bushels of grain.

In return, we had to let the fields we grow corn on lay fallow.  We couldn't plant another crop on it, couldn't graze it, but we did have to mow it (didn't say we couldn't put what we mowed in the silo.  LOL)

All this was an effort by the government to rid the market of surplus corn, and raise the price farmers received for it.  In that aspect, it worked...BUT...

Hidden deep in the bowels of this program was a clause that read "if the price rises to or above $X.XX/bushel, the farmer had to PAY the government back for the corn he received".  

SO, farmers were deprived of the use of their land for other uses other than growing corn, AND had to pay for the corn the government "gave" them to take their land out of use!   :mental:

Gas went from $.55 to over $1.20/gallon, diesel from $.35 to $1.00, IF YOU COULD FIND IT!  (as farmers, we didn't have that problem.)  F'n UAW went on strike against International Harvester, drying up parts supplies and forcing IH into bankruptcy.  (I hope every GD one of those UAW F'ers STARVED TO DEATH!!!)

We had a "misery index", a coal miner's strike, Arab oil embargo, OPEC, EPA, OHSA, catalytic converters, unleaded gas, wage and price controls, swine flu,  and rumors of a coming "ice age" (since replaced with "global warming/climate change/whateverthehellitisnow").

And DUmmies think the government can run healthcare????   :rotf:

On top of that, I married and bought a house in 1979, interest rate was 19.7%  Principal was $12,000, interest was $22,000 (total $34,000) over the life of the loan.  (I refinanced in 1983 for 6.5% and saved over $15,000).

« Last Edit: October 24, 2013, 07:03:27 PM by diesel driver »
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Offline 98ZJUSMC

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #13 on: October 24, 2013, 07:01:56 PM »
I found it telling that not one Dummy on that thread mentioned Carter.  They mention both Nixon and Reagan but avoid any mention of Jimmah.  Nixon was actually a better Democrat than Clinton based on what he actually accomplished that DUmmies like. 

There were a couple very interesting posts that I did not bring over.


Of course not.  According to the (D)Ullards, if Carter was re-elected we would have flying cars, interstellar space travel, Star Trek food replicators, free everything, Jupiter aligned with Mars, meaningful communication with ants,  blah, blah-blah, blah, blah.....

Stupid bastards....

Quote
The insane kicked out of the asylums and left to survive on the streets (wrongfully attributed to Reagan; it began under Carter).

Thanks, Frank.  That needs to rebuked whenever it's spewed by the children.

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Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2013, 07:17:36 PM »
I joined the Army in 1975.  Hell of a party THAT was, especially when inflation went well into the double digits under Jimmuh while military pay stagnated.  The resulting mass exodus of mid-grade NCOs damn' near wrecked the services, it took ten years for the Reagan build-up to repair the damage and start moving beyond the regained ground, even though it couldn't erase the scars.
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Offline Airwolf

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Re: What really did happen in the '70's
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2013, 12:33:03 AM »
Any idiot that thinks the 70's was so great never had to live during that time. As already mentioned it was bad and families had it rough. My family living in town had to plant a garden to help make things work around here and we live in town. My mom had to sell her ceramic shop and when I started to drive my car at the age of 17 gas doubled in price but not my pay which was about $4.00 an hour. it continued around here till Jimmy The Peanut left office and by the time the early 80's came around and still not much for jobs were available I joined the Army by transferring from the National Guard so I could make more money and get out on my own. Yeah the 70's were so grand for everyone.
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