History is a subject which does not seem to interest as many people as is should, especially young people. This concerns me because there is a lot that can be learned by looking back at past events and seeing what went right and what went wrong. To me, ignoring history is like ignoring experience. Perhaps you’ve heard the expression “experience is the best teacher.” With all this in mind, I'd like to take a look back in time:
In the 1970’s America was suffering through some tough economic times, jobs were being lost, President Nixon resigned, we had a gas crisis, inflation was rising, and we had the Iran hostage crisis (a short history of the 1970's). President Carter proposed some belt-tightening to America, and his suggestions might have worked. However, his opponent in 1980 was the very charismatic Ronald Reagan. America wanted good news, not bad. We didn’t want to take the hard road, we wanted everything nice and easy. So we elected President Reagan and got trickle-down economics – a great program for the rich, who got richer, but not so good for everyone else, who got poorer.
Here’s a political cartoon about our last four presidents:
So here we are in 2008 and we’ve got tough economic times, jobs are being lost, we've got a gas crisis, and prices for everything are rising. Wonder where that easy road is going to take us now?
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