A few bad policy decisions of the 1900s

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1913 – Implementation of individual taxes led to a bloated government, incentivized 85% of tax lobbyists to represent corporate interests, enabling overburdening of the workforce and the general marketplace, and giving business interests motivation to loot newly created government revenue on the backs of the tax-paying public.

1953 – Military conflicts debt-financed, not tax-funded, leading to enormous growth of national debt. Much of the fruits of our labor (treasure) go to military defense contractors.

1870-1970 – End of century-long trade surplus, leading to diminishing domestic wealth creation, dismantling of US manufacturing, urban decay, violent crime, and the drug war.

1971 – Nixon Shock, causing deep & broad economic instability, and individual wealth & income shrinkage, furthering blight.

1973 – Nixon’s HMO Act, incentivized for-profit speculative trading in medical care providers and pharma. Public medicine further gave-way to market-managed hospital care, pharma and related insurance throughout the 80s & 90s.

1981-1988 – Reagan deregulation led to broad corporate consolidation, destruction of the Fairness Doctrine, escalation of national partisan resentment, furthering corporate favoritism above public interest.

1996 – Telecom bill, enabled massive media consolidation, further diminishing local ownership of media enterprises.

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