What Changed America?

General General Discussion
1

This is a spinoff of some thoughts I had while reading the What Do We Know About Bernie Sanders thread, I didn’t want to derail, but am curious about your opinions.

I followed this link and then followed a couple links in the article (posted in the Bernie Sanders thread). That got me to thinking about the 90% tax deal.

I went to this site: http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfo...ry_nominal.pdf and what I found generated some questions and observations about America.

I favor a flat tax or national sales tax, I am not in favor of 90% taxes for anyone, but, I have to ask myself, what changed America’s people over the course of a century?

From 1935 onward the highest tax rates were above 63%; beginning in 1937 they were above 80%, hitting 94% in 1945, and staying above 90% until 1964; in 1964 the rate dropped to 74% and remained at 70% until 1982 when it dropped to 50%; it remained at 50% until 1987 when it dropped to 38.5%.

During this period America became the most powerful Nation on the earth, our manufacturing capability was second to none; the interstate highways were built, what was different then than now? Just what was bad about America during this period, civil rights aside?

A simplistic look at the National Debt for the last 90 years shows that those tax rates were busy paying down the Debt in a businesslike manner. Korea created a bump, as did VN and the ‘Great Society’ but National Debt as a percentage of GDP went below 33% in 1973 and stayed below 33% until 1982’s recession. Since then it has steadily risen, the Clinton administration saw a 10% drop in debt as % of GDP over their 8 years, but the GWOT signaled another rise, which we all realize has continued.

A lot has changed over those years, but what fundamentally changed the outlook of America, what changed us to a Nation of ‘what is in it for me, instead of what is in it for us?’

As I wrote this I fully realized it sounds kind of kumbaya, but I genuinely an curious, what changed our mindset? Was it cable news; was it a more educated population; or are the baby boomers and their progeny just assholes, what changed?

Repeating: I favor a flat tax or national sales tax, I am not in favor of 90% taxes for anyone, but, I have to ask myself, what changed America’s people over the course of a century?

2

The communists have run academia for quite some time.

3

America is no longer a basically homogeneous cultural norm society.

What you are seeing is what happens when there is no longer a primary cultural norm that everyone adheres to.

This cultural homogeneity is what allows the Nordic countries to flourish.

In those types of environments society as a whole predominantly does and reinforces everyone else doing what is best for the society, having children out of wed lock, sticking it to the man, living on the dole, getting what’s mine is greatly frowned upon by the greater society and is considered very shameful. In those types of societies a rising tide does raise all ships equally and people are accepting of higher tax rates because they know that their money is not being wasted and everyone puts their best effort into whatever they do whether they be a CEO or a janitor. They realize that every dollar of taxes they pay in will increase their society going forward because of improved infrastructure and job training for those who need it.

However, that isn’t the case anymore in America.

Now it is everyone for themselves. There are huge swaths of the population in America who believe that working is for chumps and the traditional American cultural norms are universally panned in the media and popular culture. That in turn means that people are not willing to have huge amounts of their income taken to pay for people to do nothing all day and live like Honey Boo Boo et al.

The best term I have seen to describe it is Cultural Balkanization.

It is one of the unfortunate side effects of our immigration policies and those who drive popular culture (propaganda).

4

Nordic communities?

Not today!

Since I have relatives that still live in Sweden, I often get a kick out of most American’s views or ideas of what the Scandinavian countries are like. Mostly…I find their views are of this area, circa 1982.

Most of the Scandinavian countries today are awash with a huge underclass of non-Anglo immigrants that have recently flooded into their nations. These new arrivals are not learning the language or adapting to any parts of Scandinavian society. They often live in their own neighborhoods and do not assimilate or evn try to fit in to the society they moved in to.

Many of these peoples came from Eastern Iron Bloc countries, the Balkans or Northern Africa. Most are (surprise) Muslims.

Crime in the Scandinavian countries has skyrocketed in recent years and unemployment is very high within these recent immigrants. There is a huge rift between the native Swedes and the recent immigrants. Neither likes or trusts the other. It was as if the liberal govt just foisted the new immigrants upon the native Swedes.

…situation sound familiar?

Well…Sweden is no longer the peaceful, lilly-white Utopia that some Americans think it is. That was Sweden in the early 80s, maybe.

5

Letting just anybody run for office and then letting just anybody vote.

6

Particularly Kenyan/Indonesian/British foreign nationals… :mad:

7

The tax rate is a red herring. It isn’t that we don’t collect enough taxes, we spend ourselves silly on low return (transfer payments) expenditures.

That and those tax rates were on much higher inflation adjusted numbers, like in the millions, not around d $300-400k like now. That and a lot of people ways around the taxes.

There are a whole lot of other trends besides tax rates that explain and correlate with our decline.

8

Dope smoking, filthy, hippies who thought they were qualified to make the world a “better place” who sadly existed in large enough numbers to effect actual change. They’ve been making it worse ever since.

9

I’m sure this has a lot to do with it.

Also, no matter how much money you take in or what the tax rate is, it only really matters what you spend that money on.
You can pay back the debt, but we’re not doing that. You can build the infrastructure, but we’re not doing that either.
What is being done with the money is a lot of sweetheart deals through routing money around and paying folks to figure a way to scam more bennies out of the system.
We had a great country and still have a lot of potential, until scamming us out of our tax dollars becomes a crime and we get term limits for our political Masters, we will continue to hell in a hand basket.

10

if you research those tax rates NOBODY ever paid those high % there was so many loopholes and so many write offs etc… so that is just political BS about those %
yes they tried for sure but again look at the % the top %5 of wealthy pay today and look at our taxes compared to other countries !!! the rich are still floating everyone
the gov is out of control and its spending is out of control and un checked

what has happened about debt is we have to fund abortions ? we have to fund gays in prison wanting to become the opposite gender ! we have to give out so so so so so much money to folks who wont work and are criminals and yet we still give them money !

our spending is out of control not our taxes !

and as far as our country being destroyed its all the progressives fault as that is there plan and most folks are so stupid as to follow along and believe the BS they spout

11

In MY not humble opinion…two things have absolutely ruined this country. Illegal immigrants & politicians.
And, for me, I can pin point the day things made a literal turn for the worse. The first time Bill Clinton got elected. There were, of course, rancorous differences between left/right…Dem/Repub…Lib/Cons…but NOTHING like it was after that draft dodging, whore-mongering, MURDERING lying ass Clinton got elected. To me, in my mind, that is when the “media” went whole hog lefty and have not turned back since. His election, and re-election, again to me in my mind, started a rip and tear in this country that has now been magnified a thousand fold. Most all of the lib wet dreams we see have now come true originated right then & there with that ****stick, and now of course we are going thru the same type of shit with his lezzie wife.

12

The hippies became the government.

13

THIS ties in to my post perfectly.

14

What hasn’t changed America?

IMHO the beginning of the end was in 1913 when then President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.
The Creature from Jekyll Island

15

“True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within.” - Saul Alinksy

16

This is what happened to Rome, after centuries Rome got to a point where there were more non-Romans living there than Romans.

17

People would be wise to research gang rapes in Sweden and the UK by Islamic “refugees”. The governments and the media do their best to down play it but nothing makes a people want to “nationalize” more than seeing their little girls, teen daughters, and young women brutally gang rapped by these abhorrent oxygen thieves. There is literature out there that Imams want to breed out whites in Europe. But as Barry O would say, there just “random acts of violence”.

18

This…exactly and everyone who knows better is too busy working “Keeping the Business running” to stand up and stop it, so it continues and perpetuates itself. Critical thinking and reasonable discourse are long forgotten. This is now a nation of wanna be famous, drama queens and pussies. I also lay some of this to the hippie generation of the 60’s and the ignorant, closed minded kids they raised.

19

I believe those hippies are now called baby boomers, and they are part and parcel of the problem. We, America in general, have been pursuing a pretty hedonistic lifestyle for the last 3 to 4 decades. Critical reasoning and reasonable discourse are some of the first casualties in the ‘its all about me lifestyle.’

I have noted locally the decline of fraternal organizations such as the Elks, the Eagles, the VFW and the American Legion. I also see fewer folks joining mainstream civics organizations such as the Lions Club, Optimists, Kiwanis, Rotary, etc. This trend seems to illustrate the individualistic mindset that permeates our society today. Community service, nope, I’ve got my jet-ski and my x-box. There is no sense of sacrifice for the common good.

20

I think this is accurate. I was born in 1959 so have personally witnessed this phenomenon. The previous immigrants wanted to become “American” to fit in, and climb the economic ladder, a melting pot, so to speak. Today, everyone wants to play identity politics, and get something for being different. It is sad to see this. I blame the media, education, and our progressive government agencies. The Axis of evil.

Agree on the Baby Boomer Hippies. They rebelled against the parents, and the greatest generation. Too many rules, too much discipline, and we are suffering for it. They let their kids run wild because they wanted to be their friend instead of the parents, fearing that they would dislike them. Everything is about “feelings” with them. Well they can’t make the tough calls, so their kids are also largely part of the problem.