Reaganomics

Brother Onesimus recently posted an interesting graphic comparing tax-rates during Presidential administrations of the last 40 years.

https://onesimusfiles.wordpress.com/cost to the poor for rewarding the rich?

I'm woefully ignorant about economics. All I can say is that, subjectively, the U.S. economy seems neither as stable nor as equitable as I remember it being before Reaganomics.

I do know that Reagan appointee Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve and disciple of Ayn Rand, testified to Congress after the economic crash of 2008 that the theory he'd pursued the past 20 years was "partially" wrong, and that, "The whole intellectual edifice...collapsed in the summer of last year.” Greenspan doubtless knows infinitely more about the subject than I do; but his mea culpa does seem to coincide with many of my subjective impressions.

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?_r=0

The signature policy of Reagan's governing philosophy was what he called "de-regulation." Government itself being (as he famously proclaimed in his first Inaugural Address) "the problem," it followed that citizens would be best served by government ceasing to "interfere" in their lives. In economics, the premise was that "the market" would sort everything out, and produce a more stable prosperity than government regulation ever could.

(It's worth noting that the Reagan administration instituted "de-regulation" in many other areas previously under federal oversight: environmental actions, air-traffic control, broadcasting, education, housing, food-safety, civil rights law, etc. Again subjectively, it seems we've seen dire consequences in those areas as well.)

What I have to come back to, as the "intellectual edifice" of Reaganism in toto, is its counter-scriptural foundation. Reagan's conviction that "government IS the problem" seems to flatly contradict the teaching that governing authority "...is a minister of God to you for good." (Romans 13:4). His policy of "de-regulation" flowing from that anti-government stance seems the opposite of God's mandate that rulers "...bring wrath upon the one who practices evil." (ibid)

Subjectively, those anti-scriptural teachings have done the U.S. and its citizens a great deal of harm over the last 40 years. That harm continues today in the beliefs of Reagan's followers.