1975: The End of Affluence

This year is mostly being remembered as the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. We should remember that 1975 was important for another reason as well. The US economy went into recession in November of 1973 and it continued until March 1975. By May 1975 unemployment reached 9%. That may not seem a high by today's standards (unemployment reached 10.8% in 1982). Nevertheless, the recession 0f 1973-75 marked the end of the post WW2 economic boom. The end of WW2 had brought about the "Age of Affluence," or "the Good Old Days." When people thought that the world economy had gone on an "upward curve" of rising standards of living.

Since the seventies we've had worsening economic conditions worldwide. The seventies marked the decline of Keynesian economics and the ascendancy of Friedmanite Monetarism, which in a vulgarized and dumbed down form has become the dogma of recessionism. In the US there have been 2 boomlets (1983-87, 1996-2000), but the only result has been that the rich have been getting richer at everyone else's expense. Since 1975 it has been downhill all the way.