Reagan gutted federal oversight boards from the FCC to the SEC, he was explicitly the anti-regulatory president who preferred self-regulated corporations. Reagan lowered the highest tax rate from 70% to 37%, and due to the aforementioned changes these companies were able to use the excess funds on Stock Buybacks rather than reinvesting into the industries. The US Federal Government has been rocking back and forth in and out of massive federal deficit, last having a surplus under the short Clinton administration, as a result the Federal Government is constantly cutting or limiting social programs like food, healthcare, veterans care, retirement funds, etc. Reagan was a turning point in wages in the United States, and while that isn’t necessarily directly his fault there is no debating that his presidency aligns perfectly with the beginning of the current ever widening wealth gap and wage stagnation, likely because of the aforementioned stock buybacks taking priority over investment in the business. USA Industry has not taken off in the ways he expected it would, in fact since the 80s the USA has floundered compared to the EU or China in terms of industry, as a measure of GDP Growth Rate, and prosperity, as a measure of average health and happiness. One other factor than Reagan in this might be the Civil Rights Movement from the 60s, more than a decade before Reagan, which has lead down the long path of political polarization of congress as a result of Democrat President Lindon B Johnson being the one who signed the Civil Rights Act as well as several Welfare laws including the creation of the S.N.A.P. food stamps. Still, Reagan severely damaged Campaign finance laws while fighting to end all limits to campaign finances, which also lead to politicians with more access to wealth having much better chances of getting into office and somewhat more political polarization on the basis of average campaign contributions being skewed. Under Reagan, the American Antitrust policy eliminated all section 2 cases of Monopoly, under his administration several large brands dominated markets in ways often compared to the Gilded Age market concentrations that preceded the Great Depression.
One step in the right direction to fix some of what Reagan broke would be to enact something like H.R.1 For the People Act that the Democrats put forward after retaking the Congressional House, but it was left to die under the Mitch McConnell senate leadership, then it was left out to dry in the 48D:50R senate divide despite 2 Independents caucusing with the D to make 50:50 and Vice President giving the tiebreaker vote to select a Democrat speaker, theres still not really enough support to pass large scale meaningful reform.
###So the TLDR version is he intentionally damaged our politics and regulatory systems in a way that we are not capable of fixing without some massive change in our society. Fuck Reagan.
Reagan gutted federal oversight boards from the FCC to the SEC, he was explicitly the anti-regulatory president who preferred self-regulated corporations. Reagan lowered the highest tax rate from 70% to 37%, and due to the aforementioned changes these companies were able to use the excess funds on Stock Buybacks rather than reinvesting into the industries. The US Federal Government has been rocking back and forth in and out of massive federal deficit, last having a surplus under the short Clinton administration, as a result the Federal Government is constantly cutting or limiting social programs like food, healthcare, veterans care, retirement funds, etc. Reagan was a turning point in wages in the United States, and while that isn’t necessarily directly his fault there is no debating that his presidency aligns perfectly with the beginning of the current ever widening wealth gap and wage stagnation, likely because of the aforementioned stock buybacks taking priority over investment in the business. USA Industry has not taken off in the ways he expected it would, in fact since the 80s the USA has floundered compared to the EU or China in terms of industry, as a measure of GDP Growth Rate, and prosperity, as a measure of average health and happiness. One other factor than Reagan in this might be the Civil Rights Movement from the 60s, more than a decade before Reagan, which has lead down the long path of political polarization of congress as a result of Democrat President Lindon B Johnson being the one who signed the Civil Rights Act as well as several Welfare laws including the creation of the S.N.A.P. food stamps. Still, Reagan severely damaged Campaign finance laws while fighting to end all limits to campaign finances, which also lead to politicians with more access to wealth having much better chances of getting into office and somewhat more political polarization on the basis of average campaign contributions being skewed. Under Reagan, the American Antitrust policy eliminated all section 2 cases of Monopoly, under his administration several large brands dominated markets in ways often compared to the Gilded Age market concentrations that preceded the Great Depression.
One step in the right direction to fix some of what Reagan broke would be to enact something like H.R.1 For the People Act that the Democrats put forward after retaking the Congressional House, but it was left to die under the Mitch McConnell senate leadership, then it was left out to dry in the 48D:50R senate divide despite 2 Independents caucusing with the D to make 50:50 and Vice President giving the tiebreaker vote to select a Democrat speaker, theres still not really enough support to pass large scale meaningful reform.
###So the TLDR version is he intentionally damaged our politics and regulatory systems in a way that we are not capable of fixing without some massive change in our society. Fuck Reagan.