B.P. Terpstra
The 1980s, according to leftwing columnists and reporters, was sooooo greedy. I mean, didn’t you watch the Hollywood movie, Wall Street?
But how greedy was the so-called Decade of Greed? Or in other words, was Republican Ronald Reagan really an evil pro-capitalist monster?
One problem with this “Decade of Greed” talk is that it’s based on unsubstantiated views of history. As Robert P. Murphy points out in The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, during the “Decade of Greed” (p.122):
>Total giving grew by 56 percent in real dollars.
>Charitable giving grew at a rate 55 percent higher than in the previous twenty-five years.
>The increase in giving exceeded the increase in total outstanding consumer credit.
> Relying on correlations established between charitable giving and GDP, tax rates, and other factors during the 1955-1980 period, actual giving exceeded the “predicted” giving in every year of the 1980s, on average $16 billion per year.
While there are greedy and generous people in every decade, leftists invented the “Decade of Greed” mantra, because many of them were projecting, my guess.
For real examples of constant greed, visit Obama-first Hollywood today. Greed is still her god.