Social Security Recipients Get Increase Due To Cost Of Living

[Shadow Wolf]

So few understand what happened post WW2.
They see high tax rates, & think that was the cause of prosperity.

No, many point out we had great prosperity despite the high upper-tier tax rate, and that the wealthy still had way more money than everybody else, despite the highest potion of their income being taxed at 90%.
As for being so technologically advanced above everybody else, the Russians weren't too far behind (and indeed even surpassed the US for a time), and the Nazis were far along enough that Einstein, being the pacifist he was, was adamant America must get the atomic bomb before Hitler and Nazi engineers and scientists more or less laid the foundations for the rocket technology that gave birth to the space race.

 

[Revoltingest]

No, many point out we had great prosperity despite the high upper-tier tax rate, and that the wealthy still had way more money than everybody else, despite the highest potion of their income being taxed at 90%.
As for being so technologically advanced above everybody else, the Russians weren't too far behind (and indeed even surpassed the US for a time), and the Nazis were far along enough that Einstein, being the pacifist he was, was adamant America must get the atomic bomb before Hitler and Nazi engineers and scientists more or less laid the foundations for the rocket technology that gave birth to the space race.

The Russians were still far far behind us in manufacturing capacity,
& they weren't big on exports anyway. And the Germans...well, just
look at the sorry state of their factories....

And remember that the high tax rates were only the marginal rates,
not the average tax rates which resulted from offsetting avoidance
mechanisms government provided.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The Russians were still far far behind us in manufacturing capacity,

Manufacturing isn't technology. By the end of WWII, they were pretty much neck-and-neck with the US, having developed their own atomic bomb shortly after the war, and moving out in front when it came to space technology.

And the Germans...well, just
look at the sorry state of their factories....

Yes, because all of Germany looked like that. And, once again, factories and manufacturing are not the definition of technology technology. Without German technology, rocket technology else where wasn't really going anywhere. With advancement, the future of the world is looking at technological advances the push into a truly post-industrial and manufacturing world where we humans just don't do any of it, and we'll probably have replicators before too much longer anyways (we already do have crude "primitive" forms of them).

 

[Revoltingest]

Manufacturing isn't technology. By the end of WWII, they were pretty much neck-and-neck with the US, having developed their own atomic bomb shortly after the war, and moving out in front when it came to space technology.

Yes, because all of Germany looked like that. And, once again, factories and manufacturing are not the definition of technology technology. Without German technology, rocket technology else where wasn't really going anywhere. With advancement, the future of the world is looking at technological advances the push into a truly post-industrial and manufacturing world where we humans just don't do any of it, and we'll probably have replicators before too much longer anyways (we already do have crude "primitive" forms of them).

I think we're talking cross purposes here. I was addressing factors in Americastan's
post-WW2 economic prosperity, one of which was the lack of foreign competition.
The Soviets simply didn't pose any, their subsequent space & WMD technologies
notwithstanding.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I think we're talking cross purposes here. I was addressing factors in Americastan's
post-WW2 economic prosperity, one of which was the lack of foreign competition.

You probably want to change your wording then, because you are talking about specifically manufacturing, not technology.
You also failed to mention the GI bill, which gave America its first generation to attain such rates of higher education. We also had regulations to better regulate Wall Street, the ratio of wages to buying power was better, and we were also more willing to file anti-trust and bust up corporations that got too big to allow competition from smaller companies. And even the Republicans then were way more Left-leaning than they are today, almost to the point of being polar opposites ~60 years later.

 

[Revoltingest]

You probably want to change your wording then, because you are talking about specifically manufacturing, not technology.
You also failed to mention the GI bill, which gave America its first generation to attain such rates of higher education. We also had regulations to better regulate Wall Street, the ratio of wages to buying power was better, and we were also more willing to file anti-trust and bust up corporations that got too big to allow competition from smaller companies. And even the Republicans then were way more Left-leaning than they are today.

Manufacturing & technology are interlinked.
We were ahead of the Soviets in both areas.
That they had some limited successes relative to us in some areas doesn't change the overall picture.
And of course, like the GI Bill, there were other factors, eg, much less regulation than nowadays.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Manufacturing & technology are interlinked.

They are not that closely related. We had a good deal of technology before manufacturing, as technology describes our "level of advancement" and the common objects and devices we use. Manufacturing, which benefits from technology, is producing and making things. America was an economic and manufacturing powerhouse then, but sciences and technology were flourishing and advancing in other places as well. It's nothing more than Patriotic rose-tinted glasses to believe the Russians and Germans weren't at times ahead of American technology and ignoring the fact Japan pretty much applied their "Japanese Discipline" to technology and overnight went from centuries of traditional feudalism to today's technology leader.

 

[Revoltingest]

They are not that closely related. We had a good deal of technology before manufacturing, as technology describes our "level of advancement" and the common objects and devices we use. Manufacturing, which benefits from technology, is producing and making things. America was an economic and manufacturing powerhouse then, but sciences and technology were flourishing and advancing in other places as well. It's nothing more than Patriotic rose-tinted glasses to believe the Russians and Germans weren't at times ahead of American technology and ignoring the fact Japan pretty much applied their "Japanese Discipline" to technology and overnight went from centuries of traditional feudalism to today's technology leader.

You & I have a very different view of the relationship between manufacturing & technology.
Without going into excrutiating detail, modern manufacturing (beginning around 1700 with
Newcomen's steam engine) marched in lockstep with scientific & technological advancements.
Thermodynamics, materials science, data visualization, etc, etc all were part of manufacturing.
It's obvious to any avid steam engine & machine tool collector.

Yes, I invoked the argument of obviousness.
It was necessary because the history of manufacturing technology is rarely studied by anyone.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Thermodynamics, materials science, data visualization, etc, etc all were part of manufacturing.
It's obvious to any avid steam engine & machine tool collector.

Just because improved manufacturing was a result of science and technology doesn't make the two inseparably linked. We put our Bibles down and picked up fossils, stopped praying and started wondering. Many things began to happen then.

 

[Revoltingest]

Just because improved manufacturing was a result of science and technology doesn't make the two inseparably linked. We put our Bibles down and picked up fossils. Many things began to happen then.

We'll have to agree to disagree about manufacturing being so intertwined with technology.
It's beyond the scope of this thread for me to cover it convincingly.

 

[Valjean]

[QUOTE="Revoltingest, post: 5018605, member: 22490]
And remember that the high tax rates were only the marginal rates,
not the average tax rates which resulted from offsetting avoidance
mechanisms government provided.[/QUOTE]But weren't the avoidance mechanisms of choice re-investing the profits back into the business, as opposed to moving the business overseas or pocketing the profits?

 

[Revoltingest]

[QUOTE="Revoltingest, post: 5018605, member: 22490] But weren't the avoidance mechanisms of choice re-investing the profits back into the business, as opposed to moving the business overseas or pocketing the profits?

Not always. In real estate (with which I'm most familiar), the short accelerated depreciation schedule
didn't help investment. Instead, it resulted in the rapid buying & selling of assets (& price inflation) rather
than holding & improving investments. That was one horrible market distortion that Reagan fixed.

You gotta work on how to use the quote feature, bub!