Funny how two people who were presidents in two of our happiest and most and prosperous decades - the 1920s and the 1980s - were Democrats or Democrat sympathizers early in their lives.
Reagan gets the credit that is due him, but Coolidge, I think, is underrated.
Far worse than underrated, wedgie.....he is smeared and lied about, perhaps worse even than Reagan, so that Liberals can make excused for FDR's mishandling of the recession into a Depression.
In order for the FDR's 'underconsumption thesis' to be true, where he and his economists blamed Coolidge for the economic collapse, these criteria must be met:
a. During the 1920s the rich had to be getting a significantly larger proportion of the national income. "... corporate profit resulting from this period was enormous..."
b. Employees must have been receiving a smaller share of corporate income. "... Very little of it went into increased wages; the worker was forgotten,..."
c. Consumers must have been consuming less of the GNP in the late '20s than in 1920. "... there was little or no drop in the prices that the consumer had to pay... The consumer was forgotten....."
Those are FDR's quotes after each.
Time to slice and dice the Liberal propaganda.
d. In 1921, the top 5% earned 25.47% of the nation's income...in 1929, the top 5%'s share skyrocketed all the way up to ......26.09%!!!!
e. Corporate profits? They averaged 8.2% from 1900 to 1920. But what about from 1920 to 1929??? They remained at 8.2%.
For those in Rio Linda, that means that there was no upsurge in said profits during the decade.
f. But what about employee wages during the decade of the '20s?? They rose...from 55% to 60% of corporate income.
g. Wait...what about the percentage of GNP that went to consumption? Bet it fell, huh? Wrong.
It rose from 68% in 1920 to 75% in 1927, 1928, and 1929.
"Coolidge and the Historians," by Thomas B. Silver, p.124-136,
and Folsom, "New Deal or Raw Deal," p.34-35
Liberalism....built on lies and the slander of better men.