Did Reaganomics improve the economy?
The question reaganomics facts: good, bad, failed or succesfull?; leads to another question, an absurd one that is still being asked when the evidence is clear for everyone to see. I have already mentioned the condition the country was in. A less competent person in charge may have seen the US go back to the days of the Great Depression. The Reagan administration saw the longest peacetime expansion in history which is yet to be broken. Meanwhile, the economy increased by a third. That means the increase in the economy was the equivalent of adding West Germany’s economy to the country. 20 million jobs were created in this period and unemployment, which was in double figures, fell to just over 5 percent. Even the inflation rate fell to 6.5 percent in 1982.
The real per capita disposable income improved as a result of such policies, which in turn saw the improvement in the standard of living in the country by 20 percent. Poverty rates fell significantly, too, by one-sixth, negating claims that these policies burdened the lower classes. The stock market improved so much, that the improvement was unmatched by any previous decade. This improvement didn’t just last till his administration but also until 2007, which is considered to be the greatest wealth creation period in world history.
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