“OURS WAS THE SHINING FUTURE,” BY DAVID LEONHARDT.

David Leonhardt’s, “Ours Was The Shining Future,” is the best book I have read on the American economy. The ‘Gilded Age,’ and ‘The Roaring Twenties,’ might make wonderful T.V. and movies but it was during these periods that the largest wage gap between the rich and working class existed. It was during this time that the one percenters controlled their biggest share of the U.S. economy.

Enter President Franklin Roosevelt, who inherited the worst depression in modern American history. He decided that it was about time that the largest corporation in the world, the U.S. Government, had to invest in corporations.

Slowly, the economy started to pick-up. There was the highway bill, a pick up in car manufacturing, airplane production, and many, so many more schools built. He introduced Social Security and Medicare. Two untouchable programs nearly 90 years later but not so popular with the republicans and big business at the time. He supported labor unions which also increased wages for the poor and working class, black and whites.

Then World War 2 came and the U.S. economy went into overdrive with manufacturing reaching peaks unimaginable. For the next 5 decades the U.S. economy out paced the rest of the world in manufacturing, education, research, health care, and life expectancy. The best decade being the 1950’s under the leadership of President Eisenhower, a republican, who continued the Roosevelt blueprint, against the wishes of his own party.

Naturally, as times changed, and President Reagan’s policies of small government, lower taxes, and less regulations came back into play, ‘The Gilded Age,’ made somewhat of a comeback and the gap between the working class and the one percenters grew larger and larger. Wages remained stagnant and corporations like Amazon and Google grew richer and richer.

Enter President Biden, a man so old he was friends with Augustus Caesar. Suddenly, that ancient idea of investing in America became fashionable again. He passed the Infrastructure bill, invested in the U.S., computer chips, stood in line with striking union workers, and forced pharmaceutical companies to drastically drop their prices on life saving drugs. And that’s just a few of the things he has achieved. Under his leadership the U.S. economy is the strongest it has been since the 1950’s, there are more jobs than workers, the gap between the rich and working class has lessened somewhat, and the minimum wage in over twenty states has risen to $15 dollars or more.

Strange, but President Franklin Roosevelt, who was crippled from the waist down from polio, and President Biden, who many Americans believe is too old, both accomplished so much for The American People…For the American People!!!!

The points I have stated above are just a small portion of what is discussed in this book. It is an all encompassing look at the U.S. economy that I strongly recommend. Thank you Bradford for this amazing gift.