When was the most successful economic period in U.S. history? Donald Trump’s claim, explored

During his first Joint Address to Congress, Donald Trump made some fairly bombastic claims. One rambling remark asserted that his tax cuts increased domestic production, and created the “most successful economy in the history of our country.” Like many of Trump’s “facts,” this one is colored with far too much feeling, and a definite agenda.

There are dozens of schools of economic thought. Success could be measured by ann economy’s ability to support quality of life for the broadest segment of the population, or by peacetime gains, by the state of public health, or by class mobility. The point is, “success” requires definition, and depending on who you ask, you’ll get very different opinions.

That being said, here, in chronological order, are the time periods when the economic prospect of the average American shifted upwards, and their lives were improved.

The Gilded Age: 1870s-1890s

After the years of rebuilding during Reconstruction Period after the Civil War ended, a manufacturing boom in the North required an army of skilled workers, and pushed American wages past those of their European counterparts. In today’s money, it would be equivalent to worker income increasing from 11k a year to 20k — an increase of almost 60% that drew millions of immigrants to the United States to start new lives.

The rapid expansion highlighted the income disparity between North and South, rich and poor, and gave rise to labor unions, which emerged to protect workers as railroads connected one side of the country to the other. The unions fought for workers’ safety, and eventually established the 8-hour workday, and abolished child labor, just to name a few successes. But while the North was going strong, the South was languishing in poverty.

The Gilded Age was also marred with extensive political corruption. Despite record-high voter turnout, 80-90% of politicians achieved very little. It’s known as the “age of forgotten presidents” for how little they accomplished, and quickly as it came in, the Gilded Age faded out. Some of the country’s largest employers went bankrupt, and popular president William McKinley was assassinated, putting Theodore Roosevelt in charge. The progressive president brought down the iron hammer on the wealthy elite in a bid to make “a square deal for all.”

The Roaring 20s : 1920-1930

1920s America was not only a great economic period, it also had a distinct cultural edge in the U.S. and Europe. Ushering in modernity after WWI, the Roaring Twenties saw a surge of new technologies, from automobiles to radio. Ford Motor Co. created the first affordable car for everyday consumers, and across industries, demand rose significantly. Mass production led to greater availability, and lower costs.

Americans lived well for nearly a decade before the economy crashed. The Great Depression swept away any gains, leaving millions of Americans floundering in poverty for longer than they had lived it up.

The Golden Age of Capitalism: America’s Postwar Boom of the 1950s-1970s

It’s no surprise that people like Donald Trump long for the days of their youth — especially given that they grew up while America was rolling in cash. Born in the first days of the baby boom following World War II, Trump grew up during one of the wealthiest periods in American history. Large swaths of Europe and Asia were ravaged by World War II, but of the 70 nations involved, the United States was the only one to emerge from the rubble more wealthy than it started.

Also, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal had been laid down before the start of the war, and helped shape and sustain America’s postwar middle class. The New Deal had created the FDIC and the SEC to monitor the banks and stock market; it set maximum weekly work hours, as well as raising the minimum wage; and established Social Security. Perhaps most importantly, the emergence of a middle class pushed the government to end its laissez-faire doctrine, which opposed government involvement in the economy, and moved toward more reformation in workers’ rights and consumer protection, in keeping with the labor movement, while supporting free enterprise.

As a result, American GIs returning from WWII were guaranteed mortgages, and the housing market, as well as the businesses involved in building new houses, exploded. By 1956, white-collar workers outnumbered their blue-collar counterparts. Gross domestic production rose by 300 million over 30 years, and the baby boom ensured that there would be plenty of consumers to snatch up the new goods. At the end of WWII, a meager 8 shopping malls existed across the states. By 1960, there were nearly 4000.

The wide availability of motor vehicles, as well as the beginning of the decline of individual family farms, spurred a mass migration of the middle class from rural towns and congested inner cities to trendy suburbs. Coupled with the invention of air conditioning, middle-class migration led to population booms in “Sun Belt” cities like Miami, Phoenix, and Houston, prompting even more taxpayer funds to be put toward infrastructure to build and connect cities.

By the 1970s, the boom was all but over. Deficits from the Vietnam War, the costs of a necessary but underfunded war on poverty, and a governmental reticence to raise taxes collided with the OPEC oil embargo, causing a “stagflation” — an economy marred by stagnant businesses, rising inflation, and a high unemployment rate.

The Clinton Era Economic Boom 1993-2001

Despite its relatively short run, the ‘90s economic boom was one of the longest economic expansions the U.S. has ever seen. The fall of the Soviet Union opened up trade opportunities across the globe, and with burgeoning electronic technologies and industries, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Over eight years, then-President Bill Clinton turned a struggling economy into one with the most jobs ever created. Even as his administration reduced the overall size of the government, it remained a crucial part of the economy.

A global economy emerged, and Clinton’s administration pushed for the deregulations of trade and global finance markets, with NAFTA and other agreements intertwining the American market with those across the world. Technology connected us in a way that was unimaginable in previous years, and allowed average Americans to become investors for the first time. Still, though it was a time of prosperity, when wages are adjusted for inflation, American workers brought home between 3-12% less than their parents had during the 70s. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Americans were making nearly 38% more.

However, the “Dot Com burst” in 2001 wiped away many of the economy’s gains, and eventually kicked off The Great Recession of 2008. Tax cuts for the rich in the following years did nothing to stymie a rapidly-emerging income inequality that would come to color the following decades, including the one in which we find ourselves now.