The Politically Incorrect Guide To American History (Politically Incorrect Guide^TMs) by Woods Jr Thomas E

Author:Woods Jr, Thomas E
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Patriot Bookshelf
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Published: 2012-11-06T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

THE MISUNDERSTOOD TWENTIES

Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge usually wind up near the bottom in presidential rankings compiled by the votes of historians. This is no surprise; these presidents engaged in no large-scale social engineering, embarked on no vast legislative program like the New Deal or the Great Society, and involved the United States in no major foreign war. Since most historians favor an activist government committed to “social justice” at home and abroad, they have little sympathy for chief executives who simply leave the American people alone.

Yet America prospered during the 1920s. American business set production records. Wages increased and working hours declined. And as if to underscore yet again the irrelevance of labor unionism, these outcomes occurred at a time when labor union membership was undergoing a rapid decline.

Guess what?

★ Without grand programs, Harding and Coolidge presided over one of the most economically prosperous times in America’s history.

★ Under Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon, the top income tax rate fell from 73 percent to 40 percent and later to 25 percent, but the greatest proportional reductions occurred in the lower income brackets, where people saw most of their income tax burden eliminated altogether.

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