American Exceptionalism is the cry of a narcissistic braggart. Instead of saying we’re exceptional, do and accomplish exceptional (or even just good) things and the headlines will write themselves.The Reagan Revolution was true, but not in the affirmative way it was portrayed as ending the New Deal. Yes, it did roll back and diminish some of the New Deal’s programs, causing lots of pain in the process (e.g., the end of the Welfare system, even where it kept families out of poverty). But more importantly it repurposed the tax structure to favor the wealthy in accumulating more and more wealth, and eventually resulting in the inequality that led to the angry populism of the Tea Party and then Donald Trump and the weakening of American democracy. For example, when the highest tax bracket was 70%, no corporation was going to give its top executives excessive compensation because by doing so, they would actually be giving the raise to the government. Before Reagan, the compensation ratio between the CEO and other top executives compared to the average worker was at most a few hundred to one. After the Reagan tax cuts went into effect (top tax rate 28%), the compensation ratio changed to hundreds of thousands to one, with ever more powerful CEOs forcing their hand picked board to giving them excessive remuneration. Now $1 million in salary translated to $280,000 to the government and $720,000 to the CEO, except their tax often dropped to 0 with write offs.

American Exceptionalism is the cry of a narcissistic braggart. Instead of saying we’re exceptional, do and accomplish exceptional (or even just good) things and the headlines will write themselves.The Reagan Revolution was true, but not in the affirmative way it was portrayed as ending the New Deal. Yes, it did roll back and diminish some of the New Deal’s programs, causing lots of pain in the process (e.g., the end of the Welfare system, even where it kept families out of poverty). But more importantly it repurposed the tax structure to favor the wealthy in accumulating more and more wealth, and eventually resulting in the inequality that led to the angry populism of the Tea Party and then Donald Trump and the weakening of American democracy. For example, when the highest tax bracket was 70%, no corporation was going to give its top executives excessive compensation because by doing so, they would actually be giving the raise to the government. Before Reagan, the compensation ratio between the CEO and other top executives compared to the average worker was at most a few hundred to one. After the Reagan tax cuts went into effect (top tax rate 28%), the compensation ratio changed to hundreds of thousands to one, with ever more powerful CEOs forcing their hand picked board to giving them excessive remuneration. Now $1 million in salary translated to $280,000 to the government and $720,000 to the CEO, except their tax often dropped to 0 with write offs.

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