boomer here. i can tell you what went wrong but you're not interested in the truth, are you? 1. 1970 was the middle of the cold war era. the us was the democratic super power and nations that weren't interested in communism tended to want to be our friend. 2. the post-ww2 economy was strong because of the amount of money that the war generation put into savings combined with the fact that the world was still heavily involved in reconstruction. keep in mind that 1970 was as far removed from ww2 as we are from 9/11. 3. the us was still overproducing due to the wartime build-ups. things cost more now because boomers are required to invest in order to retire. combine that with the false promises of globalization and you have generated a hyper-rich class whose only real career is tax evasion. 4. in the 70's, boomers were young, unions were strong and our technical advances in the aftermath of ww2 were reaching consumers. 5. in the 80s, things started going downhill economically. reagan introduced "trickle-down" supply side economics. the cold war ended, resulting in a few short years of prosperity that quickly ended with 9/11. women were entering into the workforce. 6. i don't want to place blame, but the negative impacts of a bad economy feed on themselves. 9/11 was also the year of the dot-com crash, followed by other recessions, leading to the great recession of 2008. the covid downturn was also a huge economic liability. people nowadays don't work. they protect their jobs or they refuse to take jobs because the pay isn't enough. that wouldn't be so bad in 1929, but in our suburban culture, we don't get to live in a cheap apartment within bus distance to our jobs. nobody is taking the responsibility to fix that problem. the "finest" generation endured ww2 and the great depression, but our current mess has been in effect for 25 years now. you don't plan for better days that you never knew but you don't exploit good times when they do happen.
United States