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Comment by specialist | Hacker News Reader

What changed?

The '80s happened. Greed is good.

The decades of corporatist funded libertarian populist propaganda finally started to work.

Supply side economics. Mergers and acquisitions. Corporate raiders. Looting pensions. Gaming investment vehicles, or outright fraud. Long-term sustained assault on labor. Offshoring, outsourcing, guest workers. Regressive taxation. Defaults. Bailouts. Deficit spending. Etc.

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The inclusion of the word 'populist' in this post confuses me. Does populist not mean 'for the people', and thus not aligned with the rest of your list?

In the negative sense of the word, 'populist' is often used to suggest that 'the people' have been manipulated into promoting something that is actually not in their best interest.

Aaah, today I learned. I understand.

While the rest of your comment is arguably useful,

> The '80s happened.

is the exact kind of response I was complaining about. This one sentence says nothing.

80's = Reaganomics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics

"Greed is good." is a quote by the character Gordon Gecko from the movie Wall Street.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gekko

Was it honestly more difficult to say "Reaganomics happened" than it was to say "The '80s happened"?

Apologies. I won't repeat the mistake.

He's not referring to a specific generation of people, but rather a decade that held capitalistic intentions high throughout the world, for good or worse.

It says something to me.

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