All will be well after they get to drill the ANWR.

wow, that me as well. 5 cars, 2 boats, and a new 47inch flat screen High Def TV for Xmas.

I could use another tax cut. But Heck, I know, in Finland the government spends your money for you.

So sad.

Yeah. Thanks Reagan.

- For perpetrating genocide in Central America,
- For supporting murderous dictators in other parts of the world(including Saddam Hussein in Iraq, by the way) if it was in the economic and political interests of the United States.
- For treating over-consumption of the earth’s natural resources as if it were a virtue, and an American birthright; his Secretary of the Inteior James Watt actually suggested that there was no point in preserving natural resources for future generations, because “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns”.

I could go on and on…

I have to agree. I can’t get a bid to fix my roof, they are to busy. I am now going to have to buldoze the house, and have a new one built. Thats because the builders are so busy, they only take on big, money making projects.

So I have to agree, I can’t find anyone who wants to work. That would not have been the problem back in the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.

Life is not happy here in the USA.

The 70′s marked the end of industrial America; it was the last stand for unionism. When Reagan began his term, there were still huge amounts of people trained in ‘yesterday’s skills.’ Many transitioned into service jobs. The talented ones assumed supervisory positions, whereas the rest stayed at the bottom of the payscale. Many depleted their savings.

I don’t think there’s very much that Reagan could have done to save the unmotivated ones at the bottom. Their jobs simply didn’t exist anymore. But he did give those who were willing to adapt, a chance to rise. Considering the economic disaster of the 70′s and early 80′s, with high inflation and sky-high interest rates, his low-tax/pro-investment policies were a welcome boost.

The transition from manufacturing to service occurred over a decade later here in Europe and Finland. It allowed us to keep our heads in our asses that much longer. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop Reagan’s contemporary Helmut Kohl from enacting similar reforms in Germany. As predicted, they worked great!

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a similar impetus or visionary here in Finland during that period. We were still saddled with huge numbers of people, who’d have preferred even closer economic and ideological alignment with the Soviets. After all, favoring Socialism/Communism is the best way to buttress one’s own class-based jealousy. And we had plenty of that here….and still do.

And, as predicted, Finland’s standard of living fell, whereas that of others rose. Unfortunately, it’s still a problem here. People have deeply rooted thinking that’s hard to change overnight. One can only hope that we Finns travel abroad more in the future and educate ourselves to economic realities. Jealousy and protectionism isn’t the solution. After all, aren’t we self-proclaimed to be a super-race of people? So, why couldn’t we compete on equal footing with everyone else?

With that being said, as much as I admired Reagan, I can’t help but wonder if America’s underclass can be helped somewhat. Obviously, there’s a fine line between ‘helping’ versus creating economic disincentives. There should be some middle ground though; the kind that doesn’t kill-off the economy like here in Finland.

To a certain extent I agree. But you have to remember that most Finns today also think that we can fight the Winter War all over again, all by ourselves, just like our grandfathers did. Provide any counter-argument against Finnish welfare-statist policy (which is really empowered by Finnish nationalism), and you’ll soon find Finns trotting out the Winter War miracle – as a non sequitor – as if it’s something that can be replicated by today’s Finnish youth.

Estonia is much more admirable, in this respect. Their experience as an independent nation is still fresh enough to inspire creative thinking.

Actually it seems more difficult today than it did during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. My grandparents had five children. Could you imagine me trying to rear five in this day and age in America? The wealth in this country belongs to the very few, not the many. We are all still worrying about getting sick when we are in between jobs. But of course it would be “class warfare” to request any deal other than panis et circensis. This is the hole we are in in America.

And us idiots are left to be rhetorically beaten by guys like Winter that lurk and pounce upon every morsel in order to obediently suck the ghost of Saint Reagan’s dick.

Look, the guy’s dead. He was born in 1911, five years before my eldest grandfather. He outlived dear grandpa by eight fucking years. It’s over. World War I is over. World War II is over. The Cold War is over. Saddam is dead and most of our army is in Iraq.

I’ve got cousins that were born AFTER Reagan left office. How long before Uncle Fucking Winter decides that they should go pay some sand fleas a visit for Saint Reagan? Is that what they deserve? A long, cold DIRT NAP for Saint Reagan?

Noh, KURAT! See on missugune lolli päsk! I fart in your general direction!

Canät we all just …. get along?

‘So what was Yugoslavia? You know the war you failed to show up at? Or even pay for? But were good enough to show up at the end, and watch 9,000 Muslims frog match off to a machine gun? And do nothing.’

You should be thrilled. In your books, they were all just probable hostile combatants, and therefore due for extermination. And don’t tell me they were just civilians, your view on the issue was clear enough when the Lebanon conflict was discussed.

Humm, yes, and who ran those cities? The Liberal left. Do they get any blame?

Well no, lets blame Reagan, who has nothing to do with trash in NYC.

But the Liberal left get a free pass? Well yes, how can they be to blame? They just ran the cities, spent all the money, and asked for more.

But Reagan had the vision to act. ANd he did, so now we enjoy what he started, more prosperity in the world, not just the USA.

Thanks Reagan.

Question is? What did you all do? Well?????

Consider Chernobyl. It was evidence of major failure, both organizational and economic. Ronald Reagan drew attention to the incident, but it’s hard to say if his words impacted eastern European populations due to censorship and language barriers. I think they came to conclusions on their own though. If nothing else, Reagan’s was able to garner support from the rest of the world by drawing attention to it.

Then look at Lech Walesa, the shipyard strikes and Solidarity movement. It was a major blow to the Soviets because they began to realize that the East Block could no longer be relied-upon as a military buffer zone. Those problems were brewing well before Reagan’s tenure though. Ronald Reagan supported the movement, although it was mainly in words and propaganda.

But, I think the most significant effect was realized due to the lands that formed both, the physical and symbolic border between east and west. Of course, those lands were East and West Germany. East Germany was the Soviets’ crown jewel. Its economy was the best of all, but it reached its height during the 60′s. Afterwards, it just began to decline. Conversely, the West German lifestyle improved dramatically from that point onward. West Germany capitalized on that disparity.

The most effective method that West Germany used, was beaming TV and radio across its border. It was illegal for East Germans to watch or listen to it, but you know how that goes. Despite rooftop visits by the secret police, westward-pointing antennas gave East Germans a glimpse of life in West Germany—a more prosperous country than even the mighty US of A. That life included nice cars and homes, consumer products of all types, rock & roll music and pornography. They wanted it all! Discontentment about their own lifestyle grew.

So, who was the architect of this grand media infiltration? It was none other than W. German chancellor Helmut Kohl. He promised them everything—even the Deutschmark. The enticement was too great to resist and East Germans started fleeing westward via Hungary—a country that itself was headed by reform-minded leaders. Eventually, even that wasn’t enough: the wall had to come down. As they say, the rest is history.

Whereas Ronald Reagan’s propaganda and rhetoric probably catalyzed events, there were many factors that led to the final dissolution of the Soviet Union. I think he sensed the crumbling of the east—starting with Poland—and he simply knew it was the right time to act. His approach was a complete turnaround from the previous detente policies. It was great timing! But, it wasn’t much more than words; the heavy lifting was already done well before him.

I remember it in the 70′s. It wasn’t all that great then either. Graffiti and trash everywhere! I think the downward trend began well before Reagan. Here’s one take……

“After World War II, however, the city began to face problems common to most large U.S. cities: increased crime, racial, and ethnic tensions. New York City reached a crisis point in 1975 when it almost went bankrupt. The 1980′s brought some relief, however, when real estate and stock markets boomed, but it wasn’t quite enough. The city was hit hard in the 1990′s by the national recession.”

http://www.mynewyorkconnection.com/history_newyorkcity.htm