Dear Editor:

The third decade of this century has started poorly with the worst inflation in 38 years. We have shortages of goods and businesses and restaurants are closed because they can’t find staff. The labor participation rate has failed to recover to pre-Covid levels and now is declining. The nightly news features apocalyptic global warming, the Ukrainian war, and the January 6 demonstration that cost two unarmed demonstrators their lives. 

It is “back to the 1970s.” They started with the Kent State massacre when the National Guard shot and killed four unarmed college students. Later in the decade came the oil embargo with high energy costs, fuel lines, and rationing. Grocery stores had up to a half dozen price stickers pasted over each other as they raised prices. The nightly news featured geopolitical crises and counted the number of days the American hostages were held in Iran. The featured environmental crisis was Love Canal and global cooling. There was a pandemic. In 1976 the Swine flu (H1N1) appeared and killed a young soldier. The last two years of the Carter administration featured Soviet intervention in Yemen, double digit inflation, oil shortages, and stagflation. At the end of the ’70s our country appeared to be facing decline and a grim future. The sun appeared to be setting on our American experiment. Ten years later Americans were happy and celebrating a revitalized country and ready to charge into the next decade. The sun was rising!

What happened? Two leaders appeared on the world stage, Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in 1981. Both had Conservative values, believed in a strong military, and believed in their people. Together they formed a powerful alliance and changed the world. Reagan’s economic policies reduced government spending, reduced tax rates, reduced regulations, and reduced inflation. The success of the U.S. and the collapse of the USSR validated his beliefs. Sadly, our current policies of increased taxes, increased spending, and increased regulation are the opposite of what succeeded in the 1980s. I fear without changes in policy we are looking at a sunset.

Joe Grant

Wiscasset