The Reagan presidency, growing inequality, and the American dream

For reasons that are not entirely clear, indices of inequality in the United States have increased since the 1970s. Evidence indicates that the policies of the Reagan administration were not the original cause of this inequality, bur it does suggest that they contributed to that trend. This essay concludes that the political skills of the Reagan presidency, combined with the residual effects of the Democratic party's failure in the late 1970s, meant that Reagan was relatively immune to liberal attacks about growing inequality.