this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026
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It looks like something has broken in the USA in the '70s. It only went downward from there...
Fr, even with the nostalgia goggles on when I look at some of the media from the time as well as the news stories, there's always a pervasive theme of filthy cities and urban decay, as well as nationwide homicide and serial killer sprees, not to mention race wars. The 70s looked like a horrible time for the country.
If anything, it's almost a little inspiring that the country managed to climb back up so spectacularly for its 80s honeymoon period where everything was almost picturesque (at least through nostalgia lenses) for the next 2+ decades. It makes me think that as shitty as the world is now, maybe all this bullshit will someday get paved over for another cultural renaissance.
Hell, we wouldn't even have boomers if not for WW2.
The funny thing about this generalization is that this was a stunt because the city needed to be cleaned up so badly.
But I think the problem ultimately at the start of the 1970s was Richard Nixon. Awful president who put us on the path we’re on.
Ever since I learned of this, I think of it frequently:
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
so wtf happened in 1971 then?
Well, first of all, absolutely nobody was kung-fu fighting. It was virtually unheard of.
Well, that's more than a little bit frightening.
Huh.
Who were going to be as fast as lightning then?
My guess is the end of the gold standard as its being referenced quite a few times across the webpage and it's at the inflexion point of lots of these graphs.
But I didn't check if it was a major cause or just correlation.
Ya, I'm always called a simpleton for saying ditching the gold standard was a mistake. But somehow a system where banker bros can just print money for each other is better?
Why should that dollar I have in my bank account be worth less year after year? Why should the 1% have access to a system of near limitless loans, allowing them to buy up and monopolize every aspect of life, from food, to housing, to healthcare?
Shits fucked if you ask me.
The problem with the gold standard was that it was already dead when Bretton Woods ended. America, fuelled by post-war growth and their consumerist brand of imperialism, had printed dollars like crazy and by the 1970s there was just no way in hell the US could honour the worth of the dollar in gold if people started actually claiming their rights. This was not just an American problem, as other currencies were guaranteed not in gold directly but indirectly through the dollar. Printing more money than you have gold is fine in times of growth, but once markets lose trust and people start claiming their gold the system collapses.
The gold standard is not compatible with the model of infinite growth and IMF style capitalist imperialism. This doesn't make it a bad idea—probably on the contrary—my point is just that Bretton Woods could not really be saved by the time it died. Killing it off was the only option because it had already been abused to death in a period in which America saw huge economic growth.
Yeah, what happened in 1971 is the end of the gold standard. But what happened in the late 60s, and early 70s was a major increase in the workforce as boomers began entering it, and increasingly women were working careers instead of staying home to raise the children. Meanwhile Japanese and European manufacturing were finally recovering from the war, so the American prosperity from being the only major manufacturing power aside from the much smaller countries in the Americas and Oceania was ending. Later in the 70s the MBAs would begin taking power economically, and the new deal reforms began being whittled down in the name of deregulation, especially in the 80s.
I'm old enough and have been on the internet long enough to be able to spot gold nuts…
The Bretton Woods system was built on Keynesian economics (and Keynes himself played a big role in it). When Bretton Woods collapsed the ideas of assholes from the Chicago school of economics (such as Friedman) took over and shaped monetary policy, fucking over absolutely everything in their path.
It's not the collapse of Bretton Woods as much as the absolutely shitshow that replaced it. American leaders designed a state ideology of capitalism and convinced every idiot it the country to rally behind it.
end of the gold standard
It didn't start out from a good place either. US in the 70s was still homophobic, racist, and bombed the shit out of middle east. Reminds you of anything?