The shrinking American Dream

Rising tide lifts only some boats

Economic growth no longer shared broadly in America or Wyoming

Government policies over the past two decades have failed those at the bottom of the economic scale in this country and this state and have only moderately benefitted people in the middle.

For those at the top of the economic heap, however, public policies have delivered a bigger and bigger share of the economic pie.

The ESPC worked with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute to jointly publicize the news that Ronald Reagan's dream of a "rising tide lifts all boats" is just dream that does not reflect reality.

This is not what happened in America in the two decades that followed World War II, when policies such as the GI bill and other public investments spurred the nation's economy and spread the newly created wealth equally across society.

You can get a look at the CBPP/EPI research and our news release through the ESPC website's Research and Publications page. You'll see suggestions for policy changes that can again assure people that when they work hard, they'll share in the additional wealth they create.

Public policy creates real results. I witnessed the effects of the GI bill in my childhood and youth in Idaho. You can read an op-ed I wrote reflecting on all this here.