A couple of people on this thread have mentioned the late 90’s.
I had a very revelatory experience in 2000.
The U.S. had finally not only balanced their national budget, but they had started to actually pay down the national debt.
Previous to this, there was this thing called the “Debt Clock” and it always stressed me out, watching it climb and climb.
But now, the debt was being paid down! So, this should be a celebration, right? One could feel good watching the debt instead go down and down.
Nope.
They put a fucking shroud over the clock when the national debt was being paid down. Which made no sense, we still had the national debt, it was going to take years to pay down, so why not show society the minute by minute progress towards this once vaunted goal?
Then, George W. Bush started going around in 2000 campaign mode as a conservative saying we needed to stop paying down the debt.
That’s when I knew the whole thing was bullshit.
They wanted us to have more debt collectively as a society.
They did not want prosperous, stable times.
2000 gave way to 2001.
.