>Quoting Bill Maher:
Do you really want to cite an HBO comic as a source?
>> Fifties and Sixties are the era of socialism in America.
The fifties and sixties (my coming of age period) were marvelous for the western countries, indeed, primarily because the rest of the world had been blown to bits in WWII.

That was a fluke.

What we see now - a race to the bottom - is closer to the historical norm, I think.