Reaganomics: Who's Better Off?
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=2445
General Information
Source:
Creator:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
NBC Nightly News
Tom Brokaw/Mike
Jensen
02/24/1988
10/07/1988
Resource Type:
Copyright:
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1988
00:03:44
Description
During the 1984 presidential election, President Ronald Reagan asked the question," Are you better off
now than you were four years ago?" Well now, four years later, the same question hangs over the
presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.
Keywords
President, Ronald Reagan, Reaganomics, Trickle Down, Economics, Federalism, Reagan, Revolution,
Legacy, Economy, Economic, Policy, Voodoo Economics, Business, Small Business, Inflation,
Unemployment, Interest Rates, Tax Cuts, Taxes, Deficit, Debt, Recession, Dow Jones, Poverty, Safety
Net, Defense, National Debt, Constitution, George H.W. Bush, Michael Dukakis, Middle Class, Sandy
Johnson, Dan Johnson, Jeffrey Cronin, Maria Cronin, Robert Genetski, Barry Bluestone, 1984
Presidential Election, 1988 Presidential Election
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Citation
MLA
"Reaganomics: Who's Better Off?" Mike Jensen, correspondent. NBC Nightly News. NBCUniversal
Media. 7 Oct. 1988. NBC Learn. Web. 16 April 2015
APA
Jensen, M. (Reporter), & Brokaw, T. (Anchor). 1988, October 7. Reaganomics: Who's Better Off?
[Television series episode]. NBC Nightly News. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=2445
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Reaganomics: Who's Better Off?" NBC Nightly News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 10/07/1988.
Accessed Thu Apr 16 2015 from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k12/browse/?cuecard=2445
Transcript
Reaganomics: Who's Better Off?
TOM BROKAW, anchor:
You’ll remember that in the 1984 election President Reagan made a campaign issue out of the question,
are you better off now then you were four years ago? Well now, four years later, the same question hangs
over this presidential campaign, a report tonight from NBC chief financial correspondent Mike Jensen.
MIKE JENSEN, reporting:
George Bush on Reaganomics.
Vice President GEORGE BUSH: America is on the move again, and the American people understand
that.
JENSEN: What these shipyard workers understand is that Reaganomics has not done anything for them.
Sandy Johnson was one of those who was booing. She’s a pipe fitter, and the year Ronald Reagan was
elected president she and her husband made 65,000 dollars between them. This year they will make
30,000. Husband Dan a boilermaker, spends a lot of time in the garden because of periodic layoffs, his
hourly wage has gone down from $13.50 to $12.50.
Mr. DAN JOHNSON (boilermaker): We know when we had it good and it surely hasn’t been in the last
seven years.
Ms. SANDY JOHNSON (pipe fitter): We hunt things to survive and to put food on the table; it’s been real
rough.
JENSEN: Michael Dukakis on Reaganomics.
Governor MICHAEL DUKAKIS: This is a prosperity that requires young families to postpone having
their children, a prosperity that makes it impossible for so many young families to have a home.
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JENSEN: But don’t tell that to Geoffrey Cronin and his wife Maria. They are about to have their second
child, and he makes so much money, more than one hundred thousand dollars a year from his work and
investments that Maria can stay at home.
Mr. GEOFFREY CRONIN (computer co. vice president): Our income has doubled in the last four years,
and things are going very well.
JENSEN: He also drives his jaguar to and from his job as vice president of a computer company. And
lives in a 200,000-dollar condo in Vermont, on the shores of Lake Champlain.
Ms. MARIA CRONIN: It’s like a resort and it’s like, being on vacation all the time.
JENSEN: The Cronin’s and the Johnsons represent two very different faces of the American economy.
And the fact is even economists can’t agree on how well Reaganomics has worked.
Mr. ROBERT GENETSKI (economist): We have just gone through the most dramatic improvement in
fundamental economic trends that we have ever seen in our history.
Mr. BARRY BLUESTONE (economist): Under this administration we have seen the greatest growth in
inequality in modern history.
JENSEN: The Bush people point to the fact that median family income has gone up 6.4 percent during the
Reagan years. Per Capita income, that is total income divided by all the people in America, has gone up
$1,500. And that 15,500,000 new jobs have been created. But the Dukakis people point to the fact that
average hourly wages have dropped four and a half percent. That five million workers have lost their jobs
because of factory closings and corporate cutbacks, and that the nations richest families are getting an
even bigger margin of the economic pie while the growing number of poor people are getting a smaller
slice. The economy as good as George Bush says it is nor is it as bad as Michal Dukakis say it is. During
the Reagan years unemployment has come way down and so have inflation and interest rates. Housing is
generally more affordable and higher education is not. Most Americans, especially those who are welleducated and white collar have done all right during the last eight years. But Americans who carry a lunch
pail and work in a factory or who don’t have much education are feeling the squeeze. Mike Jenson, NBC
News, New York.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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