Decade Rankings

Decade Grade	Terrible Events 6 points each	Bad Events 2 points each	Not Good Events 1 point each	Rest of the Story
1930-39 1 18	Great Depression Dust Bowl 12 points	Bonus Army Killings Scottsboro Boy Racial Injustice Memorial Day Massacre kills 10 strikers 6		Keynes won the battle with classical economists or did he? Scottsboro most famous of many atrocities
1950-59 2A 12	Asian Flu kills 70,000 6	Korean War⁴ Cold War⁵ Race Turmoil 6	2 Small Recessions Red Scare 2	Economic Expansion grew the middle class.
1910-19 2B 12	Flu Pandemic kills 500,000 6	Labor Unrest WW I⁴ Measles kills 12,000 children³ 6		Progressive Era Continued as US slowly begins to take on social responsibilities like the hookworm parasite which made tired many southern workers and students.
1940-49 4A 8	War II⁴ 6	Cold War⁵ begins 2		Marshal Plan rebuilt Europe and also helped U.S economy. Truman Doctrine hoped to contain fears about communism.
2000-09 4B 8		Terrorism Two Local Wars⁴cc Dotcom Bubble Great Recession 8		Voters accepted Two Tax Cuts and Medicare D expansion but will not increased federal debt. Terrorism cost much affects few.
1960-69 6 7		4 Assassinations Social Unrest Cold War Heats Up⁴ Vietnam War 6	Polio Epidemic³ 1	War, Segregation and a Cultural Revolution dominated the decade.
Years 1968, 1969, and 1970 had many noticeable events: the early baby boomers moving into their 20’s; the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy; the beginning of the women’s movement; the draft, the bombing of Cambodia, unrest on college campuses. Woodstock, Stonewall...			Did any of these increase the impatience of the country in a permanent way? There are likely stories that could be woven, undoubtedly more than one, but it is unclear whether anything could be tested. The question is probably too big, but the fact is interesting. Source See World Getting Better 55 min. video
1970-79 7A 6		2 Oil Crises *Boston desegregation busing crisis* 4	Watergate Iran Hostages 2	Elderly hurt by Inflation and an inadequate safety net.
1990-99 7B 6	AIDS³ kills 200,000 6			Middle Class Wage Stagnation Continued as more free trade increased foreign competition which began in the 1970's with the rust belt.
1900-09 9A 4		Labor l Unrest Sever Recession 4		Progressivism began a movement away from oligopoly power toward Public Social Responsibility. US Yellow Fever³ eliminated.
1980-89 9C 4		Severe Recession AIDS³ 4		Ronald Reagan Cut Taxes deregulation era began, middle income wages stagnation continued with pain eased by newly named home equity loans, government debt plus future entitlement liabilities exploded.
2010-19 9D 4		Stagnate Economy Voter Consternation 4		Great Recession Ended Quickly as government printed what could be money, Medicare Part D increased those with government subsidized health care, slow economic recovery increased middle income white males consternation caused by help for minorities including gays, competition from women and finally transgender rights.
*"The 2010s Broke Our Sense Of Time" .* In the 20 months between Hillary Clinton’s campaign announcement and Trump’s inauguration, everything from Apple Music to HBO Now to Apple News launched or relaunched; the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple Watch hit the full market; publishers established the current form and tone of the news push alerts that you receive; Facebook launched a live streaming function and then reprioritized the function when people aired violence; Integra launched the ephemeral, in exhaustive stories, so you can share — as they put it — “everything in between” the moments you care about; Twitter introduced the quote-tweet option, which formalized and democratized a function from the earlier days of Twitter, and transformed every Trump tweet into an opportunity for commentary. And, within a few months in 2016, both the primary catalog for millions of lives (Instagram) and the primary channel for news and culture (Twitter) switched from chronological to algorithmic timelines. All this happened while the country realized Trump could become president, and then he did — an experience somehow both mystifying and like watching a wet paper bag break. The 2000s were a bad decade, full of terrorism, financial ruin, and war. The 2010s were different, somehow more disorienting, full of molten anxiety, racism, and moral horror shows. Maybe this is a reason for the disorientation: Life had run on a certain rhythm of time and logic, and then at a hundred different entry points, that rhythm and that logic shifted a little, sped up, slowed down, or disappeared, until you could barely remember what time it was.
1920-29 9E 4		Post WW I Recession Stock Market Crash 4		Economy Expanded as Wall Street and Business Helped Rebuild Europe. Late 1929 crash would affect many.

³Health Problems Solved
1902 Scarlet Fever deaths peaked at close to 5,000 and then slowly dropped thanks to penicillin.
1905 Last Yellow Fever epidemic killed 20 in US as misquote control eliminated cause. 1936 vaccine ended disease.
1916 Measles 12,000 mostly children died. Vaccine finally eliminated most cases by early 1980's.
1918 Spanish Flu 500,000 died in US. This could have been the cause of the post WW 1 recession.
1921 Diphtheria 206,000 cases, 15,520 deaths, mostly children died.
1943 Penicillin 1,000,000 lives be saved during the 20th century.
1953 Polio 57,628 cases with 21,000 paralyzed Vaccine followed and Polio is now about gone.
1957-58 Asian Flu 70,000 died in US.
1968-69 Hong Kong Flu 34,000 died in US.
1973 US ends Conscription
1985-95+ AIDS killed ten to twenty thousand per year in 1970's. Annual deaths peaked at 41,699 in mid 1990's
and then they quickly dropped due to super drug development and availability. Total US deaths were 658,507.
2011 TB From a 50% kill rate in 1900 cases dropped from 86,304 in 1959 the first year of data availability to 10,528 in 2011. 529 died in 2009.
By the 1960's Measles, Mumps, Rubella and a 1995 Chicken Pox vaccines made childhood safer and more enjoyable
Return to Top as did seat belts, infant safety seats, bicycle safety helmets, and 1962 began the era of government sponsored child protective services.

US Deaths from Infectious Disease source

The Cost of War
Nineteen-month World War 1 killed 116,516 from all causes with 204,002 wounded in action. The resulting peace treaty severely penalized Germany and divided the Ottoman Empire among the winners. These winners continued their 19th Century Western Colonialism, which planted the seeds for Arab Unrest.

Four year World War 2 killed 405,399 from all causes
with 670,660 wounded in action. Losers were not punished. Russian Bear having suffered 26.6 military and civilian deaths used their newly occupied eastern European territory to provide a protective buffer.
Three year Korean War killed 36,574 with 103,284 wounded in action. South Korea remained free. Japan felt safe and used a small defense budget to build industrial capital and rejoined the developed world.

The very long Vietnam War ² killed 58,220 with over
153,303 wounded with few important positive results.

As of 12/31/14 Afghanistan War killed 2,312 with 20,026 wounded with few important positive results.

As of 5/29/12 Iraq War killed 4,425 with 32,223 wounded with few important positive results.

⁵Cold War
After WW 2 the Russian Communists seized power in Poland, closed access to Berlin and the Western Allies countered with an airlift. Russia exploded an atomic bomb. Communists won the Chinese Communist Revolution.

The 1950-53 Korean War had UN forces fighting against North Korean Communists invaders.

Russia exploded a Hydrogen bomb, put down revolts in Poland and Hungary, and launched 2 Sputniks.

The 1956 Suez Canal Crisis caused tension between Western allies.

Military and political advisors wanted to use nuclear weapons in the Korean War against China and again wanted them used against China in reference to Taiwan and Formosa. Ike didn't listen. The US 1960 U-2 Spy Plane Incident ended the Eisenhower Administration's chess game with Communism and it also ended the very brief Paris Peace Conference. Ike had been trying unsuccessfully for eight years to control a renegade CIA. He had wanted the expose the missile gap fear created by the CIA.

JFK didn't listen to his advisors who also wanted to use nuclear weapons in relation to the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis. A more peaceful blockade settled the crisis.

Please Share This

Recent Bailouts
1975 New York City $1.3b paid back + interest
1979 Chrysler Motors $1.5b paid back + interest
1982 Oklahoma-based Penn Square Bank $65m
1984 Continental Illinois Bank bailout $14b
1980's Savings and Loan Bailouts $124.6b ^[2]
2009-10 Great Recession TARP cost $24b, Detroit cost $16b Positive results GM and Chrysler workers kept their jobs. Quick action by two administrations helped create a quick US economic recovery while Europe still dilly dallies. At 2% additional economic growth per year the higher GDP is worth about $300 billion/year.

Determinates of U.S. Individual Well-Being
1) Society's accumulations are key to the well-being of its citizens.
    Think how the public safety net has steadily increased since the
    1930's and the successes of the federal Children's Bureau.
2) Scientific achievements have continuously added to citizen well-being.
    Think disease control, smart phones, streaming audio/video, Gillette
    Stadium...See great achievements
3) Personal Income which is a function of nature and nurture has
     increased continuously if not always rapidly. Think Russia, China,
     and Europe's really slow recovery from the Great Recession ...

1. Why is Poverty Controversial?
2. Is Income Stagnation Serious?
3. Is Politics About the Money?
4. Worst 20th Century Decade Was?

Decade Grade	Decade	Terrible Events	Bad Events	Not Good Events	Rest of the Story
1	1930-39	Great Depression Dust Bowl			Keynes wins battle with classical economics or did he?
1A	1940-49	War II		Cold War	Marshal Plan rebuilds Europe helping U.S economy, Truman Doctrine hopes to contain fears about communism
3	1960-69	4 Assassinations Social Unrest Hong Kong Flew³	Vietnam War		War and Segregation Turmoil dominate the decade
4	1910-19	WW I Spanish Flu³ Measles		Labor unrest Red Scare	Progressive Era continues as US slowly affords social responsibility including hookworm parasite elimination which increases southern worker and school productivity
5	1950-59	Korean War Asian Flew³ Polio Epidemic³	Segregation Turmoil	2 small recessions Red Scare	Economic Expansion and the rise of the middle class
6	2000-09		2 Small Wars Great Recession	Terrorism	2 tax cuts and one health care acts Medicare expansion ease pain from 2 wars
7 and	1900-09		Unions & Social Unrest A Sever Recession	Last Yellow Fever Epidemic³	Progressivism begins the movement away from Oligopoly toward Social Responsibility Scarlet Fever Deaths Peak³
7A	1970-79		Stagflation	Watergate Oil Embargos Iran Hostages
8	1980-89		A Sever Recession		RR cuts taxes and deregulation starts debt explosion, middle class wages stagnate
9	1920-29			Small Post WW I recession	Economy expands as Wall Street and business rebuild Europe
10	1990-99				Free trade and capital markets expansion continues middle class stagnation
11	2010-04				Great Recession quickly recovers because government prints money, Health Care Expands, Many Already With Government Subsidized Health Insurance² abhor Changes
¹The devastating affects of war on the human condition make it the most terrible event. The devastating affects of unemployment on the human condition make it the second most terrible event. prepared by Walter Antoniotti				²Company paid health insurance care, Medicare way over budget, Veterans Health Care, Medicaid, Hospital must help uninsured and money comes from everyone.
³1902 Scarlet Fever deaths peak at close to 5,000 and slowly drop thanks to penicillin. 1905 Last Yellow Fever epidemic 20 died in US as misquote control eliminated cause, vaccine 1936. 1916 Measles 12,000 mostly children died, vaccines finally eliminates most of it in early 1980's. 1918 Spanish Flew 500,000 died in US. 1921 Diphtheria 206,000 cases, 15,520 mostly children died. 1953 Polio strikes 57,628 with 21,000 paralyzed, vaccine followed but vaccination took a while, gone from US. 1957-58 Asian Flew 70,000 died in US. 1968-69 Hong Kong Flew 34.000 died in US. 1960's brought Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines 1960's making childhood much more comfortable and in 1995 a Chicken Pox vaccine was developed.