Articles
Job Loss Fears in the First Years of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Economics Working Paper 26125
August 31, 2026
Published: March 25, 2021
Collectivist sentiment was popular after World War II. The role and power of the US government continued to grow dramatically until the 1980s, when intellectual opinions shifted in response to this expansion. As a result, Ronald Reagan was able to capitalize on the ideological shift and limit the role of the government.
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In 1945, 1950, at the end of the war, intellectual opinion was almost wholly collectivist.
The role of government at that time was such smaller than it has since become and from 1945 on to 1980, what you had was galloping socialism.
Government took over more and more control.
Government spending went from about 20 percent of national income—government federal, state and local—to about 40 percent of national income until Reagan came along.
But Reagan was able to do what he did because in that 20-year period, intellectual opinion had changed.
You now could see what the government did and people didn’t particularly like what the government did.
I think maybe Capitalism and Freedom added a little of that but I think experience was much more responsible.