Well, ppine said something about 50 years ago.
Well in 1960, 82% of Americans had health care insurance. 5-7% were unemployed and various stages of time. Only left a handfull without insurance, mostly farm workers, etc.
We produced everything we consumed, from cars to corn. We only imported coffee, tea, bananas, cola nuts, coconuts, and Brazil nuts. All could be done without in an emergency.
We had an 85% functional literacy rate vs about 75% today.
LOTS of things were better. We had no federal welfare program, no Medicare or Medicaid, because the elderly got paid enough social security to pay for their healthcare. I know, I had grandparents who did. They weren't in debt either. Grandmother lived to 89, grandfather to 77, but had arthritus real bad that got him down. If someone was down, family members helped them, OR their chruch, OR charities. 50% of Americans attended chruch at least twice a week.
Crime rate was lower.
Divorce rate was far lower.
Most women were homemakers and mothers.
Church attendance and being God fearing had a lot to do with this. The greatest generation had gone through a depression and WWII and worked hard to make things better. They raised a lot of spoiled kids though, and my generation continued the downward spiral.
Democrats with their socialist utopian ideals can't even match what they did in the 50's. All with practically pure capitalism. Only thing big government did was maintain a strong military, and build the interstate highway system. Yes social security was there, as well as VA benifits. Government had very little deficit spending and actually had some surplus in the 50's and 60's even when the Vietnam war was going on.
There is NO free lunch, Someone has to pay for Big Government. Whether now, or our children.