According to a highly upvoted post on r/internetisbeautiful, in 1971, major changes to the US economy put us on track to where we are today. I'm curious about the political pressures which led to those changes, and what their intent was.

by Neurotic_Bakeder

People in that thread are speculating that it had to do with legislature that increased transparency and made it easier for corporations to target politicians to corrupt, but I think it's unlikely it was that simple.

Nixon was president, but our impression of him in 2020 is probably different than the country's impression of him in 1968, so I don't think it makes sense to name him the solve reason either.

What were led to the restructuring of the US economy in the early 70's? Was it a response to protest movements of the 60's? Was it widely known that this was happening? Is 1971 even a significant year, or is it just a convenient point marker for the start of the 70's?

Sorry if this is too scattered. The website in question is called "wtfhappenedin1971" and I'm sure this sub has already had to reject a few posts that site inspired. Thank you for your time!

Kochevnik81

I can't find it, but I think we had a question about that (or something similar) a few months back. Anyway, what that website is trying to claim is that a whoole raft of economic and social changes can be tied back to Nixon suspending convertibility of US dollars to gold under the Bretton Woods System. While some economic trends are tied to it, the vast trove of charts is not entirely honest (a lot of the trends could be more convincingly tied to economic changes around 1980 as to 1971), and the site is definitely trying to push a pro-Gold Standard agenda.