"Reaganomics in action"

newspaper article illustration, ink drawing

Ronald Reagan was ruling America, and he and his neo-conservative pals like Britain's Margaret Thatcher were preaching the virtues of a new kind of economics.

Publicly-owned industries were privatised so that Joe Citizen could buy shares in something he theoretically already owned a part of and had probably been subsidizing through his taxes.

Not to worry, it's good for the economy, and even the humblest would benefit from the much-vaunted "trickle-down effect".

But as economies worldwide spiralled down into recession during the 1980s, it was becoming clear that a few people were getting disgustingly rich while the ranks of the poor were swelling. Soup kitchens started opening across the United States for the first time since the Great Depression of the 1920s. What a giveaway.

A New York Times journalist reported the facts, so I drew Ronnie Reagan, dressed in one of his favourite costumes, laughing his head off and yelling about economic recovery, totally oblivious to reality in the form of the line of unemployed outside a soup kitchen.