[CryptoPunk]

Social welfare spending, as a percentage of GDP, has massively increased since 1972.

On the regulatoey side, major regulatory agencies, including the OSHA and EPA, were also created in the 1970s. Every broad-based measure of regatory burden shows increasing since 1971.

So if anything, post 1971 United States has demonstrated the failure of abandoning economic liberalism in favor of central economic planning.

[Miner49er]

Taxes on the wealthy have decreased substantially in the US since the 50's. Even if social welfare spending is increasing, the wealthy are paying for less of it then they did before the 70's.

[CryptoPunk]

No they haven't. The top income tax rate has decreased, but other trends have counter-acted the effect of that decrease, like:

* all brackets creeping down due to inflation

* all brackets creeping down as a share of average income through the average income increase without a proportional raising of the bracket thresholds

* the closing of tax loopholes.

The result is that the effective tax rate for the wealthiest has barely decreased from the 1950s: https://files.taxfoundation.org/20170804133536/Average-Effec...

And this only covers reportable income. The cash economy was much more significant in the 1950s, so a lot of income could escape the gaze of the state.

>>the wealthy are paying for less of it then they did before the 70's.

No, the wealthy contribute a larger share of it than ever before.

Anyway, you're only focusing on tax rates on the top 1%, while ignoring every other factor, including major structural properties of an economy like what percentage of GDP is mandatorily redistributed by the state for social welfare programs, that would determine whether an economy is classified as economically liberal or social democratic.