While this is definitely true you're debating a marketing ploy, a simple gimmick from a snake oil salesman. The people who shout it from the podium refuse to be pinned down on the methodology and the followers that tout it hit the talking points and look to the leader for the details that they refuse to provide.

After reading a few instruction manuals from the 1950's on how to be a good wife and how to parent your children, no thank you!

The prosperity of the 1950's was also very zero-sum. Those that prospered did so in no small part because others not only DIDN'T prosper, but because those others were LOCKED OUT of the opportunity to realize that prosperity. Redlining, over criminalization, and unequal pay were just a few of the ways that game was rigged in favor of the then prosperous.
I'd like to say that they've conveniently forgotten this fact, but the rhetoric and policy tell me that they've forgotten nothing. They're acutely aware that the policies they seek now are just as zero-sum as their "Golden Age" counterparts, but they're perfectly okay with making losers out of others as long as they get to be the winners. The only thing they fail to realize is that most of them are on the wrong end of the equation this time, replaced by the corporatocracy they unwittingly defend so vigorously.

Well written. Many of us try to cope with todays challenges with their past life experiences. I suppose it's somewhat natural to do so. Our problems have become more global, for example, money, disease, overpopulation and even media culture know no borders. We must think of all people as family and every nation as our own back yard. A very tall order indeed. Maybe we can be a little less prolific and give future inhabitants a chance to adjust.

If we went back to the 50's I'd end up in an asylum until they shocked the gay out of me. Fuck that noise.

The "good old days" never actually existed anywhere other than in people's
imaginations.
Never.

I think what most people seem to forget is that during the 1950s, we were the only functioning economy left in the world. All the other countries were destroyed because of the war. We were prosperous because everyone bought things from us to rebuild and our products were sent all over the world. There is no way that we can go back to those times because we are faced with global competition. We used to be the leader in auto manufacturing but lost ground to the Japanese in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I believe we lost the number one spot in the 2000s to them as well. We will never be able to go back to the 1950s because the greed that permeates this country is just too severe. The 1950s saw the greatest expansion of the Middle class and the defining leadership of the United States. We were the envy of the world. These people don't want to make America great again, they only use that slogan to make themselves rich off the backs of the people without the people knowing that they are being exploited. If they truly wanted to make America great again they would encourage the higher corporate rax rates because that's what made this country to build its infrastructure, fund its schools, and allow people to have money to spend to fuel the economy. This country will not be great again until people realize that we need to correct the greedy decisions that were made during the 1970s and 1980s. Healthcare is inexplicably expensive compared to the years prior to health insurance companies getting involved, post secondary education is exorbitantly more expensive than it was in the 1950s and 1960s, CEO pay is hundreds of percent higher than it was in the 1950s, and for what? Our education system is horrendous, people cannot afford to get sick or face possible financial ruin, we don't rank anywhere near the top 10 in any of the good categories and we wonder why things are the way they are. The average person in this country are being taken advantage of in some way or another and our economy cannot support this forever. Our military spending is through the roof in that we out spend the next 14 to 17 countries combined. If our different branches of the military were each listed as its own country, we would have not only the largest airforce in the world, but would have the second and third place positions locked up as well with the army and navy. We also have 16 carrier groups in operation, or soon to be in operation. The next country has 4 and that's France. If we continue to give the ultra rich and corporations tax cuts, how are we going to generate enough revenue to pay for this outrageous military spending? Is this amount of spending absolutely necessary? I'm not saying yo totally degund the military, but we could cut the military budget by 25% and still out spend the next 10 countries. We need to focus on our problems at home if we want to truly make America great again, but I get the impression that this is not going to happen anytime soon. We are moving towards a new form of serfdom and greed will rule the day.

Don't worry..the term "make America great again" only means to make America white again.

Hilarious song-
Make America Great Again - Up & Down Theatre

To some the good old days were pretty shitty. Red lines forming ghettos to keep blacks, Orientals, and hispanics coralled.

The "good old days" also included diseases like polio and people died of tuberculosis. It meant no meaning full rights for men of color, or women in general. It meant "duck and cover" drills in our schools and fear of a nuclear war just around the corner. It meant schools not adhering to the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and prayer in schools. It did not include the NRA's radical position that everyone, regardless of their background, needs to own a firearm. It certainly did not include a leader like DJT and his band of cronies.

Yes, taxes were higher, but Eisenhower balanced the budget while building the interstate highway system. People were able to pay their medical bills from their paychecks and not worry about bankruptcy because of illness. Veterans were given a free college education and health coverage.

Yes there were some good thing from the past, but with the good comes that bad and we cannot forget about the problems less we repeat them.

Picking and choosing from the past:

Read-make america white again!!! Read omen6actual below. Hes one of the guys wishing it was white again. Read his fantasy idea of what he believes. He ought to ask blacks and native americans how free it is. This guy knows nothing of history or of what is happening now. Anyone who needs enemies to fear us needs to grow a pair!

Look you know, I wish the Ramones were all still alive and touring, and shoulder pads were still in fashion to make your waist look smaller. I wish that Trump was just a cheesy real estate developer who showed up in the tabloids because he was cheating on his bleached blonde gold-digger wife Ivana. I wish that I still could skateboard without risking breaking a hip or something. I wish that I had my 1983 body. I wish that Michael Jordan was still playing basketball for the UNC Tar Heels. But that parade's gone by. That train has LEFT the freakin' station. And there were a lot of things about the time of my youth I recall so fondly that weren't so good...if not for me, than for other people who weren't me. You can't stop time or progress or the long, slow arc of social change and social justice. It's like trying to sweep the incoming tide back out with a plastic broom.

I read that during the Eisenhower Administration , Corporate taxes were at 90% . Which is probably the reason , they hired lawyers to find tax loopholes , moved their headquarters to foreign countries , and learned to bribe politicians .

TL;DR.
As a [mostly] Native American woman, I don't think it's ever been great for anyone besides heterosexual, white men.

"The Good 'Ole Days" is as big a lie as God...and does as much damage.