I was thinking how President’s get credit or blame for the economy. The 90’s for me encompassed age 17-27, so I remember it all but I wasn’t paying much attention to specific policies that may have encouraged it. (I DO know about the 1996 telecommunications act).
I was somewhat familiar with the internet in the early 90’s, it was available in college and later at work. And I remember a few people having dial up connections at home although it was more of a novelty due to expense (billed by the minute). It seems to me the one thing that opened the floodgates on the consumer level was unlimited dial up time for a flat rate instead of per minute. (around '95 /'96?) That along with the web browser making it relatively easy to use for the non geek, although I believe that goes back to '90 or '91.
So, would it have played out essentially the same if Bush won in '92 and in this imaginary scenario, another Republican wins in '96?
I got my first computer in 1985. That was useful because my office got its first computer that year and they turned to me to do computer stuff. By the 90s computers were standard. The internet could build on that base; people learned in the first five minutes how good it was for porn, I mean, for connecting with people on message boards.
The reason the internet took off so fast was because AOL sent out a billion disks. Simple as that. The Telecommunications Act was important for the industry, but as everything in politics it was a reaction to already happening reality.
If it has been the case that both political parties have been working for the 10 pct of Americans that own 70 pct of the country’s total wealth, then the same would have probably taken place.
That’s my take on it too. It wasn’t going to happen prior to about 1993-1994 anyway, because the World Wide Web wasn’t quite there technologically.
And it took a while for that to make its way into the public awareness- I’d say that by 1995-1996, it was starting to be commercialized. So Clinton’s second term anyway. The boom proper didn’t really kick in until probably 1998 or so, and wasn’t really due to anything Clinton did AFAIK. Nor did he do anything to put the brakes on either.