"I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop." - F.A. Hayek 1984
Nixon feels like where American government took a hard right pivot and has kept going ever since. Disillusioned young boomers, Vietnam, "law and order", the Southern Strategy, the collective political realisation that "We don't actually have to fix anything, we just need to find someone to blame for it and that'll get us reelected"
Kennedy during the Cold War, specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis, united conservatives in a way that hadn't happened before. The hawks wanted a war to payback perceived Korean War indignations. The military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned America about saw a chance to jump back into the prime war years of the 40s half a generation prior. Fascists like Roger Stone and Roger Ailes were just getting started and used the media to start adding politics to the language of news.
Don't get your hopes up, if we went back to the gold standard Billionaires would just corner the market and fuck us anyways. We're well past that course of action.
Unfortunately nearly every graph on that page is intentionally misleading. If you actually adjust the graphs for inflation (where it's relevant), 1971 looks like just another year.
Go watch some price is right episodes on YouTube — one from each year of the 1970s. It’s astounding how much the prices drastically change on automobiles and food just over a year or two.
Strangely, basic clothes washers, dryers, refrigerators, and stoves seem have the same pricing as today.