Cutting through the rhetoric and numbers analysis, I will state that I was a working adult during the Nixon and Carter administrations. (If my age shows up anywhere on this forum suffice it to say I lied).
Throughout that time period I lived in two distinct regions of the country. Also this was my pre college days.
When either Nixon or Carter were in office, I could have quit a job in the morning, found another one by noon, quit that one and still been employed by the next morning.
If you wanted to work you could make a bundle. Housing was reasonable through most of the country. It was relatively easy to get a car loan or a small business loan. It was easy to start a business on a shoe string if you had a good product or service to offer.
But a leader must be timely. Carter was ahead of his time on many things. He looked too far into the future (on oil and energy needs) and thought the American public was with him. He left them behind and as a result was made fun of for driving an economy car and having chicken or spaghetti suppers at the White House.
Nixon would roll over in his grave if he knew how far in debt we are today.
He also made a promise to the American people which he kept.
He saw the imbalance of price gouging oil companies and he froze prices along with government employee paychecks till things got back in balance.
Between that and bringing the troupes home as promised, he was set up for a down fall. No one came to his aid and no one tried to slide his misdeeds under the rug as has been done so many times with so many leaders since he left office.
So we had
what some term an inept president and one who
will always be seen as a crook.
But every body who wanted to work had a
job, a
home, a
nice car and
money to store or to blow.