https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tax-cuts-rich-50-years-no-trickle-down/
Tax cuts for the wealthy didn't boost the economies of the U.S. and 17 other countries — but they did worsen income inequality.
The wealth was never meant to trickle down. That was just a line to keep the proles subservient and waiting.
Yup. Reagan and Thatcher just did what their rich friends wanted them to do, and fucked us and the earth for a long time.
That was just a line to keep the proles subservient and waiting.
Huh? The trickle down line comes from comedian Will Rogers who was making a joke about how President Hoover, who was an engineer, was accustomed to water trickling down, but that he didn't realize money trickles up.
It was a line to serve the exact opposite – to tell the 'proles' that the economic plan was fundamentally flawed.
yeah, but it was repurposed for that. "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" also has its origins in a saying referring to something that is impossible, but was later repurposed into having the opposite connotation for most people.
Also when conservatives quote MLK about 'judging people by the content of their character', and nothing else.
Thanks. I learned something. I grew up hearing it discussed seriously in the 1980s, by which time I'm not sure everyone remembered the critical origin you identify. As I remember it, during the Reagan/Thatcher years many people treated the matter of whether and how the wealth would trickle down as a real live question.
And it was just a rebranding of horse and sparrow economics, a 19th century concept. It was always a scam, they just made sure the media was never allowed to criticise it.
It's why they bought almost all the media companies.
The medium is the message (or massage). Always has been.
Breaking news! New 2023 studies find that Y2K did little to negatively impact technology.
Bad example.
In some cases, a LOT of shit was fixed up in a massive crunch to ensure it wouldn't fall over. Like shit-in-space kinda stuff as well as stuff that makes sure you have heat and light and hot clean water.
It was a massive effort for some orgs and, grace of God and hard work, you never noticed.
That's very true. I was struggling to think of a comparably equally obvious problem that isn't worth mentioning every few months with a new "study".
I was going to say climate change, but that is worth mentioning and studying as much as possible, even though it's been known exactly what's happening and why we're the ones driving it to happen for literally longer than anyone living person today.
Never forget, "politician" is a sales job with an optional secondary management component.
If Canada has to use the United States as an example of the consequences of bad behavior, so as to prevent Canada from making the same mistakes ; then I support it.
At least now there is a study that corroborates what we’ve been saying for decades. So, we’ve got that going for us. Right?
Rich people: Give us all the money and we'll let you have a little.
Liberal voters: Fuck off!
Conservative voters: Ok!
Liberal voters: We told you so.
Conservative voters: Any day now...
The economy has changed tremendously since Reagan was in office. I think in order for the US economy to improve we need to accept we are a just a part of the global economy and enforce fair trade.
Free trade was always just a shiny feel good label for allowing the ruling class of America to exploit cheap labor who have less protections in foreign countries to increase profit margins. But hey, we paid them a pittance to pollute their land and work 20 hours days. Fair trade.
Funny, that's not how free trade between the US and Canada worked out. The US got all our manufacturing, because the US is a shitty place that exploits poor low cost laborers who have less protection than competing workers in Canada.
I'm not sure about all that...Big business making sweat shops and the American government demanding equal trade aren't the same at all. If whatever country chooses to not regulate their factories and work practices that, again, is not the fault of the US government. Fair trade in a global market should be the only standard or trade.
The free trade argument is based on the economic theory of comparative advantage. This just ends up being a measure of which market can be most effectively exploited for gain from every smaller nation a country like the US trades with.
These smaller countries end up producing a disproportionate amount of a small category of goods. Efficiency is good right? Well, it is until there's some form of economic disruption or downturn that suddenly lowers demand for that good. Then suddenly all the other things the country doesn't focus on are extremely expensive as the local currency devalues and they can't afford food and other core goods which they don't produce enough of. Hey, good news though, now their labor is even cheaper and we can have them work for pennies making something else so they don't starve.
Fair trade means the government doesn't interfere and tax things, it's the same thing as free trade. It's a really great system. For billionaires who own companies and would love to own slaves if they could. This is the next best thing though.