The mindset behind trickle down economics in the US
Then they will stay poor forever and work until they die.
Pretty sad, it's like playing the "GAME OF LIFE" and ending up in the "Poor house"
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Sweetleaf
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Mostly trickle down is BS because the people who are expected to allow wealth to trickle down hide it all in foreign bank accounts. You see the uber wealthy elites are beyond human responsibility, they shouldn't pay taxes or contribute to the economy they should hoard all their money and pass it on to their groomed children who never have worked a day of hard labor. And then have the audacity to pretend those well groomed children are more valuble than people who make their money doing actual labor.
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We won't go back.
One problem with trickle-down that I don't see mentioned is the power to shape society. If rich people are given massive tax benefits and even if all the wealth trickles down, it will do so in ways that only benefit people doing what and how the rich people want them to do it, and on and on down the line, and those who refuse to play by those rules are left out in the cold.
Trickle-down isn't just about the money, it's also about the power to shape society, and the creation or strengthening of a hierarchical structure in the economy.
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Last edited by beneficii on 10 Aug 2019, 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sweetleaf
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Trickle-down isn't just about the money, it's also about the power to shape society.
Yeah that is what the oil industry has been doing. They don't want people to reject their product so they have gone as far as lying about knowledge they had that their product was causing environmental deterioration. Their own studies showed it but they buried it.
Kind of like big tobacco tried to bury the reality of how addictive nicotine is. Yet I suppose people are more dependent on gas and oil than cigarettes over all...so there is that.
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We won't go back.
It increasingly creates a situation where instead of having things be decided by the Democratic process, where it's one person one vote regardless of wealth, you create a situation where people vote with their feet, where people who have more dollars get more votes.
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"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
That's how we lift them up.
How many poor people and families do you know intimately? If you are relying on news reports and the horrors that come to light in criminal events, you know nothing of the others who do work hard. And still there is not enough money to feed the family. In my work, I see and get to know a lot of them and see their struggles. I am guessing that all the people who espouse "just work harder" wouldn't last a minute in the conditions these people live.
Let's just take an adult with a disability, say someone with autism. His disability prevents him from working. Social Security benefits for someone who is getting SSI is $750/month.
You tell me how he pays rent, buys food, buys clothes, pays for someone to drive him to stores or doctor's appointments, and then saves money on that $750/month.
Even someone working at minimum wage would be hurting and it has been demonstrated the even a person educated and with previous success cannot get through a year on minimum wage jobs.
Your (editorially) attitude is to blame the poor for their plight. Relieves you (editorially) of any responsibility for the society you live in and from which you benefit.
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I'm sorry this is strictly speaking not accurate and represents a fundamental lack of understanding of economics. It is possible for the minority to get richer, while the majority also gets richer, and for more money to circulate. This is in fact was has happened in the american economy over the last 80 years.
If the above is accurate, Antrax, how do you reconcile the fact that the wealthiest people in the top 1% keep increasing their wealth, way over the increase of others.
Here is a quote from Wikipedia, but there are many more sources which make this claim:
In Inequality for All....Reich states that 95% of economic gains went to the top 1% net worth (HNWI) since 2009 when the recovery allegedly started.[10] More recently, in 2017, an Oxfam study found that eight rich people, six of them Americans, own as much combined wealth as half the human race.[11][12][13]
From what I read, the "wealth gap" is increasing, and the rest of us are just getting by.
The rich got relatively richer, hence the increase and wealth gap, but everyone else got richer as well. I've cited real income statistics several times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household ... ted_States
From 1979-2011 the median household income adjusted for inflation (the middle income of the country) increased from $59,400 to $75,200 a 26.5% increase. The income for the top 10% increased more as their income grew by 76%. So the rich go a lot richer, and the middle got richer. The bottom 10% also increased by 40% so the poor got richer as well.
This is because the economy as a whole grew over that time. More of the gains went to the rich, but everyone got gains. Hence why income inequality is larger, but people are still better off than 40 years ago. The rich getting richer did not make others poorer.
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That's how we lift them up.
How many poor people and families do you know intimately? If you are relying on news reports and the horrors that come to light in criminal events, you know nothing of the others who do work hard. And still there is not enough money to feed the family. In my work, I see and get to know a lot of them and see their struggles. I am guessing that all the people who espouse "just work harder" wouldn't last a minute in the conditions these people live.
Let's just take an adult with a disability, say someone with autism. His disability prevents him from working. Social Security benefits for someone who is getting SSI is $750/month.
You tell me how he pays rent, buys food, buys clothes, pays for someone to drive him to stores or doctor's appointments, and then saves money on that $750/month.
Even someone working at minimum wage would be hurting and it has been demonstrated the even a person educated and with previous success cannot get through a year on minimum wage jobs.
Your (editorially) attitude is to blame the poor for their plight. Relieves you (editorially) of any responsibility for the society you live in and from which you benefit.
The path to wealth is clear; save and invest.
Terrible sacrifices must be made if the budget is so low.
For inspiration, I suggest you watch some Dave Ramsey videos …
How Do I Succeed Financially When I'm Medically Disabled?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4h4Oqu22GU
What Dave Ramsey Recommends When Someone Is On Disability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJJ428qYtj0
There's A Difference Between Poor And Broke - Dave Ramsey Rant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdnhKJG6bYk
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Last edited by LoveNotHate on 10 Aug 2019, 2:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You really don't get it. Wealthy elites don't hoard money, they invest it. Why let your fortune shrink when instead it can grow. Invested money is directly funneled into the economy.
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"Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power."
You really don't get it. Wealthy elites don't hoard money, they invest it. Why let your fortune shrink when instead it can grow. Invested money is directly funneled into the economy.
What you state is not fact, it's opinion and it ignores a 50 year trend of the middle class needing more labor hours necessary to sustain their quality of life.
You really don't get it. Wealthy elites don't hoard money, they invest it. Why let your fortune shrink when instead it can grow. Invested money is directly funneled into the economy.
What you state is not fact, it's opinion and it ignores a 50 year trend of the middle class needing more labor hours necessary to sustain their quality of life.
People invest to make profit, not to provide for the middle class.
Smart money helps close down American manufacturing and moves it overseas.
Likely, more profit to be made.
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After a failure, the easiest thing to do is to blame someone else.
You really don't get it. Wealthy elites don't hoard money, they invest it. Why let your fortune shrink when instead it can grow. Invested money is directly funneled into the economy.
What you state is not fact, it's opinion and it ignores a 50 year trend of the middle class needing more labor hours necessary to sustain their quality of life.
I'm really starting to get upset here. I have repeatedly cited reliable statistics from the US census and CBO demonstrating how the middle class makes 26% more in inflation adjusted income and 44% more when adjusted for household size than 40 years ago. I have cited the doubling of tax receipts by millionaires from 2003 to 2006 following the Bush-era tax cuts. You want evidence that most wealth of wealthy individuals is invested http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/first/ ... naire.html.
Do the math: 20% + 21%= at least 41% invested in either transaction securities and private businesses. From the average home value is 320,000. The average wealth of a millionaire from the same source is 1.6 million. 97% own their homes. That's an additional 19%. So on average at least 60% of american millionaire wealth is invested at least at the time of the writing of the book chapter.
No one arguing the other side has provided any facts except that income inequality has grown.
Instead they have argued on rhetoric that:
1) The wealthy hoard wealth (untrue)
2) tax cuts do nothing for the economy (mostly untrue)
3) The wealthy are unworthy of their wealth because they don't work a hard labor job. (value judgment that can be debated)
When you say I post nothing but opinion. Kindly [Redacted] off!
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Kraichgauer
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Then they will stay poor forever and work until they die.
Pretty sad, it's like playing the "GAME OF LIFE" and ending up in the "Poor house"
Or the government can step in to raise wages and make sure that benefits are provided.
Most people seriously don't want to be rich, just to live comfortably and without worry. That's the real American dream.
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-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Most people seriously don't want to be rich, just to live comfortably and without worry. That's the real American dream.
The government can't mandate worker productivity (e.g., some people may have disabilities).
So, Democrats and Republicans will never do that.
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After a failure, the easiest thing to do is to blame someone else.
Kraichgauer
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Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 47,898
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.
Most people seriously don't want to be rich, just to live comfortably and without worry. That's the real American dream.
The government can't mandate worker productivity (e.g., some people may have disabilities).
So, Democrats and Republicans will never do that.
I don't follow your train of thought. Workers, disabled or not, will have more buying power and thus everyone's piece of the pie will grow. In the end, it's not work productivity but buying power that drives the economy in my limited understanding of economics.
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-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
Most people seriously don't want to be rich, just to live comfortably and without worry. That's the real American dream.
The government can't mandate worker productivity (e.g., some people may have disabilities).
So, Democrats and Republicans will never do that.
I don't follow your train of thought. Workers, disabled or not, will have more buying power and thus everyone's piece of the pie will grow. In the end, it's not work productivity but buying power that drives the economy in my limited understanding of economics.
I can see how you would come to believe that, but it's actually backwards. Buying power comes from productivity. Increased productivity decreases costs which decreases prices. Decreased prices result in increased buying power.
_________________
"Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power."