Written by David Desautel   

This one should be a no-brainer. Just think about it. What will stimulate the economy more, giving a million dollars to 100 people who already have millions, or giving a hundred dollars to a million people who have very little? Which group of people would be more likely to spend the money and thus stimulate the economy?

Even if the millionaires do spend the money, their impact on the economy is aptly described by the word “trickle.” Limited, slow, and short-lived. Which spending do you think would stimulate the economy faster and more completely, a hundred millionaires buying a new yacht, or a million people buying a new toaster and coffee maker?

Yes, this is a little simplistic, and there are other ways that the wealthy stimulate the economy. They invest, own businesses, and buy big-ticket items. But the real strength and health of the economy comes from small businesses and consumer spending. Republican politicians, and the big-business and wealthy conservatives that back and control them, are hell-bent on increasing their wealth with tax cuts and deregulation, and they want to pay for it by cutting entitlement programs and not cutting taxes for the middle class and the poor. This is the opposite of what will actually work. And the sad thing is that this only helps big business and the wealthy in the short-run. In the long-run, a bad economy is bad for all Americans, including big business and the wealthy.

The selling of trickle-down economics has been a textbook example of masterful deception and political spin. The Republicans are very good at deception, but their success in deceiving the American people has only been possible with the help of mass media. As long as they are allowed to tell complete lies via the mass media without having the truth pointed out in rebuttal, the American people are put into the position of having to to the media’s job of fact-checking, or they end up being deceived and voting against their own best interests.

Don’t be deceived! Trickle-Down Economics only helps big business and the wealthy. For everyone else, Bubble-Up Economics is what the economy really needs!