Has Trickle Down Economics Finally Jumped the Shark? (or, What Happens If a Country Goes Broke?)

I remember when I was a grade school kid, President Reagan was constantly mentioned in the vicinity of the phrase "Trickle Down Economics." I tried to understand what the big deal was with this economic policy, but I really couldn't.

I personally always disliked the phrase, "Trickle Down Economics." It reminds me too much of, "shit flows downhill," it makes me annoyed that in the great pot of U.S.A. money I'm only entitled to a trickle, and I don't like the idea of something trickling down to me as if those who are richer are above me. Lastly, I hate the notion that I should be thankful for the scraps that fall through to me, either by accident or because the rich simply can't hold it all.

So I hate "trickle down economics" even before getting to the reality of it, which was explained to me in two succinct ways:

1. It is helping the poor by giving money to the rich. (This was said very sarcastically by author Paul Fussell.)
2. The theory is that the rich who get the money will invest it and create jobs, but it doesn't work because the rich just keep the money. (This was how my father put it.)

Here I am a few decades later, and I see that those two explanations have been borne out as correct. I have been watching trickle down economics for my whole life, watching it help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Very few of the policy's hucksters (either the rich, their talking heads or their dupes in the working class) still call it "trickle down economics." They've at least gotten that wise. Now they call it "bailouts" or "stimulus" or "tax cuts" or "supply side economics" or some other crap, but it's still the same thing.

That's why I've been phone-banking for the Obama campaign lately, because in his DNC nomination acceptance speech he actually challenged this now-proven-to-fail model. Quote, "For over two decades, [McCain has] subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy, give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else… It's time for us to change America."

I like it. Let's try something else, something radical, like say, helping the poor by giving money to the poor. Wow! I'm curious to see how "demand side economics" might work. Give us working class people money, we'll spend it! We have to in order to survive!

We can't keep on with this trickle down plan. I don't want to find out what happens if our entire country goes broke because the rich got so greedy they tanked their own system. Can a country go bankrupt? Maybe, but I would think the debt would just be passed on to the next generation, until they were simply paying off debt and not paying for anything of their own.

I can't believe that could go on forever. At some point, the creditor (China? Europe?) is going to come calling, and either we'll have nothing, or we'll have to go to war. Let's try to avoid that.

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Back to the campaign trail, I keep getting a kick out of Team Whacky Mac. Whenever they screw up (which is often) they cry that the media is unfair to them. This complaint reminds me a lot of Bill O'Reilly, who complains that people are smearing him when they simply quote him directly or replay clips of his show.

Here's a lesson Team Whacky Mac and Bill-O never seem to get: if repeating what you said amounts in your mind to a smear, then all you have to do is watch what you say. Simple!

Another comment on the horse-race election coverage: pundits keep saying "Palin fired up the base." Apparently the base is a bunch of people who accept arrogant ignorance in place of ideas. I'm not entirely sure this translates to success, because a fired up vote is equal to a hesitant or even a reluctant one.

Of course, that's assuming the digital machine counts the vote at all, but that's another story.

Palin fired me up as well. Her loony religious beliefs, her small-town corruption and arrogant ignorant approach to life is what led me to start making calls for Obama. I fear for humanity if she (or Whacky Mac) gets anywhere near the nukes.

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Larry Nocella is the award-winning author of the novel Where Did This Come From? available at Amazon and Xlibris and other fine online book stores. Where Did This Come From? is also available as an eBook. For more info, visit Larry Nocella's website at http://www.larrynocella.com/.