this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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The concept of trickle down economics. Anyone with a functioning brain can tell you that it would never work. But somehow people as a whole in the US still think giving corporations and rich cunts extra money, and tax breaks somehow lead to the 99% reaping a benefit.
It has never been true because the basic function of capitalism is to get as much money as possible, while spending the least amount of money to do it. There’s no room for passing on the extra profits to your employees, clients, or vendors.
Supply-side Jesus (short animation) is a brilliant take on trickle-down economics and circular arguments about why the successful are successful and the poor are poor.
"Tax cuts will double our revenues and ensure that the empire never declines or falls!"
"Should you feed the lepers, Supply side Jesus?"
"No Thomas, that would just make them lazy."
"Then shouldn't you at least heal them Supply Side Jesus?"
"No James, leprosy is a matter of personal responsibility. If people knew I was healing the lepers there would be no incentive to avoid leprosy"
Lol yep, any child who has played monopoly a few times can see how capitalism works. It always ends in one person having literally all the property and money... and generally with players quite upset at one another. And once all players have optimized the game, it simply becomes a game of luck.
Indeed, that's why monopoly was invented. It was meant to illustrate how stupid and unsustainable capitalism and private property are.
It's literally the name of the game.
Trickle down economics does work though.
It’s just that the thing that trickles down isn’t money.
In theory it does work, and it has historically worked in the past. A lot of wealthy people in the last few centuries were philanthropists that built schools, hospitals and other public works.
The main deterrent these days is that your typical billionaire is greedy and entitled.
Plus as we saw with some merchants and colonial figures, your name could be scrubbed from the history books and statues of you torn down if your past actions are incompatible with modern day morals. Edward Colston is a good example because despite him pumping a lot of money into philanthropic projects, he made his fortune from the transatlantic slave trade.
I can almost guarantee that people would have much more favourable views of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, etc if they pumped tonnes of money into building new homes and actual public transport infrastructure.
Starting a private space company doesn't count as philanthropy. As for Bill Gates, years of medical disinformation have built up this narrative that he's pumping money into medical research and vaccination programmes for nefarious reasons, like planting microchips into people.