While Will Rogers is of course being jokey in his statement from 1932, as per always with Rogers what he says is kind, clever and profound. His idea of Trickle Up economics eighty years ago is centrally germane to addressing misery in America, today.
America needs more jobs. Most Democrat politicians claim (rightly, in my opinion) that new jobs come from an uptick in demand. And how is demand best stimulated? By getting money in the hands of Americans most in need. These Americans -- the poor and the worst off in the middle class -- will spend right away. That stokes demand immediately.
Most Republican politicians, now as in the 1930s, are allied with the rich. They claim to believe that the rich are "job creators" and that by making the rich richer still they will have the funds to put people to work. The problem with this kind of thinking, known as supply-side economics, is that it supposes something that seems nonsensical: that the rich will put people to work before shoppers or other buyers have a need for the goods or services that the new workers are engaged in providing. It seems a classic circumstance of "the cart before the horse."
Indeed, supply-side economics does not seem to function as a good stimulant to a damaged or under-active economy.
Comments