Article originally published on www.YourBrilliantFutureHereNow.com.
“A second American Revolution for hope and opportunity.” This was the slogan used to unveil a plan to end a recession, reign in runaway inflation and unemployment, and spur a stagnant economy.
Years later, President Ronald Reagan would be lauded by some as the greatest president of the 20th century.
Trickle-down economics is the theory that increasing riches for the wealthiest will trickle-down to the rest of us; i.e., cutting taxes stimulates economic growth, driving business to invest in operations and hire more workers.
But, how much does it really?
Trickle-down economics has also been called a cleverly disguised bait-and-switch wealth redistribution plan, the working class the engine of prosperity for the 1%.
It’s no secret CEOs are contractually bound to shareholder primacy instead of a healthy balance between shareholders, people, and our planet. Predatory capitalism has made multinational corporate profits so strong, the stock market is being driven to new heights.
Yet, because of the globalization of the labor force, worker wages continue to stagnate while corporations work harder than ever to evade paying an estimated $70 billion in tax revenue via offshore entities.
BOOM TO BUST
Beginning in the 1980s American families experienced an unprecedented boom in personal wealth. McMansions and minivans were produced en masse to meet the demand.
But burgeoning prosperity was due to many factors external to tax cuts.
It was the cusp of a new technological age; the government expanded military spending and arms sales to anyone and everyone. The biggie—worker unions had fought for many generations to earn a decent living with solid benefits—and finally won.
Reagan’s tax cuts were followed by eleven tax increases to ease a swelling deficit that canceled out any temporary gains. International trade agreements, and the dismantling of worker unions and protections happened.
Add deregulation which led to boom/bust cycles that generated even more windfall profits for the 1%, and viola—America’s new “casino” economy came on the scene.
The rules written by and for those who got a trillion dollars richer in 2017, lawmakers have just engineered another windfall Part Deux despite a 2015 International Monetary Fund supply-side economics study stating: "We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth — that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down."
In other words, capital put in the hands of you and I is immediately recirculated, servicing unmet needs and invigorating impoverished to modest lifestyles. Capital kept in circulation creates trickle-up.
Capital taken out of circulation for the purchase of fixed assets such as land, buildings, and equipment are long-term investments not likely to be quickly converted to cash. Add to that stock buybacks, executive compensation and shareholder dividends.
After delivering a crucial vote, Sen. (R-Fla.) Marc Rubio later admitted the tax bill, “. . . isn’t going to create dramatic economic growth.”
The middle class may see some modest bumps in salary/hiring and slight income tax reductions, but they may be quickly taken right back out of your pocket as the deficit begins its projected $1.4 trillion swell over the next decade.
Berkeley professor and former Sec. of Labor, Robert Reich, says we can expect to see further cuts in social safety nets such as Medicaid and Medicare, Pell Grants, Housing Assistance, and cancer research along with backdoor tax increases through the elimination of deductions.
BACK TO BOOM AGAIN
The United Nations currently investigating extreme poverty in America, there’s a new game in town that’s been working quietly behind the scenes offering the 99% a mostly level playing field, a voice, and a vote that actually counts.
Call it for-benefit business via direct democracy, or you can call it Trickle-Up Economics.
The positive bits of capitalism are carried forward, discarding what doesn’t work to generate win-win. All of humanity is sustainably uplifted while protecting the environment.
In YourBrilliantFutureHereNow.com’s infographic below, non-profit cooperatives (NPCs), employee-owned businesses, some private foundations and charities that are not used solely as tax shelters, open-sourcing, crowdfunding, and a universal basic income are all examples of trickle-up economy business models.
Click here to view Infographic courtesy www.YourBrilliantFutureHereNow.
Gaining favor and traction, properly managed organizations in service of the profit, people, and the planet are thriving regardless of market manipulation. Your investment as a stakeholder gives you a vote, your voice is heard, and ordinary individuals get to write the rules.
In his movie Prosperity, Well.org founder, Dr. Pedram Shojai, demonstrates how simple individual choices affect your prosperity.
- Are you banking with non-profit credit unions and investment firms that put your conscious and the planet first, returning profits to its depositors via lower fees and higher rates of return?
- Are you investing your time, money, and energy in sustainable and ethical businesses?
- Is your spending supporting your local community?
- Are you working for a for-benefit business that cares about its employees and the planet as much as profit, giving you a vote in how things are done?
An updated 2017 What Would Love Do Foundation special report forecasts capitalism’s failure is inevitable. Citing peak population rates and “profligate materialism” as two of many factors, “Capitalism fails sustainability testing under both growth and non-growth conditions.”
The Foundation’s website then offers practical solutions—including a Global Humanity Bill of Rights—calling for a thriving cooperative trickle-up economy as a floor to personal prosperity, not a ceiling. “When we come together to collaborate, we allow for limitless personal micro-economies, the cost to the individual small, the rewards potentially exponential.”
A trickle-up economy offers unlimited human potential and capital. Self-funded and debt-free, NPCs, crowdfunding, and open-sourcing could eliminate the need for resource-draining safety nets required to offset the negative benefits of a win-lose economy.
Dr. Shojai says “The challenge we face is simple. We can’t predict the future, but we can help make choices that turn us in the right direction.”
But, it must become a movement.
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Article courtesy of www.YourBrilliantFutureHereNow.com