Growing up, during the #Reagan, #Bush, and #Clinton presidencies, I was taught that we were living in an enlightened society.
We are actually living in a repeat of the excesses of the #GildedAge. The #poor are again suffering for the #rich.
This was exacerbated by Reagan and Bush with the #TrickleDownEconomics born from flawed reasoning. The rich will NEVER redistribute their wealth.
The question is if and when we'll ever see a repeat of the #ProgressiveEra. I hope I see it in my lifetime.
Ever hear of a rich person buying something? Maybe even buying stock?
Congrats. You've seen the rich redistributing their wealth with your own eyes.
It does no good to deny simple, obvious truth.
@volkris The stock market benefits the mega rich. It has very little effect on the economy.
If the mega rich sell a stock they either buy stock in another company with that money, buy back the stock in their own companies, or put it in high yield bonds.
They either reap the benefits themselves, or other mega rich people get the benefits.
The richest 10% of Americans own 89% of stocks.
But again, you say they buy back stock in their own companies? So they give up their money for that stock certificate? So they redistribute their wealth?
Rich people buy things. They give up their money because they want things to buy. They redistribute their wealth.
Again, I just don't think there's any use in denying this obvious fact even as we talk about ways to make society better.
For example, yeah let's tax rich people to pay for government. We can simultaneously say taxes on the rich are probably a good idea even while we recognize that the rich people do give up their money as they buy things and contract services.
Why in the world would rich people bother trading cash back and forth? That would tie up the cash so they would never be able to spend any of it on housing or cars or whatever, and I have seen rich people with houses and cars, so I know that can't be the case.
Also how do you put a stock in a bond?
@volkris Selling stock only redistributes it to more mega rich people.
Selling stocks has little effect on the economy since those stocks are either put in bonds that only benefit themselves or are traded for more stocks which are bought by other mega rich people.
The effects of trickle-down don't work as advertised. Trickle-down is supposed to effect the middle class and the poor, but it doesn't. It's more like trickle across.