People on the right love the memory of Ronald Reagan. They don’t seem to understand or appreciate the arms race of greed he unleashed. A greed that has so permeated the soul of this country that we may not be able to fix it.
No doubt someone, somewhere is reading this right now and wondering why Reagan is getting the blame for this. The answer is both simple and complex. Reagan was the author of trickle down economics. This resulted in the largest surge in corporate welfare in the history of the nation. Tge theory being that if the country took care of big business big business would take care of the little guy. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Couple that with a reduction in the personal income tax rate that saw the top marginal rate under Reagan reduced from 70% to 50%. That was only the beginning in 1986 Reagan further reduced the rate to 28%. Thus began the biggest wealth transfer in the history of the country.
One can only guess as to whether Reagan really believed that trickle diwn economics would work. The facts are that it didn’t work. It sugnaled an attack on labor right and the orgnized labor movement. From 1981 to 2005 most fortune 500 companies eliminated company funded workplace pensions for all but executive management. Workforce participation in organized labor today is approximately 10.3 % of the workforce. In many industries hourly wages have gone done rather than up. Conversely in 1980 the rate of Union membership was more than double.
Under the Trump administration the concentration of wealth in the top 1% has only increased. The middle class is a thing of the past and every day Joe’s are struggling to keep their heads above water. Perhaps the most confounding aspect of this 40 year experiment with trickle down economics is how every program associated with providing a social safety net is being associated with Socialism. The Socialism label is the new boogeyman for America. Except social welfare for big business and the super rich continue to go unabated.
Think!!
Eyes Wide Open!!!