Robert ReichIt is hard to overstate how damaging trickle-down economics has been for the American economy. It has eviscerated our tax code and empowered a class of oligarchs that dominate our political system.
Tom 🇨🇦@rbreich Adding insult to injury, it does exactly the opposite of what its proponents claim
Dario@rbreich @misterscience The intended purpose of naming it so.
Jörg PreisendörferMr Secretary, #TrickleDownEconomics and the #Ideology of #NonIdeologicallism have been devastating everywhere, not just in the US. :)
Rhinestone Squirrel@rbreich And it's hard to change it, because a sizable portion of voters keep voting for things to stay this way.
christina b@rbreich
Want to come explore the dynamics to counter this from a cooperative perspective?
christina bowen (@[email protected])
Who’s interested in a #SystemMapping exercise over the next couple months considering the “Success to the Successful” archetype in the context of #cooperatives and Chokepoint Capitalism? I’m especially looking for participants who have experienced success and subsequently been frustrated by structural barriers to sharing their success and lifting up others. #ComplexityWranglers Reply here to get notified when we start mapping, if you’re curious.
Unprecedented 2023@rbreich Thanks to the Hollywood actor. We have to stop electing actors and reality show guys.
Voron@rbreich it would be kinda nice if the Dem party took this seriously and I don’t know 🤔 ran on it 🤷♂️
Justin Fitzsimmons
Gasch@voron @rbreich well, no, I'm just saying don't expect Democrats to be able to solve this problem. To be clear I'm not advocating voting against them either, at least not while there's no viable option further to left. I'm just saying that the political landscape has to change quite a bit before we can expect to see prominent anti-corporate leadership.
Brad 🇺🇸 🇺🇦@rbreich I believed in it when I was young and in the military, Reagan was so convincing. Now I see it as the catalyst for transforming the US into Russia. It's the lie that makes the poor poorer & the rich richer.
Grandpa Don@rbreich
As was its intent. It always was an overt move to European Middle Ages feudalism. Then Citizen's United raised the drawbridge over the moat.
As was its intent. It always was an overt move to European Middle Ages feudalism. Then Citizen's United raised the drawbridge over the moat.
Agolf Twittler@rbreich Wealth Trickles Up....
TIM
Cat Power@rbreich do other successful countries use this "theory?" If not, what do they use?
Willow!@rbreich it's called "voodoo economics" for a reason
NanaKim@rbreich And it has made people like Elon Musk think they can rule the world.
Hoss Cartwright
Bc Clarity Carlton-Martin@rbreich 40 years Henry Kissinger still roams free.
Ann1944@rbreich
If this doesn't change it will help bring down your democracy
If this doesn't change it will help bring down your democracy
nobodyzhome 
I can't believe how many struggling people have bought into it.
"If I only work harder...", "I trust corporations more than the government...", "Billionaires have worked for all they have..."
Those are all symptoms of trickle down economics failing everyone but the wealthy.
@rbreich Capitalism incentivises wealth hoarding. There is no way to solve "trickle down" on its own. The system will just reproduce it. We have to address the system.
GreengordonCanada, too. Both countries are essentially oligarchies.
Blue California Native 🌻@rbreich
What a mess.
What a mess.
@rbreich mission accomplished
plgepts@rbreich ... and led to an impoverished graduate student class, in the name of transforming a public asset #universityofcalifornia into a privatized good and #trickledown #economics #FairUCNow #UAWOnStrike
Bshires1010@rbreich 100% agree. There should be more in the media about this. Specifically television media. I don’t understand why there isn’t. Oh wait media is run by billionaires.
CLS@rbreich Agreed. Something noticed if an individual does not agree to the peeking order the process of funded whitewashing gaslighting and other acts are carried out. My first comprehension of this was the life of NOAM CHOMSKY. The old skull and bones club referring to the once before HONOURABLE MASONS.
Paul 💙 28 💔 💚Trickle-own economics was always going to be a confidence trick... it was designed as a con... and with all Confidence tricks it sounded plausible, it was created that way to fool people
Those that promoted it were the beneficiaries of the con... but it gave them the narrative to continue to fleece the rest of us.
Politicians are the snake oil salesmen and women... dispensing policies to benefit themselves and there mates... but never us
Dan Wentzel 🏳️🌈@rbreich They can also buy and control the systems of broadcasting and online communication to fight activism against political and economic authoritarianism. That is part of why I love #Mastodon and the #Fediverse. It literally by definition cannot be bought or controlled.
Scenario@rbreich And most of us are trapped here.
Morin@rbreich Still paying the Reagan years.
🇨🇦 TRH 🇨🇦@rbreich That's because there are two economies, one containing the rich and one containing every one else. Once the rich spend money it only circulates amongst other rich people and the businesses that support them, leaving an increasingly smaller amount of capital in the general economy.
You can say your state economy is worth a billion for example, but the wealthy 10% of people will effectively siphon off half of that and remove it from circulation as if they buried it in the back yard.
You can say your state economy is worth a billion for example, but the wealthy 10% of people will effectively siphon off half of that and remove it from circulation as if they buried it in the back yard.
@rbreich
Extremists posing as moderates did this damage starting with Reagan.
Sad, working folks pay 46% of their earnings in taxes. They go and vote for right extremists. Billionaires pay zero.
Extremists posing as moderates did this damage starting with Reagan.
Sad, working folks pay 46% of their earnings in taxes. They go and vote for right extremists. Billionaires pay zero.
British Tech Guru@rbreich Trickle down economics didn't work in Britain either.
Apple Blossom@rbreich exactly as it was designed
Let's go to the 3DBB.@rbreich Proud to be a tax and spend liberal.
latca@rbreich The trickle up economy though works as expected.
mots@rbreich and i don't know who the 'Rich' will abuse,misuse, suck off of, when we have been removed from the equation. i hope they learn how to clean a toilet or fix a water system by then.
EmoluMental@rbreich
Just the way the gop intended
Just the way the gop intended
Erin PDX/Roma 
ChristineSaysHi@rbreich Because of the international power of the US economy, trickle down has damaged many other countries globally too, and changed a trajectory of improvement for vulnerable people to one of exploitation. But billionaires and their lackeys love it.
teledyn 𓂀Sorry, I'm a bit confused here and not well educated on such, but can someone explain how "trickle down economics" differed from the other 350 years of capitalism or the thousand years of feudalism &c before that? A good link will suffice.
Andy Kotlarz@rbreich Capital has the curious property of always flowing towards power. Power and capital are interchangeable - power attracts money and money is easily converted into power.
There is no such thing as 'trickle-down economics' - the reality is the opposite. But the rich and powerful have discovered how eagerly the poor and powerless buy into this lie, and so it propagates.
Ultra Verified 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Democrats will not stop Reaganomics in my lifetime. Even if they have 60+ Senate seats and 240+ in The House.
Lorian Taylor@rbreich
Wasn't that the whole point?? Very few rich people or corporations do anything for the good of the country!
Wasn't that the whole point?? Very few rich people or corporations do anything for the good of the country!
Declan@rbreich it seems economics trickle down and austerity trickles up but they never pass each other on the way
SunnySideUp@rbreich Qpublicans call it trickle down but they’re really just pissing on the backs of the working class.
MikeZilla Minus One@rbreich hi Robert - glad to see you over here
I was just reading the discussion started by the post below by Secretary Reich on his feed, and I was thinking, “Wow. What an intelligent group are these ‘Mastodonians.’(copyright)” Then I got to the guy ranting about the “globalist Zionist economy.” Sigh… At least I know to block this person early on in my Mastododonian(copyright) journey.
Yugoboy@rbreich As with any economic idea, it makes sense on paper, but real people find a way to make it suck. The real world needs more nuance and flexibility than most primary voters and radically active people realize.
SFborn1940@rbreich The gap between the rich and everyone else has been growing for some time. Isn't that trickle-up economics?
vy@rbreich Oligarchs are not new in the USA and pre-date trickle-down. John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, Stanford, Carnegie, Frick, J.P. Morgan, not to mention the whole class of aristocratic criminal slavers in the South who really poisoned US politics with a poison that is still there.
BigD@rbreich We have a Leader of NZ National Party, Christopher Luxon who leads a centre-right party in our NZ parliament. He has been trumpeting various ill thought through ideas and comments since he took the role. One that really stood out was his condemnation of people whom are content to be "bottom feeders". They must be the ones that are feeding off the trickle down. Or maybe feeding off the ones in the next tier, feeding from the ones above them and up and up till you get to his tier?
@rbreich
Taxation is civilisation. How can a nation pretend to be civilised, when it does not provide healthcare to all its citizens?
Taxation is civilisation. How can a nation pretend to be civilised, when it does not provide healthcare to all its citizens?
@rbreich glad to follow you here!