Note that between 1970 and 2008 the top 1% have seen their average income increase by a whopping 284%. But the bottom 90, over those same 38 years, have seen their income decrease by .003%. In 1970, the bottom 90% earned about 9.75% of what the top 1% earned. By 2008, the percentage for the 90% had dropped to 3.42%.
The truth is that for the rich to make more, others have to make less. After all, the economic pie is only so big -- and if one group gets a bigger piece of that pie, then less of the pie is left for everyone else. The idea that wealth would "trickle-down" from the rich was always a silly idea. The GOP, either through ignorance or through meanness, decided that wealth should not be shared any longer in this country -- so they tilted the economic playing field to favor the rich (and disadvantage the 90%).
Prior to the imposition of trickle-down economics, the growth in productivity was shared by most in this country. Owners and executives got the biggest share, but workers also got a share -- and that contributed to rising income for everyone (and the growth of a healthy middle class). But after trickle-down was instituted, the owners and executives no longer had to share the productivity growth -- and they didn't. None of the new wealth trickled down, and in fact, some of the old wealth was taken from workers by the rich.
How did they do this? By weakening unions, encouraging the exporting of jobs, letting corporations and the rich hide money overseas to avoid taxes, cutting taxes for the rich and corporations, keeping wages low (especially the minimum wage), and deregulating Wall Street and the financial industry.
How much longer are the American people going to let the GOP get away with this disastrous policy? How much longer are they going to believe the Republican lies? It is time to vote the GOP out of power, so this country can return to a sane economic policy -- a policy that lets everyone share in the country's wealth -- and not just the rich.
"How much longer are the American people going to let the GOP get away with this disastrous policy? How much longer are they going to believe the Republican lies?" UNFORTUNATELY, it is like Sam Harris' quote on belief systems you posted. The people who re-elect members of the GOP (Grand Ole' Prevaricators) believe the lies because they want to, because it gives their lives meaning, and they don't want to live in a world where "trickle-down" doesn't work. So they perpetuate the myth by "NEVER" giving up on the myth even after it bankrupts them.
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