Sweeping new study shows 50 years of 'trickle-down economics' was a 'sham' | Hacker News Reader

Sweeping new study shows 50 years of 'trickle-down economics' was a 'sham'

alternet.org

21 pointsrbanffy6 comments

Interesting read, but seeing how the article was written by the "International Inequalities Institute" it doesn't give me a lot of good feelings that it is unbiased. I think most people can agree that if you zero in on just a single country and look at the top versus the middle it seems unfair, but what if you compare that country against others? Google, Amazon, Tesla and many other major innovators didn't arise from a country with high taxes on the rich. There has been nothing but suffering for the populations of places like Venezuela and Cuba (except for those in power who made themselves rich). You also can't take policies from a small country like the Netherlands or Switzerland and try to apply it to a large and more diverse country like the US or UK.

No one has it right, but to say it was a sham is unfair.

Google, Amazon and Tesla didn’t arise from rich people deciding to employ lots of staff either. You can’t blindly credit tax rates for the rise of exploitative employers.

Which people in power in Cuba have made themselves rich off the backs of the workers? Isn’t Cuba in the position it is because it is sanctioned by richer countries?

How does Jeff Bezos’ wealth help unemployed people in the Midwest? We already know that his wealth comes from exploiting workers, and that the wealth he has accumulated isn’t encouraging him to employ more people under better conditions. There is nothing trickling down from Jeff to his workers.

It’s almost like taxes on the rich have no impact on the success of businesses they run, as if venture capital and personal income are completely divorced.

Where did Bezos' wealth come from? He isn't sitting on billions in cash that he stole from people and can easily just trickle down to his employees (that's not how companies work). The free market decided that the company he formed and ran was worth X and X changes on a daily basis depending on how it's being run. That money came from people who gave it to him freely. He isn't exploiting workers that can't leave at any time...they aren't slaves. Bezos' wealth comes because he created Amazon and I think many people are helped by Amazon and use it frequently (myself included)...including millions of people during COVID that would have otherwise not been able to go out and get the goods they need.

Amazon employs a ton of employees that make a lot of money (higher level than the warehouse or delivery drivers). What better conditions do you suggest? Safety or compensation?

Topic already discussed this week:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25440832

Don't eat the blue mint while being trickled down upon...

I mean is anybody surprised? I can't believe anyone ever swallowed this lie. Even when I was a kid and Reagan was trotting this one out for all the adoring boomers (just aged myself there...) I remember thinking "that doesn't sound right...".

This idea of the benevolent wealthy class that shakes loose "wealth dust" for the proletariat is insane. It's way past time that we reverse course on this. We need to put the regulations and tax policies _back_ in place and shore up our tax laws. This isn't some radical idea. We actually had laws in place up until the 70's that kept the scales balanced somewhat in this regard. It's hard to ignore the wealth inequality gap began widening riiiiiight at about the point we started stripping them away...

There is something to the notion of one man having enough money to start large projects that would be out of the reach of most. However, the benefits stop there. There is absolutely no reason we can’t have huge capitalists that pay their fair share of taxes at the same time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com