Unless you are already making $375,000 a year, R economic policies wont help you
Did I get your attention?
Let me say straight out that I don’ know if that $375,000 figure is accurate. It could be higher or lower.
What I do know is that most Americans have no idea whatsoever as to where they personally stand in the economic hierarchy. Most Americans believe that they are in the top 10% of earners. They believe this because they live in neighborhoods surrounded by people in the same economic tier as do they. They look around and see neighbors who are worse off than are they, so they figure they’re doing OK to great in comparison.
And therein lies the problem of framing R policies thru the use of statistics and percentages that mean nothing to the average American. Tell them that the majority of benefits from R economic policies help the top 20% and they think, “great! I’m in the top 10%, so it helps me.” Tell them the policies help only the top 1% and they think, “great! My R congressman says all I need do is salute the flag and contribute to their campaign and before you know it, I’ll be in the top 1%.”
And THAT is why we need to frame these policies in terms of hard dollars and cents. Only 10% of Americans make a six-figure salary, yet the majority of Americans apparently believe they’re doing just great. We need to point out to that family of four that is trying to live on $60k a year that unless they have a way to quickly increase their gross earnings six fold to over $300,000, that R economic policies will do them absolutely no good, that the tax breaks being proposed will not put an extra dime in their pockets.
We need to battle perceptions by offering a dose of reality. Hard dollar figures are a reality that cannot be as easily manipulated as expressing economics in percentages.
Just my two cents.
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