I am the owner/manager of a family business, an entrepreneur. My business, like most in this country, needs CUSTOMERS WITH CASH. I say "most businesses" because the financial industry is different, and antagonistic to my own; the financial industry needs clients with debt. Every dollar of debt which a person incurs for the basics of life is a dollar which they cannot potentially spend in my business.
When a person's income covers the basics---food, medical care, shelter, education---then they can consider spending a little in my own business. To raise people's incomes and lower their debt levels is crucial to the health of my business. This I would term "DEMAND SIDE ECONOMiCS", which results in a virtuous cycle---people support both my business and the larger economy better, which leads to more investment, employment and social stability.
On the contrary, every dollar of debt needed to pay for medical care, education, housing or life's essentials is a boon to the financial industry, but a drag on the rest of us. If a citizen has more debt, they come less often into my business and they spend less when they do come. I and my business are in effect paying for our refusal to provide the means of support to all people. The result is a cycle of vice---a squeeze on persons' incomes, leading to greater debt, more problems for business, less employment and less meaningful employment, and greater social problems. This is widely known as SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS. Notice that this is centered in the financial industry, and is antagonistic to the interests of most citizens and most businesses.
From 1945-1980 or so we practiced DEMAND SIDE ECONOMiCS, the result being widespread prosperity, strong institutions and leading the world in most measures---health, education, technology, manufacturing, so on and so forth. What is Demand Side Economics?
A. Rising incomes in the lower and middle classes due to strong unions, rising minimum wage, Social Security and Medicare). This insures both that the individual can pay his/her way and in the process lift the economy.
B. Heavy taxation of the top 1% to keep money in circulation and to prevent it from pooling at the top.
C. Strong investment in PUBLIC GOODS such as schools, highways and infrastructure, Social and Medical insurance. This keeps people active in the economy, both in employment and in spending, and at the same time gives strength, stability and the preconditions for growth. (BTW: I myself think that this is the definition of a "Social Democrat"---that the society AS A WHOLE provides all members of society with meaningful access to certain fundamentals such as work sufficient to provide the basics of life, also infrastructure, retirement and health care.)
D. Strong regulation, especially of the financial sector which by its nature is both predatory and leads to boom-bust cycles.
Then starting in the mid-70s we got away from that, with the result that we've had lower growth, rising poverty, a declining middle class and greater social problems. We were sold Supply Side Economics, and told that if we just lowered taxes on the top incomes, reduced investment in public goods, reduced taxation of the wealthy, and set the financial sector free, the results would be prosperity for all. But, as we've learned, the result is misery trickling down, rather than prosperity. We have become a "Suck it Up" economy where more work is extracted from most citizens, while providing them less and less security, and they are left to fill in the rising gaps with more work, more debt and poorer health (in every sense of the word). Whereas in 1970 we led the world in many categories of well-being, today we lag far behind the developed world in most measures.
Bernie's plan is to do what we already know from our own history works: raise demand by increasing the minimum wage to a LIVING wage, raise Social Security to relieve the squeeze on the elderly, strong infrastructure spending, provide for the more efficient and widespread financing of health care, regulate predatory finance, and progressive taxation. In short, it's demand side economics.
I'm convinced that I and my business will be better off under Bernie's program. Why? Demand side economics will give me more customers with cash. Additionally, my business will spend less on employees' health care, and will have more to left to invest, grow and employ others. Just as we see better with 2 eyes, walk better with 2 legs, we will function better with 2 economic engines powering growth in 2 different ways. Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Democratic Socialism are not antagonistic, but complementary.
come up with. I so badly want Bernie to win. Especially after watching the CNN forum tonite. He knocked it out of the park! 
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is fine, but he shouldn't stop saying socialism.
