time for demand side economy?

[undercutter799]

we've been fed a steady diet of supply side economics both in media and in practice for many decades now

seems like every time you turn on tv there is somebody going on and on about how we need to give the rich (or the 'job creators' which is the new approved fox news term) more tax breaks so that they can use that extra money to hire more people and create jobs

several problems with this concept


first of all who is supposed to consume the product that is produced by these jobs that the rich will magically create out of thin air if you give them more money? jobs exist to create goods and services, if there is no demand for goods and services does it matter how much money rich people have? why would they invest in creating more product when there is no demand for said product? wouldn't it be better to have a bottom up approach where you give tax breaks to the majority of working people and balance it by raising taxes on the top 1%? that would create demand and as long as there is demand somebody will create business (and jobs) to meet that demand regardless of whether the rich want to invest because there is money to be made


second, we are at a point where the wealth has been concentrated at the top, where the gap between the rich and the rest of us is extremely high. so, if we are to believe that as long as rich people have a lot of money they will create jobs, shouldn't we be in economic paradise right now? if the top 1% has the most wealth in the history of our nation, where are those jobs that they are supposed to be creating? and if we are to follow the supply side economics the solution is to give them more money and more power? that doesn't make sense. the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results and that's what we are doing right now



WASHINGTON (AP) — Key proposals from the Republican presidential candidates might make for good campaign fodder. But independent analyses raise serious questions about those plans and their ability to cure the nation's ills in two vital areas, the economy and housing.

Consider proposed cuts in taxes and regulation, which nearly every GOP candidate is pushing in the name of creating jobs. The initiatives seem to ignore surveys in which employers cite far bigger impediments to increased hiring, chiefly slack consumer demand.

"Republicans favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, but these had no stimulative effect during the George W. Bush administration, and there is no reason to believe that more of them will have any today," writes Bruce Bartlett. He's an economist who worked for Republican congressmen and in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

http://news.yahoo.com/studies-challenge-wisdom-gop-candidates-plans-124434243.html


Many of the same Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different "temporary" tax cut on payroll taxes should end as planned. By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase.

"It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn," says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, "but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again." The Texas lawmaker is on the House GOP leadership team.

Payroll taxes apply only to the first $106,800 of a worker's wages. The great majority of Americans make less than $106,800 a year. Millions of workers pay more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes.

$2,136 is the biggest benefit anyone can gain from this one-year reduction and the average family stands to gain about $1,000 annually

http://news.yahoo.com/gop-may-ok-tax-increase-obama-hopes-block-124016578.html

republicans are now going on record to say that they are not interested in tax breaks for the middle class, because only tax cuts for the rich create jobs in their worldview..

this whole supply side economy spiel is so entrenched in the popular medium it would be nice if somebody offered an ideological alternative

[undercutter799]

1. surprised this didn't get any responses

we can always engage in political bickering and exposing personal failings of various representative candidates, but what is the actual overall philosophy that we all, as liberals, champion?

seems like republicans got their talking points down pat, can't we formulate something on the economic front that all of us get behind? this is what I'm trying to do

[RC]

2. You are preaching to the choir.

Either DU members already know this and agree or they are trolls of some stripe or another and even they know the Republican line is total bullshit and the republican line would be all they have to offer in argument and that would expose them.

If you are looking for responses, post something even slightly non-flattering about Obama, no matter how true. The usual suspects will come out of the woodwork to defend him.


But this? 5 year old's have it figured by now.

[meow2u3]

3. Percolate up economics