The Kool-aid And The Right-wing Propaganda
Have you noticed how every right wing omniscient activist ends his sermon with the phrase—keep drinking the kool-aid?
I am referring to the comment of one of my readers who was right on the money stating that I am not an economist. Sure, I am not, I only have a MBA from Purdue University, but do I need to flag my certificate to debunk a few of the myths propagated relentlessly by the corporate media?
“Shall we discuss that the "rich" are the ones who gives the jobs to the very people he so badly wants to help?” The rich never gives job to anyone, they only hire workers to produce if there is a market demand for it. Opportunity for production comes out of demand, and demand is generated by consumption. When consumption goes down, demand goes down, and the rich stops “giving” job to poor, and that is called unemployment—what we have now in abundance.
Rich is not a category defined by an income level--so you say, why then define poverty level? Is poverty level higher for the habitants of DC Vs the mountain dwellers? The biggest myth that the reader claims however, “It has been shown time after time and study after study, that decreasing taxes raises revenue,” this is a blatant lie.
To the uninitiated, I would suggest reading this article of Larry Beinhart, in which he discusses in depth the effect of tax cuts and its devastating impact on economy. Let me just give it here in a nutshell:
Influenced by the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation, Ronald Reagan cut top marginal tax rates from 74 percent to 38 percent. What followed immediately was surge in the markets, and then came the worst crash since the Great Depression. Then Bush Sr. cut taxes and a severe recession set in, debt soared and wages for working people fell. This was later improved when he raised taxes. Then came Bill Clinton, who raised taxes on the very rich and things dramatically improved, giving rise to surplus after many years of deficit. Then came Bush Jr., who cut taxes on the rich again, which created unprecedented double digit deficit, under a single administration it wiped the surplus created by the previous administration and led us straight into the Second Republican Great Depression, in 2008.
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