Trickle

Sshhhh. Come closer. Listen. Did you hear it?

Well I heard it. It’s the same old talk about growing the economy and the middle class from the middle out. This works for my waist line, but I’m afraid that the very idea of its working on the economy defies what we call the laws of science.

People want to think that economics isn’t a “real” science because you can’t put it in a test tube, but in fact economic principles have been observed in the laboratory of society for many centuries, and the results are well documented.

In the trickle down scenario the physical analogies are so plentiful and simple as to delight even the youngest student. EVERYONE has experience with this concept:

Let’s say you want a glass of water. You have lots of water, but it’s in the pipes. You want it in your glass. You can’t just blink your eyes and wiggle your nose and “poof” it’s in your glass. There are steps that must be taken. I won’t go into them all here, but ultimately, if you get up from your chair, walk into the kitchen, get a glass and go to the faucet in the sink, and turn the tap, the water will trickle, or flow into your glass. If you try to put it in too fast you get a mess. EVERYONE has experience with this.

Want to put air in a tire? Same deal. Things will naturally flow from an area of high concentration to a lower level all on their own if you properly prepare a path. Once the path is prepared the gates can be opened and flow will commence. It’s the same principle used in irrigation and hydro power. It’s wonderful. It’s natural. It’s (dare I say) organic. But there is no step skipping. You can't move directly to lush crops from a dry level plain. First you have to do the preparation, first you have to dig the canals and ditches, and then you have to be willing to allow the FLOW to do its work.

In job creation it’s exactly the same. No job was ever created by two middle class guys each wanting to work for one another. Wealth flows, or can flow, from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower. Every job I’ve ever had was offered to me by someone that had more money than I did. I was grateful to have them. The preparations were made, the work was done, the gates opened and some of their wealth flowed to me. I, in my turn, passed that wealth along to others. People in the government today are claiming that they want to grow the economy from the middle out, but the claim makes no sense. The government can’t create jobs out of thin air, and it most certainly can’t create wealth. Now it CAN confiscate wealth from those that have it and transfer it to those that do not. But when all the wealth is gone, what then? Then we will have removed the incentive to achieve wealth and there will simply be no more produced. The Soviets tried this and the Chinese. Tens of millions of people died as the result of this experiment in “social justice” in the 20th Century and yet somehow there are people who say “just one more time”. “I just need more time”.

Politicians can not do what has been proven to be physically impossible.

But that’s just what an average guy thinks.