Bill, I think the last 8 years have proven that trickle down economics don't really work on a large scale. We have more rich people than ever before and our economy is failing. Much like the Lassiez-Faire government of Hoover led to the 29 crash. I'd argue that the current crash was caused by much the same era of loose regulation. Adam Smith was a great writer, but his theory of the invisible hand of the market has proven time and again to be less than adequate. A hybrid of capitalism and socialism (oh my) seems to be the only model that works.
Under Clinton we had a tax plan that caused wealthy people to pay more, but gave some tremendous advantages. At the end of eight years there was actually a surplus of revenue, we as a country were able to actually pay for the things that we needed. Government programs like grants for disadvantaged students were widely available. They allowed my wife to attend the University of Michigan and eventually get a PHD. Say what you want, but one of the greatest economic expansions of the 20th century happened with Clinton at the helm.
We all seam to forget that the Republican ran house of Reps led by Newt Gingrich had mostly to do with cutting spending so we had a surplus... Well, that is not entirely true, Clinton DID cut spending to the Military...(The one thing I like to spend more on)
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely cannot stand McCain, and I am happy he is finally off the radar. I am a conservative first. Bush started out as a conservative and lost his way. If anything good came from this election, is that the Republican party is getting cleansed of the moderate center seeking whiny do nothing LAME NON CONSERVATIVE idiots that hijacked the republican party.
Anyhow, we all know the economy is a cyclical thing and it is OUT OF PHASE of the election cycles... It is a convenience for either political party to use this trait to attack each other when convenient. It is all kindergarten bullcrap!
Back to trickle down economics... On a smaller scale, lets use ebay for example. When Ebay increases their rates to sellers, what do sellers do? They increase the shipping and handling charges! If the aim was to punish those that made more money, it backfires, it hurts the consumer!
If my flight school was forced to pay for health care, what would my employer do? He would cut our wages!
If a small business is forced to pay a higher minimum wage to workers, he will FIRE more people, not hire more!
Our economy when it comes down to it, is driven by competition. There are simply too many pilots in the USA. If an airline had trouble finding pilots, they would pay more money to attract the pilots from other companies.
How can this problem be fixed? Simple, encourage more airlines to be created. You do this by keeping taxes low, costs low, to give INCENTIVES for people to go out and start more airlines.
If you increase taxes, increase costs, much fewer airlines will be created, much less demand for pilot jobs, no need to pay more to attract pilots to your company.
You cannot force these things on people, that is not the American way. You need to encourage growth for there to be growth.
I'll go one more step, you also need to protect businesses from lawyers, and you need tort reform. This country would sue itself to death, heck, it has already... Half the cost of a new airplane is liability insurance...
