Why The Trickle Down Theory?

       Several years ago now, we were told to celebrate because the Great Recession was over. Still we watched unemployment numbers not seen since the Great Depression. Now here we are being told the economy is making great strides in recovery and yet there are still many people unemployed or under-employed. How can this information, at odds with the facts on the ground, be true?
       Well, the truth of the matter is that the economy, by nearly every measurement of economics, has recovered. The stock market is continually reaching record highs. Nationally, income rates are up, the GDP is up, corporate profits are up and millions of people, previously unemployed, have found employment. So why would anyone complain? What's not to love about these factoids? After all, isn't the whole country doing better then they were four years ago? If you were unemployed in 2009 or 10 or 11, but you're now employed, how could you possibly feel you're not better off now?
       One possible reason might be that if you were making $25 per hour in 2007 and now you're making $12.50 per hour, you really aren't better off. Maybe as compared to when you weren't working at all, but still not better off enough to support yourself and your family, which is the measurement that every person has to consider.
       If the Trickle Down Theory ever worked, it no longer works. Exactly what was the Trickle Down Theory? Well, the idea was that if you provide tax cuts and other economic breaks to business and wealthy Americans, then the benefits and money will trickle down to the needy. Forget whether or not you agreed with President Reagan on this, the fact is that business and industry and therefore the wealthy, no longer need to depend on a large American workforce. Much of industrial production has been shipped to markets with far less expensive labor. Much of what has stayed in America has done so because automation has allowed industry to make do with far fewer workers.
       If that's true, and the evidence is irrefutable, then there really doesn't seem to be any reason to continue to provide industry, business and the wealthy with all those tax and other financial breaks. If the reason for those benefits and tax breaks no longer exist, then the reason to continue those tax and other financial breaks is gone.
       So why haven't those tax breaks and benefits been done away with? Have you watched Congress of late? All of Washington depends on the largess of business, industry and the wealthy.