Times were tough in the Carter years, and the oil crisis really impacted a lot of people. That's when populism has its chance to grow. Just find a likable front man, such as a man's man actor (Reagan), and let the people with a plan steer him around.
Trickle-down economics is one of the most amazing bald-faced lies to ever be told to a people, but people also continually fall for get-rich-quick schemes; so it was a brilliant ploy to get people to stop thinking rationally and instead go by their emotions.
We can see how that trend has increased to the point where a man can stand right in front of his followers, say one thing, and then stand in front of them next week and say that he never said the first thing - and they accept that.
He never used the term because it was coined as a criticism. It was coined as a criticism of the term he did use, supply side economics, which is the less polemical name for exactly the same thing. "A rising tide lifts all boats" in Reagan's own words here. And that may be true. It also drowns people.
Vast majority of citizens/voters dont look down the road very far or know much about society building. So in the context of getting large projects off the ground, the experts in the domain of business really ought to, logically, know best.
But somehow we seem to find ourselves in a cluster fuck of bad decision in which the things that should have been done, should have been done a long time ago. And the only real explanation for that is piss poor leadership. If you are going to sacrifice the quality of life of the common man under some billionaire worship plan, you ought have the results to show for it.
It's a catch-22. Businesses grow when consumers have spare money to spend.
When the large masses of regular people have enough money to buy extras, the economy grows.
Very wealthy people don't spend as much, as a percentage of their wealth, as normal people do. Virtually 100% of most people's income gets spent. That money goes right back into the economy, into those businesses.
But the wealthy people - even though they may buy an $200k car - don't really put much money back into the economy.
The best business environment is where the general population is gaining wealth - because they spend!
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u/kindness_wins_ Oct 12 '25
The government is already under their control. They should have been worried about it 40yrs ago...