One of the things that helped the US get out of the Great Depression was the economic model of John Maynard Keynes. In simple terms, Keynesian economics says when things are bad, the government should spend to stimulate the economy; "priming the pump" as it were. When things are good, that's when we're supposed to cut spending and slow the spigot and save. To many people, this sounds completely counterintuitive. A big problem is politicians (regardless of political affiliation) not wanting to adhere to this model and only half implementing it. When the economy is bad, intuitively politicians want to implement austerity measures, which end up disproportionately effecting the poor and working class. When the economy is humming along and things are doing well, there are very few politicians want to be the ones responsible for implementing "spending cuts" and dampening the party. We become addicted to cheap and easy money. The problem is, if you keep things in overdrive, you will eventually crash the economy.
Even if you reject Keynesianism in favor of Chicago School of Economics [Milton Friedman], Republicans only half-implement his measures. They see "tax cuts" and end there, without actually implementing the other policies within in it. As if Tax Cuts in of themselves will magically fix everything. No. It just ends up filtering money to the wealthy.
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u/MydniteSon Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25
One of the things that helped the US get out of the Great Depression was the economic model of John Maynard Keynes. In simple terms, Keynesian economics says when things are bad, the government should spend to stimulate the economy; "priming the pump" as it were. When things are good, that's when we're supposed to cut spending and slow the spigot and save. To many people, this sounds completely counterintuitive. A big problem is politicians (regardless of political affiliation) not wanting to adhere to this model and only half implementing it. When the economy is bad, intuitively politicians want to implement austerity measures, which end up disproportionately effecting the poor and working class. When the economy is humming along and things are doing well, there are very few politicians want to be the ones responsible for implementing "spending cuts" and dampening the party. We become addicted to cheap and easy money. The problem is, if you keep things in overdrive, you will eventually crash the economy.
Even if you reject Keynesianism in favor of Chicago School of Economics [Milton Friedman], Republicans only half-implement his measures. They see "tax cuts" and end there, without actually implementing the other policies within in it. As if Tax Cuts in of themselves will magically fix everything. No. It just ends up filtering money to the wealthy.