Reaganomics in a nutshell

[BR_Parkway]

[hfojvt]

1. well smiling George Bush there

was the one who coined the phrase 'voodoo economics'.

[MajorChode]

3. Yet still Bush, Sr eventually warmed up to it

After nobody would bite when they called it "trickled on" or whatever, they started calling it "supply-side economics". Same bullshit, different tune. It was all based on the "theories" of Arthur Laffer (that's his real name if you can believe it). Economists who actually had credibility said at the time it was a joke and it's even a bigger joke today after it's been proved a failure (twice), yet the Republicons still try to revive it.

A bit of trivia:
The fictional Larry Laffer of Leisure Suit Larry computer game fame was named after Arthur Laffer. This lead to many renaming Arthur Laffer as "leisure suit Laffer", as if he wasn't already a big enough joke.

[hfojvt]

4. of course he never let anything stand before his personal ambition

But I still appreciate Bush coining that term. I am certainly not a fan of Laffer
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/53

[joeybee12]

6. George Sr was also pro-choice back in 1988...

...he has no principles whatsoever.

[madokie]

17. But that was only because he thought that would give him a leg up on the saint of ronnie raygun

not because he didn't really believe it himself. He is a politician afterall and one of the so called elite's

[Arkana]

2. "Fuck you, I got mine."

[Taitertots]

5. "If we give huge tax breaks to the ultra wealthy...

They will hire you as their maid"
Trickle down, they couldn't have picked a better word than trickle.

[MajorChode]

7. It's simply Repugnant economics for the ultra stupid

The only thing that's really shocking about it is how they can actually manage to cobble enough voters together to get anyone elected. It really destroys my faith in the intelligence level of the average American.

[Taitertots]

8. I'm amazed people fall for it

Lets give more money to the ultra rich, then it will trickle down to you.

Then I just think. If the point is to have it trickle to me, why not just give it right to me?

[MajorChode]

9. That would never work

Everyone knows that if you give money to the lower classes, they will just blow it (AKA put money back into the economy).

Forget that historic economic data shows exactly the opposite of what they claim. It's never about the truth or even anything remotely resembling reality. It's about political elitism.

[Taitertots]

12. It is all political

Obviously giving huge tax breaks to the ultra wealthy is only going to benefit the ultra wealthy.
Giving huge tax breaks to the poor, will make them no longer poor, then you have no excuse to give tax breaks to the wealthy.

[tabasco]

11. That's exactly what I think.

It's really mind-boggling.

I have concluded that propaganda works really well.

[MajorChode]

13. It always has...

and there's no reason to believe it won't continue, even in the enlightened age of fact checking via the internet. Those that want to purposely remain ignorant will continue to do so.

[Overseas]

10. K&R !! //nt

[Cresent City Kid]

14. Their favorite game

[Union Yes]

15. "You want us to fund AIDS research?" knr

[B Calm]

16. My experience with Reaganomics in a nutshell. In the early

80s and right after Reagan destroyed PATCO, my employer forced us to take a wage and benefit reduction. They said it would make them more competitive in the market place. Year later we took another concession, with the same thing to make our company more competitive. Shortly after the second concession we found out salary people got a raise and they never dropped the price of the product we were producing. In fact, they raised it. In 1986 my employer sold us to an unscrupulous Atlanta businessman with good banking connections. That first year with the new owner he changed the name of the company and we took our third wage and benefit concession. All though this the company was showing profits, but union employees were afraid of losing their jobs. The new employer never put a dime back into the factory and the writing was on the wall if you were smart enough to see what he was doing. He ended up defaulting on his loans and filed bankruptcy and hundreds of people were out of a job.

[Wednesdays]

18. K&R