Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved 

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I remember back during the Reagan Administration when “trickle down” economics was first introduced.  The idea was marketed as “ we give huge tax cuts to the wealthy and they will in turn re-invest in America and create jobs”; this was a win/win for the country.  After all, if you tax the people creating jobs, supposedly they won’t be able to create jobs.

This plan, was marketed to the public as an economic theory and plan that just couldn’t lose.  If America’s workforce would just bear the brunt of heavy taxation with no special loopholes, hedges, deductions or other tax escape mechanisms provided to the wealthy,  the wealthy would create vast and wonderful high paying jobs.  The benefits of relieving the wealthy and corporations from paying taxes on 100% of their income or profits would magically “trickle down” to the working class.   

It worked!  They did create jobs; in India, Pakistan, China, Taiwan, Mexico and any other nation where returns on investments could be predicated upon slave labor wages and government protection. Oh…and they then got to ship their crappy products back into the US tax free and we got Austin (a.k.a. Abdul) answering the phones for many major corporations.  

The wealthy invested alright; in everything and every place but America.  The economic bleeding from the US to foreign markets accelerated to such a rate that businesses literally disappeared overnight and took with them the jobs needed to keep America working.  Off shore accounts were set up to provide fictional business addresses for the stashing of funds, assets and anything else of value in order to avoid US taxes.  

The only thing that trickled down to the working and middle class was diminishing wages, a lower standard of living and increased costs of living.  Oh, yeah….and taxes went up too….but not on the wealthy.  The Reagan years marked a major event in the redistribution of wealth as the middle and working classes were relieved of ever increasing amounts of annual income and the country’s wealth was redistributed to those in the upper 3% and to corporations. More