Where do you fall on the scale if falling for trickle down economics?

[applegrove]

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2021, 10:44 AM - Edit history (3)

I was taught economics in University Nova Scotia and did not question the idea that we could not sustain too much debt. It was in all the news when i was in high school. I admired Chretien and Clinton's fights to tame that beast. I was never for tax cuts. Supply side was explained to me as aggregate supply curb being bent, not trickle down which i never believed. My older brother, at school in the United States, was given Ayn Rand to read and was a conservative for all of three weeks (he had not had a girlfriend yet which is pertinent to liking Ayn Rand). Within that window, he was brought to dinner by friends with Arthur Laffer who told of his napkin trick. My brother soon converted his friends to Liberalism. I was for negative income tax (basic income) and robust social programs always. As a canadian from a medical family i am for public health care always. My grandfather practiced socialized medicine in his rural community before it was law for 50 years. My grandmother ran the farm so that people would have options to help out instead of paying cash. Mostly they just left what was owed by the poor on the books and ignored it. My great grandfather was a Liberal politician in ottawa who introduced income tax to Parliament (Union Government). My dad was a Liberal fundraiser who held teas for wealthy Liberal ladies to get their support for the party in the 1970s. He was a Trucking Trade Association guy. When a Transportation of Dangerous Goods Law was being negotiated in Ottawa my dad supported the regulations at some point, breaking with his Truckers (who were influenced a great deal by the American Trucking Association). His truckers pulled the funding for his Association in anger. My dad put his own money into publishing a handbook on the new laws for Truckers and Management. He put his own money into payroll. The truckers needed that information and forgave him. Besides he was well informed because he took the bus to work from a senior civil service neighbourhood and talked to the senior civil servants on the bus about government plans and knew what was up before anyone outside of government. The propaganda on debt was heavy in Ottawa. So too in my high school our history teacher told us the US Civil War was not fought against slavery. Seems Canada was in GOP plans. My first election i voted for Conservative Brian Mulrooney as i was worried about debt. All subsequent elections I have voted for the Liberals or the NDP. I supported Buttigieg, Biden, Bernie, Biden this past election season. I'm with Krugman's thinking that there are factors, like people buying stuff that comes from overseas, that keep inflation way lower. That more debt can be sustained. And i think there is room to share that windfall, that went to the wealthy with tax breaks and a window to bring foreign profits home, with workers by aggressively promoting unions and minimum wage hikes. And a war on poverty. And infrastructure spending. Etc. And all the policy tools that are cutting edge and were ignored under Trump.