We progressives participate in sustaining the lie of “trickle down” economics, even as we more superficially say we oppose it. I realized today that we need to not just oppose the concept, we need to reject the very metaphor. Here’s why.
We are all (myself included) in the habit of speaking of those with money as the “upper” crust. We speak of the “top” echelon of wealth and power. We refer to the “upper” 1%, or 0.1%. We, and they, speak of wealth trickling “down” from those stratospheric heights to the rest of us.
This metaphor flies in the face of reality. The term “trickle” refers to fluid. Fluid moves DOWNWARD in response to gravity. The metaphor of wealth as a fluid driven by gravity is an excellent one. That fact is that if we stay within this metaphor, the wealthy are AT THE BOTTOM.
If we imagine a large circular sink filled with a sponge (of varying density) with its drain at the bottom, the wealthy sit in the drain. Liquid wealth is created at the very top of the sink, through all sorts of various activities. Driven by the force of gravity, that liquid wealth flows DOWNWARDS through the sponge, constrained by the walls of the sink. While it may linger in the sponge for a time, liquid wealth inevitably eventually ends up flowing down the drain — into the reservoirs of the very wealthy. The effect of deregulating the process is to decrease the density of the sponge and pull the plug on the drain. The result is that ALL the wealth we create eventually drains out the bottom into the possession of the wealthiest of the wealthy. The rest of the sponge dries out.
Liquid wealth trickles alright — it trickles downward from where it is created (at the very top layer) towards the drain, where the already-wealthy collect it.
Our consumer economy works best when we plug the drain, and PUMP liquid wealth from where it gathers back to the top. We in the 99% are the cells of the sponge that fills the sink. We function best and are happiest when we are soaked with wealth.
Our society functions best when:
1. The drain is plugged
2. A pump (operated by the government) ensures that the wealth that by nature and driven by gravity flows downward is forced AGAINST gravity back to the top of the sponge.
The lie of the “trickle down” metaphor is that it exactly inverts the true nature of liquid wealth. It is time we plug the drain and restart the pump.
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The claim of “trickle down” is that we peons somehow benefit. As we’ve seen, we do not.
The recipients of “trickle out” are the wealthy.
The wealthy are considered the top because they have a higher dollar amount to their name. I really don’t think it’s any more complex or philosophical than that.
I’ve never seem numbers trickle, only fluid. Just saying.
I never thought of it that way but you’re exactly right.
My only reservation is that I always believed that it was the privileged 1%ers that were ‘sponging’ off of us working 99%ers. đŸ™‚ But your point is well taken.
Fred Rich LaRiccia
I have an impolite aphorism: Even if the trickle down theory of economics works, you’re still getting pissed on.
I’ve heard that this aphorism has been used around the Wharton School of Business but have no confirmation of that rumor.