When I first heard the theory behind “supply-side economics”
in the 1980s I immediately smelled a rat. The idea that cutting taxes on the
wealthy would benefit everyone else down the road because they would invest
their money I suspected from the start to be complete nonsense.
Here’s what might surprise you: I got that idea from my
Calvinist background — specifically, the doctrine of “total depravity,” which
holds that sin has affected every area of life. That is to say, when some
supposedly foolproof idea comes to the forefront with a lot of flash-and-dash I
start looking for the sin.
The truth is that such tax cuts not only haven’t led to such
investment but probably were never designed to do so in the first place; it was
always a justification for straight-up greed because our economic culture was shifting
toward short-term (read: immediate) gains.
I learned nearly 20 years ago that a healthy economy comes
from money turning over several times in a community before it leaves, and in
such a mentality that’s never happened in the neighborhoods that could use it
the most. Folks complain about the poor being on welfare, but 1) If the jobs
aren’t in those neighborhoods, what is someone to do?; and 2) They still have
to buy stuff from stores that might employ people.
That’s why the new tax-reform bill — probably better referred to
as “tax-deform” — being voted on in Congress will have no lasting positive
effect. Numerous analysts have noted that under the proposed plan federal taxes
on people making $100,000 per year or less will actually rise in 10 years.
Basically, the sin I’m talking about is not only greed but outright lying about
its long-term effects.
Last month a group of left-leaning religious leaders were
arrested while protesting in the Hart Senate Building; they recognized that it
would hurt the poor, so they read a number of Bible verses about justice for the poor, numbering around
2,000, in the rotunda. Of course, when people like Isaiah made some of the same
claims they paid with their lives.
I’m thinking — and hoping — that we’ll see more of this.
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