re: #49 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Trickle-down might have worked in the age of national economies. Now capital is free to seek the highest returns, which often leads it overseas where they have to squander less on pesky overhead expenses like environmental, health and safety regulations, not to mention benefits and wages.

So the only jobs it creates for us in America are at the Wal-Mart for minimum wage and no benefits, selling the stuff that our companies have manufactured overseas.

And they’ve missed the lesson of the most robust economies of previous generations — a flatter disparity curve is better for everyone. For the economy in total, and even for the wealthy.

Ten million people with a thousand dollars each will spend more money, and buy more stuff, than a thousand people with ten million dollars each. They just do. Nobody’s going to buy 1000 toaster ovens, or 40 bicycles, or take their family on vacation for 430 days this year.

The guy who owns the toaster-oven factory, or the bicycle retailer, or the travel agency, gets a lot more business if more people can afford stuff that goes above and beyond subsistence.