I hesitate to get into economics in a medium whose economic model is slightly more promising than buggy whips, but that's where we need to go today. I assure you, I'm as qualified to discuss economics as your uncle sitting on that Eastern Airlines stock.
Once upon a time, before Dre was a Doctor or John was a Papa, the rich and the large corporations in this country paid much higher percentages of their income in taxes than everyone else. It made sense, they were reaping the most benefits from our economic system, so they could contribute more to the society as a whole. Under this model, we became the economic engine of the entire world. We had an affluent middle class, the best public school system in the world, and we sent people to the moon. We built the interstate highway system, we put an entire generation of veterans through college, and we were the envy of the world.
But one day the country's electorate suffered simultaneous brain lock and elected a former monkey co-star to be president. The former actor's running mate was so taken with his revolutionary economic policy ideas that he dubbed them "voodoo economics". The idea was that if we let the rich and the big corporations and banks keep more of their money, ie, less taxes, they'd spend it on workers and more yachts. The money would flow down hill and we'd all be rolling in the hundred dollar bills rich people lose in their cushions. The "trickle down" theory became the over-riding national economic policy. It has yet been proven to work, unless you sell yachts.
We're well over 30 years into this model and it has devolved into what we now recognize as the dog and fire hydrant model of economics. In this case, of course, the dog is the rich and the fire hydrant is the country. But sure enough, there are whole fake news channels dedicated to convincing you that, sure enough, that really IS rain wetting your leg. And based on a lot of comments I hear from your uncle, a lot of people are loving the wet pants look.
Well, maybe not so much. It appears that those who believe Reagan wrote and signed the Declaration, then won the revolution single handed, just got some bad...no, make that terrible, news.
Forbes Magazine, long the symbol of all things wealthy and exclusive, just published an article claiming that Barack Obama, current president of the U.S. ( no matter how much you can't accept it), is the BEST economic president of modern times. He crushed Reagan in all commonly watched categories such as reduced deficit, few federal employees, and contained inflation. Reagan grew the deficit, hired MORE federal workers and watched as inflation skyrocketed.
In the interest of lowered blood pressure and fewer stokes, maybe you should keep this bit of news from your uncle. You know he's not going to get it from his favorite 24 hour noise channel. You know the one. Mr. Reagan changed all the FCC rules to make it possible. It stands as one of his more destructive legacies. One of many. But we'll save that story for another day.