Let's Try "Trickle Up" for a Change

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States of America can't afford to help impoverished working Americans, some of whom are holding down two and even three sub-minimum wage jobs, with supplemental food assistance (SNAP), or assist them in meeting skyrocketing health insurance premiums through subsidies, or with rent subsidies, but it can come up with plenty of money to let the billionaire class operate on an almost tax-free basis - with plenty of access to government subsidies.

The sky is the limit for America's billionaire class, while they fight like hell to keep the rest of America shackled in poverty.  That's no way to run a country, or a society, or an economy.  One of the rubs in that approach is that most of the super wealthy make their money through selling goods and services to the masses, and that requires the masses, those on the lower end of the economic ladder, to have the means to make those purchases - a source of income with enough left over from bare survival needs to accommodate shopping.  That can't happen if there is no floor so stop their descent further and further into abject poverty.

I read a review of a new book yesterday that I though summed up this situation well and gave some insight into a compromise between extreme wealth and life in the sewers of civilization - in its title alone.  The book is by Oliver B. Libbly, described as an "entrepreneur, non-profit leader, an a public policy 'thinker.'  Its title is "Strong Floor, No Ceiling:  A New Foundation for the American Dream."  In it the author looks at the current economic situation with the rich inevitably wanting more and more of the economic growth and leaving less and less for those who are already without, many of whom work multiple low-paying jobs to fuel the economic growth that flows into the pockets of the rich.   The rich don't like regulations and anything that puts limits on their growth, and they see taking more from others as a way to keep growing - and that greed cuts into the programs of the social safety net, programs which are intended to provide an economic "floor" for the impoverished.

Libby argues (and again, I have only read reviews and not the actual book) that if there is not going to be limitations on the amount of wealth people can accrue, there should at least be a solid floor beneath the feet of the working classes, enough to ensure survival and an opportunity for growth.

If there is going to be no ceiling, and generally speaking there is not much of one at present, there should at least be a strong floor from which others my ultimately begin to ascend and take advantage of those limitless opportunities.

A strong floor to me sounds like something that guarantees food, healthcare, housing, and education - basics for sustaining life and giving people an opportunity to work and achieve more.  Yes, that will involve some sacrifice on the upper end, and people who have amassed more money than they can ever spend may have to redirect some toward the public good through increased taxes, but in the end they will be helping form a society more capable of feeding the economy and encouraging innovation and growth.

Money will trickle up faster than it has ever trickled down.