The fatal flaw in Republican's economic thinking (Reaganomics, trickle down economics) is that it is the economic equivalent of applying the laws of orbital mechanics to fixed wing atmospheric flight. Now how is this so? Well as is the case with fixed wing aircraft (airplanes), our economy needs to be in a state of constant forward motion (growth) in order to have sufficient airflow under its wings so as to provide lift. This comes from thrust; that thrust being the buying power of the public at large whose earnings are placed back into the economic engine in the form of the purchasing of more goods and services which in turn lead to the need to hiring more people to provide these goods and services who themselves in turn will put their earnings back into the economic engine for the purchase of more goods and services themselves; generating even more hiring, further lowering the unemployment rate, and increasing the amount of tax revenue taken in at the municipal, state, and Federal level.
The extending of unemployment benefits, food assistance, assistance for housing, healthcare, childcare; all of this puts money back into the pockets of those who need it and who in turn will use these added funds to put back into our economy. Thee Republicans, by refusing to extend unemployment benefits, cutting food assistance, seeking to undermine new laws that make healthcare more affordable, reducing or eliminating funding entirely for those programs that provide financial assistance for those who need help in paying for childcare etc; starve our economy of needed thrust by reducing the amount of revenue it takes in; a situation further compounded by its giving wildly expensive tax breaks for corporations, and tax cuts for the wealthy; all of which further starves our economy of the funds necessary to propel it forward.
Less thrust equals lower speed and a reduction in the economic airflow necessary to create lift. As a result, Republican economic policies have applied the brakes to our economy, causing it to repeatedly slow down to the point where it has stalled and crashed. This is not in dispute.
Now of course if our economy operated in a vacuum such as the vacuum of space and near Earth orbit, well their economic philosophy would work just fine because in orbit, in order to gain altitude a spacecraft must do the opposite of what an aircraft does in our atmosphere. Space, near Earth orbit space, is generally regarded to begin at around 100 miles altitude. Orbit is when forward motion equals the rate of fall and so with the Earth having a circumference of approximately 24,000 miles orbital velocity is around 17,500 miles per hour and that means it takes an object flying at that altitude roughly 90 minutes to circle the Earth.
Now the Republicans argue that the economy rises when we apply the brakes and we all know that here on Earth that means first a stall and then a crash. Yet what would happen if our economy mirrored the conditions of near Earth orbit? Well in that case, a slight braking motion would of course slow the spacecraft and cause it to rise to a higher orbit. Why? Well because in orbit the less speed you need for your rate of forward motion to equal the rate of your fall. So let's say you want to attain a stationary orbit and by that I mean an orbit where you stay over the same place all of the time.
In order to do that you have to reach an altitude of 24,000 miles; a distance that equals the Earth's circumference. You do that by braking your spacecraft and incrementally reducing its speed from 17,500 mph at 100 miles altitude to 24,000 mph at 24,000 miles up. So again, if the laws of orbital mechanics applied to our economy here on Earth, the Republicans would be right, and their economic policies would work. But our economy does not operate in a vacuum. It operates in an atmosphere and like our atmosphere it is subject to such forces as gravity and drag. You can't operate a spacecraft in our atmosphere any more than you can fly an airplane in space; I don't care how hard these Republicans argue the point; it doesn't work that way; period!
So the next time you hear someone say that the Republicans economic theories are out of this world; believe it because they are.
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