Zombie Myths: The Economic Lies that Just Won't Die
Zombies can be a real problem.
But what’s even more annoying than actual undead corpses shambling through the streets to devour the living are zombie myths — falsehoods that keep crawling back no matter how many times they’re laid to rest.
These are the three zombie myths that eat at me the most.
The myth of trickle-down economics
Every time I think we’ve finally buried this debunked, stinking corpse of an idea, it rises from the grave. Conservatives STILL claim tax cuts for the rich are the best thing for the economy because the rich are supposedly “job creators.”
They keep trying this, yet it never works. Trump promised his tax cuts for the rich would lead to $4,000 annual raises for workers. It didn’t happen. After Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich, middle-class wage growth slowed to a lifeless crawl. And the Bush tax cuts for the rich didn’t trickle down either.
It doesn’t take a lot of…
…to see why trickle-down economics doesn’t work. It’s because the rich aren’t the real job creators. Middle-class Americans are. Consumer spending is nearly 70% of the economy, so the economy does better when more people have more money to spend.
The myth of the “free market”
Whenever lawmakers try to protect the public by putting limits on the power of corporations in the private sector, conservatives summon this zombie myth from the grave. They claim government regulations will interfere with the natural “free market.”
But there is no free market in nature. Notice how you’ve never seen a National Geographic special about the free market? That’s because the market cannot exist without a government to organize and enforce it.
The question isn’t whether the government will get involved in the market, but how, and whose interests will it be protecting? The rich want to rig the rules of the market in their favor, which is why they keep reviving this decrepit argument.
The myth that the rich got rich all by themselves
This is one of the oldest tales from the crypt. But the biggest predictor of someone’s future income and wealth is the income and wealth of the family they’re born into. About 60% of all wealth in America is inherited.
On top of that, rich Americans’ incomes are made possible by taxpayer-funded infrastructure, education, scientific research, and national security, as well as by corporate subsidies and tax loopholes, and most importantly by the sweat of average workers.
All three of these myths keep spreading widely and rapidly, like a zombie infection, and they threaten the health and stability of our society. Please, help prevent the zombie apocalypse by sharing this video wherever you see these zombies lurking.
