CommentsVIEW FROM HERE--We’ve all heard about Trickle Down economics where the government gives millions, billions or even trillions of dollars to the wealthiest and then tells us that it is good for the little guy as enough edible scraps will fall from the banquet tables for the rest of us.
There is, however, the opposite economic principle which benefits people at the bottom and helps everyone above the poorest. It’s called Gush Up. That means the government gives money to the poor no matter who they are. Because the poor have to spend every cent, all the money given to them has to Gush Up the economic ladder. The super wealthy are simply greedy and they want direct cash into their pockets without taking the extra steps to help We The People.
Gush up Has a Couple Problems: Pelosi and McConnell
Neither Nancy Pelosi nor Mitch McConnell (photo above Pelosi and McConnell.)wants to do anything that they cannot control to their benefit. As retiring Congressman Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass) said on December 9, 2020,“the great lie of our times [is] that the American pie is finite. That for my family to survive, yours must suffer. That the richest nation on Earth is somehow plagued by scarcity – rather than greed.”
Americans fall for the “great lie” because they are divided into two warring camps where the dogma of their side lives independent of facts. The Dems are convinced that they are all holy and the GOP are all evil, while the GOP believe that are all holy and the Dems are out to destroy the nation by converting it into a socialist dictatorship of the minorities. Each side has ample evidence to prove the perfidy of the other and very little truth to support their side.
The public’s ignorance about Gush up epitomizes how the Dems and the GOP victimize everyone. For starters, everyone has heard about the fraud known as Trickle Down, which both the GOP and the GOP strongly support in practice, but virtually no one has heard about Gush Up. Gush up is simple – when people lack money, the government distributes cash to each individual. The purpose of is relief. The purpose is not a stimulus. The Dems and GOP think it is disadvantageous to their self images to admit that all America needs “relief.”
Politicos like Pelosi and McConnell get way with such economic tomfoolery because Americans do not know about Gush Up. Americans who live at the lower end of the economic system have a variety of ways to get by – some legal some not legal – they often have to use the underground economy to avoid the burden of taxes. It varies from family to family. Perhaps grandma is able to give some money to her children and grandchildren or perhaps the opposite is true. Perhaps dad and the teenage son both work extra jobs under the table. The daughter never reports her baby sitting income. There may be some dope dealing. When disaster strikes, this elaborate and undocumented economy is devastated. The proper economic response is simple and dates back to Adam Smith in 1776. The cure of lack of money is money. John Maynard Keynes articulated this principle within the context how a government can modulate the swings of the business cycle, but the principle holds for unforeseen disasters like a pandemic. When money goes to the everyone including the bottom, the poor pay their bills and their payments help those above them and the cash which starts at the bottom works it way up – fast. Hence, the name, Gush up.
There was plenty of product so there was no need to stimulate the economy. (Hoarding does not mean there is a production shortage; it means that many people simply have far more toilet paper at home than they need) People’s incomes had been cut off and they needed money.
Money is not everything but one problem which money always relieves is lack of money. The purpose of Munchin’s proposed two checks for $1,000 each to each individual per month, which Pelosi reduced to $1,200 once, was to financially relieve people – not to stimulate the economy. Because so much of the economy at the lower level is informal, extending unemployment will not relieve people at the bottom. The proper economic response to the Safer at Home is to give out the cash to the bottom and to keep the cash flowing. That is the base of the nation’s economic pyramid.
Politicos do not like to dole out money unless it goes to someone who can benefit the politico. The flip side is to prevent money from going to anyone who may be on the other side. Prior to the election, Pelosi did not want funds to go out to relieve the suffering. The more suffering, the more likely people who would vote Dem. She shrewdly maneuvered a bill through the House which she knew the GOP would find intolerable. She used it to grandstand about how wonderful the Dems were to finish their relief package and how perfidious the Senate GOP were not to approve it.
On December 4, 2020, Pelosi admitted that her demand for a huge “stimulus” package throughout the summer and autumn was to get a Dem elected President. “That was not a mistake, it was a decision,” Pelosi said of her choice to demand for months a deal three times as large as what she’s now settling for. “That is a total game changer — a new President and a vaccine.”
Now that Biden will be President, Pelosi admits her callous disregard for poor Americans, “It [the current bill] is less money, but over a shorter period of time, and we need to do it to save lives . . .” (Bold added, Dec 7, 2020, TIME) Now, she worries about saving lives but not before the election!
Still, Nancy Does Not Want Relief for the Poorest
Pelosi wants to dole out the money to her supporters, e.g. states like California, big city mayors, like the terminally corrupt Eric Garcetti. She does not want the money to go directly to people. Instead, she’ll dice and slice the populace –a special bill to buy PPE, a special bill for retailers, a special bill for restaurants, etc.
If on the other hand each person received $1,000 twice a month, restaurants would not have to try to pay their employees while closed. Waitresses would be able to pay their rent and their landlords could pay their mortgages. Giving money to the bottom provides relief for everyone above them.
These payments are not a stimulus. They are immediate relief for people who cannot afford rent, food, medicine, etc. We see with long food lines at food banks which are running out of supplies while the grocery stores have stocked shelves. There is not a food shortage. There is a purposeful money storage by greedy, craven politicos who see the misery and suffering, which they have brought upon us, as an opportunity to funnel government money to their buddies while Americans are dying and slipping below the level of third world countries.
Like Rep. Joe Kennedy III said, it’s all about greed.
(Richard Lee Abrams is an attorney and a community relations consultant. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch, He can be reached at: [email protected].)
-cw
