Have you heard of the L Curve?

Question

I'm not an economist, but then again, most likely you aren't either. On the other hand, the economy affects all of us, so we need to come to grips with these issues to participate intelligently in the political process. There needs to be a genuine national dialog on these issues at all levels.


The L-Curve
http://www.lcurve.org/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5297476348213155147&hl=en

Answer 1

I'm familiar with the Laffer Curve. But he based his research on Jack Kennedy's tax cuts, which were across the board, and which stimulated both growth and general prosperity.

Reaganomics, misuses Laffer's study. "Trickle Down Economics" is like saying you'll get more power by blowing a hole in the bottom of the dam. Money doesn't trickle down from the rich, it moves up toward them in a strong current. This is a truth so universal that it might as well be a law of nature.

The mistake Marx made was in thinking you could stop the current. The discovery John Maynard Keynes made was that you could harness it by creating labor scarcity. Keynes used the First World War for his study, but the Plague Years are a better example. Scarce labor led to productivity boosting inventions and fueled the prosperity that created the Renaissance.

High wages, tied to productivity, and low taxes on those wages, plus Public Works projects to improve infrastructure and research stimulate the economy by boosting demand. The rich still get richer, but everyone else does too.

When you target tax cuts to the rich, they pump it into the Global, not the National Economy. So you get a period of strong growth in stock markets and GNP with no accompanying Prosperity. In fact, for most folks living standards decline, because money isn't doing it's usual tricks on the way to the rich.

Answer 2

I believe it all to be true. The people who own the most are the top one percent of the population. They have so much wealth and "stuff" they don't know what to do with it all except flagrantly waste and show off what they have to those that do not. Isn't it about time we have a redistribution of wealth in this country - heck, the world, to give others a chance at something better?

Answer 3

I've never heard of the L-curve before, but I've been watching politics since the 1980s and know that the distribution of wealth has become more and more unequal as neoconservative economic policies have become the norm.

Answer 4

Thats funny in a way. The wife and kids think its hysterical. Overall its a sad thing for our country.

Answer 5

I like the bumpersticker!

"Everyone does better when everyone does better"!!!

I have seen some businesses in my community who practice along those lines.

EDIT: Ervin keep it up!
Keep asking questions!!

Answer 6

No... What?