The Failure of Supply Side Economics

All week, as we watch the economics of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, I keep harkening back to the GOP's philosophy that we have small government and that each of us is "on our own" when it comes to taking care of our civic, educational, social and economic life.

This article from MyDD.com does a much better job than I ever could of explaining why Supply Side Economics (the ol' trickle down theory) has failed us all, but especially those on the lowest economic rungs of our society. Here's a quote:

"And as Kos has pointed out repeatedly, the supply-siders' agenda has been to shrink the size of government until "we can be drown it in the bathtub". We're seeing the true cost of these policies in New Orleans right now. Spending on priorities like fixing the city's levees was ignored while supply-side tax cuts were pushed to the fore. From large scale economic data to the horrific impact of federal budget cuts on one city, these are the costs of supply-side economics writ large."

This article in today's New York Times also provides a good status report on the effects of Supply Side economics. Here's another quote:

"For liberal economists, the data prove that supply-side economics has failed to deliver under Mr. Bush, just as it did when President Ronald Reagan applied it in the 1980's. Rising corporate profits and dividend payments clearly haven't trickled down into gains for people who don't own companies or stock, says Dean Baker, co-director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington. "The wage gains," Mr. Baker said, "are concentrated in the upper-income level, just as they were in the 1980's."

A good question to me is: what will the Democrats do in response to the Hurricane's aftermath? Not that everything is political, but it appears that there is a vacuum of leadership that the Democrats should take advantage of, especially while these images are fresh in our minds. (Cue Senator Edwards!) If they don't, then they have no value whatsoever to anyone.