I wrote this piece because I've been frustrated by the scarcity of material written by progressives with the purpose of persuading conservatives and undecideds. So much of our writing is directed only at the choir.
So I'd like to offer this as an example of something that can be sent to one's Republican/conservative friends, family, co-workers, etc. Feel free to use it as your own or to edit, expand, or change it as you wish.
And if you have similar ideas, please share them.
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WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON HERE?
If you've paid attention to the economic debate in America these last 30 years you've noticed two competing "expert" opinions:
a) Those who tell you the economy improves when taxes for the wealthiest ("job creators") are lowered, regulations are removed, vital services are privatized, and unions are busted.
b) Those who tell you the economy improves when taxes for the wealthiest are increased, consumer protections are strengthened, vital services are publicly funded, and workers are organized.
Most good people, regardless of where they stand on this issue, are likely to assume that the incorrect side is simply making an honest mistake. Both sides want what's best for average Americans, but the economist on the wrong side is just using bad math, faulty logic, poor reasoning, right?
Not so.
In fact, the expert economists on the wrong side aren't making a mistake at all. They are deliberately misleading the American public with figures/"facts"/statistics they know to be false.
But why would they do this?
Because their interest and motivation is not to protect America's middle class, or to ensure American prosperity for the future, but to increase the profits of the top 0.1% at the expense of everyone else.
These guys aren't stupid. They've done the cost/benefit analysis. And they've found that a healthy American middle-class, with good pay and benefits, and a strong social safety net, while great for the bottom 99%, hurts the top 1%'s profit margins.
It used to be that the wealthiest elite needed a strong American middle-class because it ensured a healthy consumer base for their products. But not anymore. They simply don't need us now. The emerging world markets, particularly in China, are growing so rapidly that they can continue to have a profitable global customer base even after the US economy is permanently destroyed.
Their only interest in America's workers is to squeeze every drop of productivity and profit they can out of us while giving nothing back in return. In other words, turning America into a third-world country actually serves the interests of the elite CEO/shareholder/banker class, making the richest 0.1% much richer than they were 30 years ago.
So it's pretty obvious why they wouldn't be talking about this, and instead are selling the public on economic theories that they know to be false. After all, if average Americans were aware of this dirty little secret, we'd never let them get away with it.
But, you ask, doesn't the wealth trickle-down to the rest of us when the wealthy are taxed less, allowing them to "create" jobs?
Well, after 30 years of trickle-down/supply-side Reaganomics, during which time the top tax rate has dropped all the way from 70% down to 35%, we now have a definitive irrefutable rock-solid factual answer to that question: NO.
http://rationalrevolution.net/...
("Trickle Down economics was a Trojan Horse")
We also just had the 10th anniversary of Bush's even deeper tax cuts for the rich. So where are all those new jobs they were supposed to create with all that extra wealth?
...Yeah, I don't see them either.
So what result have we seen from 30+ years of lowering taxes, removing regulations, and destroying unions?
Between 1979 and 2007, incomes for the wealthiest 1% of Americans skyrocketed by 281%, while incomes for the bottom 90% fell when adjusted for inflation, producing the greatest wealth concentration at the top of the income scale since 1928!
http://www.cbpp.org/...
It only makes sense once you realize that this is the result they wanted all along. They knew perfectly well that these regressive economic policies would hurt the poor and middle-class and that only the rich and well-connected would benefit. They didn't care.
But they knew the only way they could get these self-serving policies passed is by hoodwinking the very people they would be hurting the most: average working American voters like you and me.
But sadly, most Americans are still in the dark. And it's only getting worse.
Talk show hosts like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc, and Tea Party leaders like Dick Armey and Sarah Palin are paid extremely well to falsely portray the interests of the Top 0.1% as the interests of regular folks like you & me. And they are paid extremely well to falsely portray the interests of huge predatory multi-national corporations as the interests of "small" business.
Again, they've done the cost/benefit analysis: For every million they spend deceiving the American voters, they can see as much as a billion in increased profits.
Don't get me wrong, not all rich people are bad. In fact, you can find a few good, honest ones here: http://patrioticmillionaires.org/
Like billionaire investor Warren Buffett who admits "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Isn't it funny that they only call it "class war" when we, the working class, fight back?
So what can you do about it? For starters, you can vote for those candidates that make economic argument B above, not those who make argument A.
For more info, please see:
http://conservativemyths.com/...