Trickle Down Economics Illustrated

[JimGinPA]

[canetoad]

1. LOL

Good one.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. When are Liberals going to learn?

This might be the expectation for the broad population, but it is not how it works in red counties. There ARE occupations that do better when the upper class has expendable income. I'll name a few: Tennis Coaches, Interior Decorating, Lawn Service, Personal Trainers...

See the pattern? None of these jobs require diplomas from major universities. These are the people who will always support Republicans, especially if they live in red counties, because they depend on customers who have disposable income. When their customers are tight on money, theirs are the first jobs to suffer.

As long as Liberals fail to see this connection they will miss an even greater opportunity to expose the intentional segregation that goes on in white island communities (red counties), where people generally hire like-minded individuals. Thus, discrimination is guaranteed.

Conservatives thrive in these communities where they get to call all the shots, because money and occupations are inducements. They will put their dollars into the hands of people that support their political beliefs.

Meanwhile, we're the idiots who try to be fair. Christ, I once contacted a Civil Rights leader in Central Florida just to ask for an organization that would accept a donation of furniture and get it directly into the hands of poor people in depressed areas and he suggested the Vietnam Vets. I had been donating to them for more than twenty years, and just wanted to expand my donation base. So I was just surprised to discover that minority leaders aren't doing for their own communities, what leaders in these insular white suburban communities have been doing for decades.

Lord knows you have plenty of opportunities to call their hand, because they skirt the law whenever they have to.

[ProudLib72]

3. You make a good point

However, these are all service industry jobs. Even if you own your business, you still have to put up with rich assholes as customers. Moreover, we fool ourselves into believing that education is the only way to upward mobility. It's a false assumption, but middle class American culture insists on it.

I have met three people in my life who were entrepreneurial minded and smart enough to pull off creating a business. Actually, one of them was my best friend in college, and he took over his father in law's custom boat building business.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Trickle-Down economics over-simplifies how money gets redistributed in red counties in Florida.

Last edited Sat Jan 6, 2018, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)

Rich people will always be a factor in business, but in Central Florida, we have a strange social dynamic going on that influences the distribution of wealth - and not in a fair way. I saw this process for the first time in the nineties. It may have started as inherently, good ole boyism, but it evolved and embedded itself into traditional organizations, until if finally took over.

Back in the nineties, our local government was seeking support for large public works projects and reached into the civic and professional organizations where they knew they would find the loud-mouths in our community. At the time the two groups were engaged in a headlock over a land development issue. The local government infiltrated the private groups and tapped the ambitious and the most fluidly ethical. Those people got the nod and became community leaders.

They didn't even have to ascend to positions on a board in a proper fashion to control what happened in our communities. As a newcomer, I saw how their authority was established. The word got out that they had special access to the city leaders. We were lied to and told that we didn't have any leverage in an important zoning matter that directly affected our Association, so our only option was to rely on this one person in our community. So, we ended up with two leaders in our community. One that was a named president, and the other was the good ole boy "ambassador" to the Mayor.

I was victimized by this process. I never had any preparation for this, no warning that something like this was even possible. There was just no known or shared history for the things that were occurring in my community. Over the years, I saw firsthand the dysfunction and favoritism to others that would tarnish my American Dream. So, I researched and studied public records and came up with an understanding.

What I found were networking circles that defined and eroded just about every institution that is supposed to provide a fair process. I can tell you, without blinking an eye that THIS IS THE RED FLORIDA COUNTIES ACHILLE'S HEEL. They have two parallel lines of leadership running concurrently in a community. And the one that always wins, is the one that has jobs opportunities or other inducements that can be used to seduce just enough of the population to squelch dissent in the others. WHEN A LOCAL GOVERNMENT TAPS INTO THESE GROUPS FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSE, THIS IS WHAT SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION LOOKS LIKE.

These networks run through-out Central Florida and hits just about every profession. The only way to break it, is to bring in outside legal professionals who will start filing Civil Rights lawsuits.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Sometimes the homeless shelter, or whatever local organization

serves the homeless can be helpful. The best of those organizations are working to get homeless into housing as well as jobs.

Were I rich enough, I'd endow my local homeless shelter with money to get furniture and household necessities (linens, dishes, cooking utensils, and so on) when someone is moved into a home or apartment. Among the bad things about being homeless is that you often wind up with absolutely nothing, and so when you do get a place to live, you're worse off than a young adult starting out in his first apartment, because mom and dad are not now around to give you dishes and the like.

And I understand how frustrating it is when you want to help and it seems impossible to get your help to the right place.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. +1

Thanks for the information.

[disalitervisum]

4. If we followed the European educational model of apprenticeships for industry

we could solve a lot of these economic problems for people who can't afford college.

[NJCher]

6. Yes, and have

A capable selection of plumbers, carpenters, etc. As it is now, it’s luck of the draw and most of the time, I am severely disappointed with the level of skill.

Cher

[dchill]

8. Our educational model is celebrity apprenticeships.

And we're self-taught!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Yes.

Although we also have a community college system that, while not quite an apprenticeship system, is still good at training people for jobs.

Depending on the cc, there are certificate programs that can be as short as a few months, and full-on two year degree programs, all of which can lead directly to jobs.

One problem that schools have (and I'm talking four year as well as two year schools) is that they all have some kind of placement office, and they are very frustrated that so few students come to them.

A while back I was in a two year paralegal program, and one of the requirements of the very first class we had to take, was to spend some time in the placement office, and work with them on generating a resume. The woman who was the head of the paralegal program at the time was very focussed on making sure the students could get jobs at the end. She also maintained contacts within the legal system in that area that could get internships, which were highly useful.

But the current meme that all young people should get a four year degree is utter nonsense. Not everyone wants that, not everyone is capable of that, and lots of jobs don't require that. Oh, and with all due respect to the anthropology majors out there, not all majors are suitable to get employment.

I will tell young people (unsolicited, because they never ask me) that they can go ahead and major in whatever they love, but never to lose sight of the fact that after college they will need to support themselves.

And while I don't know hard facts, I'd guess that well over fifty percent of all jobs out there don't require college, just the hands-on knowledge to do that job.

[dchill]

7. There you go.

[djacq]

10. Trickle Down Economics in Real-time

Time Magazine reported 50+ companies will give investments and bonuses to their employees;

[link:https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/5074911/tax-reform-bill-company-investments-bonuses|

Including Boeing;

[link:http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2017-12-20-Boeing-CEO-Muilenburg-Applauds-Tax-Law-Announces-300-Million-in-Employee-Related-and-Charitable-Investments-to-Spur-Innovation-and-Growth|

Boeing’s 2016 Revenue was $94.571 billion.

What is Boeing’s generous “Employee Related” trickle-down “Investment”?

0.32%

What gets trickle-down to the employee’s pocket?

0

[Rocket_Scientist65]

11. A little math lesson is in order.

Total revenue is NOT net profits. If your total sales was $100 million but the costs including labor, materials, marketing etc, is 90 million to generate those sales, your profit is only 10% of total revenue. In Boeing's case:

Total Revenue for 2016 (in thousands)
$94,571,000
Cost of Revenue
$80,790,000
Gross Profit
$13,781,000
Operating Expenses:
Research and Development
$4,627,000
Sales, General and Admin.
$3,313,000
Non-Recurring Items
$0
Other Operating Items
$0
Operating Income
$5,834,000
Add'l income/expense items
$33,000
Earnings Before Interest and Tax
$5,874,000
Interest Expense
$306,000
Earnings Before Tax
$5,568,000
Income Tax
$673,000
Minority Interest
$0
Equity Earnings/Loss Unconsolidated Subsidiary
$0 $0 $0 $0
Net Income-Cont. Operations
$4,895,000
Net Income
$4,895,000
Net Income Applicable to Common Shareholders
$4,895,000

$300 million on $4,895,000,000 is a not insubstantial 6.13% of net profits, not 0.32%, so yes, that is a substantial investment.