Ayn Rand had it Bass Ackwards. The Rich are NOT the "makers". The rich are the TAKERS!

[econoclast]

99. Actually, no.

I see this fallacy trotted out like wisdom all the time. It takes BOTH supply and Demand to have a healthy economy.

The classic look at a low standard of living economy with high Demand was the old Soviet Union. Everyone had a job. Everyone had money to spend. But there was nothing to buy. Everyone went around with mesh shopping bags in their pockets on the off chance that some shop would have something worthwhile ... Meat ... Shoes ... Razor blades ...whatever. People would see a line outside a store and automatically get on the end. Even before they knew what people were queued up for. If there was a line, whatever it was must be good. Either it was something you wanted yourself or something you could trade.

That's what Demand alone gets you.

The old Soviet Union also showcased the opposite .... Supply with no demand. There were consumer goods stores that ONLY took hard currency... Dollars, Deutschemarks, Swissy, Pounds. These storeshad everything!!! Except customers. They had TVs, radios, fashion etc. But they were usually empty. Because, legally almost everyone got paid in rubles and could only own rubles. So with only rubmes you couldn't shop there. No hard currency? Out of luck.

So there were two disfunctional parallel systems. One with all demand and no supply. (The ruble system). The other with all supply and no demand. (The hard currency system)