The trickle down effect has long been the defense of conservative policies and tax plans. Giving tax relief to the upper-income level in assumption that their wealth will somehow raise up the people below them in lower-income levels puts a lot of faith in the goodwill of the wealthy. Looking at the period of “Reaganomics” when this idea was put to full power shows us the actual results of the trickle down ideal. Rather than raising the income of all Americans as the ideal suggests, during the period of 1980 through 1993 it was the wealthiest 25 percent of the country who benefited, while the middle-class remained unaffected, and the bottom fifth actually saw an income decline of 10 percent (Democracy: A Journal of Ideas). Despite these figures people on the supply side of the economic system glorify this period as the “golden age.” It is this blind attitude towards the average person that has led to economic policies which are increasingly leaving people on their own and under high risk in the market.
