SUMMARY: Reading time: 4 minutes
A study from the RAND corporation analyzes how trickle down economics has robbed the middle class of $80 TRILLION dollars since Reagan was in office. The oligarchy means to take our democracy, our rights, and our money and the Republican Party is committed to helping them.
KEY WORDS: Trickle Down Economics, Upward Transfer of Wealth, Income Inequality, Wealth Gap, Ronald Reagan, Republican Presidents, One Percent, Heather Cox Richardson, RAND Corporation
COMMENT: Let us know what you whether you think the ascendance of the oligarchy is a conscious goal of the Republican Party or not.
- TL;DR Precis of Trends in Income from 1975 to 2018
- Changes in the Distribution of Income
- The Effects of Income Disparity on a Society
- Oligarchy Backlash to Biden’s Attempt to Restore the pre-1975 Economy
- Image Attribution
Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American 19 December edition included this gem:
Except it [Reagan’s trickle down economics] didn’t. A February 2025 report from RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, written by Carter C. Price found that if the system in place before 1975 had stayed in place, the bottom 90% of Americans would have had almost $80 trillion more in 2023 than they did. When Democratic president Joe Biden took office in 2021, he set out to restore the economic system in place before 1981, protecting workers, boosting infrastructure investment, breaking up monopolies, and protecting consumers
Letters from an American, 19 December 2025 by Heather Cox Richardson.
What?!? I KNEW it! But there is a RAND study that demonstrates it?!? Of course there is. There’s ALWAYS a RAND study, right? Well, I HAD to see it for myself.
Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018
TL;DR Precis of Trends in Income from 1975 to 2018
For those that suffered from TL;DR, let me offer this precis.
The report analyzes the ways income distribution have changed over four decades and change from 1975 to 2018. In short, the higher earners (those in the top 20%) experienced incredible increases in their income, especially those in the top 1%. While those of us slumming it in the bottom 80% saw slower growth and in some periods negative growth.
Changes in the Distribution of Income
Spikes in Income Disparity Correlate with Republican Presidents
Notice how the increases in the share of income for the top one percent correlate with the huge tax cuts for the wealthy during our trickle down economics periods, especially during W’s reign of error (2000 – 2008) and the subsequent bailout of corporations in the Great Recession.
The Great Regression: Robert Rich’s New Film Mainstreams the Dangers of Income Inequality by Pam Martin’s in Wall Street on Parade on 3 October 2013
The analysis suggests that the tax and deregulation policies initiated by Reagan and furthered by every Republican administration since has contributed significantly to this widening gap. Now, we’re at about the same level of inequality as we were at the beginning of the Great Depression.
Skyrocketing Income Disparity Since Reagan
Robert Reich helps us understand how income distribution changed during the periods of economic expansion from World War II to 2012 in this chart:
As can be seen, the share of income growth going to the top ten percent of earners began to expand rapidly after the end of World War II. With Reagan’s election income inequality widened at alarming pace, ending with negative growth during the recovery from the Great Recession.
Roert Reich’s Faceook Page, 26 Septemer 2014
Trickle down economics was never about creating jobs or benefiting middle America. It was always about funneling as much money as quickly as possible from the bottom 90% to the top ten and one percent of earners.
When we begin to mix in demographics like education, race, and family structure, these inequalities are only worsened for select groups of people. Disadvantaged groups are crippled even more by the ravages of trickle down economics. Given the racial attitudes of the Republican Party since Reagan, you can begin to believe this is part of the point.
The Effects of Income Disparity on a Society
Historically, when a country experiences wide gaps in income inequality, a whole host of negative outcomes occur:
Feelings of being treated unfairly and general feelings of dissatisfaction increase among the populace, leading to social and political instability. As these feelings of being excluded from the benefits of the wealth a country is producing increases, civil unrest becomes increasingly possible.
Social cohesion declines, leading to political polarization and declining economic growth. Also, the bottom 90% of the country are less likely to participate in the social, cultural, and civic activities of the country ceding control to the upper ten percent.
Economic instability is linke to high levels of income disparity. Such countries are plagued by financial crises, increasing debt levels, and rising inflation.
Health outcomes decline, including physical and mental health as well as social problems in general. While violence increases, life-expectancy decreases.
The wealthy threaten democracy. As higher percentages of wealth are concentrated in fewer people, they begin to feel more entitled to control government and society. They actively begin coopting democratic institutions and processes in order to control them and direct policy.
Sound like any country you know?
Oligarchy Backlash to Biden’s Attempt to Restore the pre-1975 Economy
Every policy the Republican Party has advocated since Reagan has been explicitly designed to transfer wealth to the upper ten percent and increase the power and influence of the Epstein class. Like sea ice traps water, extreme wealth traps money. However, a healthy economy relies on the flow of money between people. With so much of societal wealth held by so few, that flow is greatly retarded, threatening our economic, physical, mental, and democratic well-being.
We must continue to sound the alarm that the Republican Party is anti-democratic and anti-captialist. They are pro-oligarchy and authoritarian. The only way to survive this authoritarian moment is to put our history in perspective and defeat the oligarchical powers… again.
As Heather Cox Richardson makes clear, when Biden attempted to restore the pre-1975 economy, Trump, the most unqualified person in the history of the world, is reelected. Better to have the blundering corrupt buffoon in office than return to a fairer system.
Image Attribution
This image was found on WikiMedia.
The Psy of Life 