As Republicans now in control of the statehouse and the Legislature, it is not surprising that they are planning to implement their economic theory of cutting taxes for the wealthy. (Funny that this benefits the governor and likely many of the legislature members.) The theory is investments by the wealthy will result in business activity that it will trickle down the economic spectrum such that the overall tax revenue will increase due to the increased economic activity and, thus, the tax cuts will pay for themselves. When this theory was first suggested 40 years ago, George H. W. Bush called it Voodoo Economics, however, Zombie Economics might be a more appropriate name.
Zombie Economics makes almost as much sense as a two story outhouse, the exception being that those who use the lower level of the outhouse know what is coming their way. The evidence verifies the outhouse analogy. The state of Kansas essentially ruined its economy using Zombie Economics. Also, if Zombie Economics really worked, the Federal Budget would be rolling in a huge surplus by now.
What has really happened is that the wealthy nobility we have created don’t really create much new business activity. Instead they have turned the economy into a giant casino to enrich themselves, as illustrated by the recent Game Stop episode. Indeed, when they screw up their gambling, such as when their manipulation of the mortgage markets resulted in the Great Recession, the taxpayers are expected to bail them out.
It is curious that expenditures to help the people on the lower end of the economic spectrum who are the victims of Zombie Economics is labeled socialism while the creation of the wealthy nobility
and bailing them out when they screw up is called good business.
Craig Gullixson
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 2/25/21