Your Neighbor on the Left Podcast
Sep 25, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
In this Friday edition of *Back Porch Files*, Don takes on the decades-old promise behind trickle-down economics: feed the people at the top, and prosperity will eventually make its way down to…
Before anybody ever called it that, there was another way of describing the idea.
If you feed the horse enough oats, eventually, some of those oats will pass through the horse, land on the road, and the sparrows will get something to eat.
Feed the horse really, really well, and sooner or later, something will make its way down to the birds.
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith resurrected that phrase more than 40 years ago while writing writing about supply side economics.
And you have to admit it paints a picture because for decades now, Americans have been hearing variations of the same basic promise.
Give businesses more room to prosper, give investors stronger incentives, leave more money in the hands of people who have capital to invest and good things are supposed to happen farther down the economic ladder.
Now, we'll spend some time today talking about why people believe that, because there is an actual economic argument behind it, and pretending otherwise doesn't help anybody.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, corporate profits from the current production reached about $4.8 trillion at an annual rate in the second quarter of this year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after accounting for inflation, average hourly earnings for American workers were actually three-tenths of one percent lower in August than they were one year earlier.
Now, those two numbers alone don't prove an economic theory right or wrong, and I'm not going to pretend that they do, but they do give us one hell of a question to start with.
Because after decades of feeding the horse, after decades of being told that prosperity at the top would eventually work its way through the rest of the economy, maybe it's worth looking down at the road and asking, how are the sparrows doing? Hello, all.
Before anybody ever called it that, there was another way of describing the idea.
If you feed the horse enough oats, eventually, some of those oats will pass through the horse, land on the road, and the sparrows will get something to eat.
Feed the horse really, really well, and sooner or later, something will make its way down to the birds.
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith resurrected that phrase more than 40 years ago while writing writing about supply side economics.
And you have to admit it paints a picture because for decades now, Americans have been hearing variations of the same basic promise.
Give businesses more room to prosper, give investors stronger incentives, leave more money in the hands of people who have capital to invest and good things are supposed to happen farther down the economic ladder.
Now, we'll spend some time today talking about why people believe that, because there is an actual economic argument behind it, and pretending otherwise doesn't help anybody.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, corporate profits from the current production reached about $4.8 trillion at an annual rate in the second quarter of this year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after accounting for inflation, average hourly earnings for American workers were actually three-tenths of one percent lower in August than they were one year earlier.
Now, those two numbers alone don't prove an economic theory right or wrong, and I'm not going to pretend that they do, but they do give us one hell of a question to start with.
Because after decades of feeding the horse, after decades of being told that prosperity at the top would eventually work its way through the rest of the economy, maybe it's worth looking down at the road and asking, how are the sparrows doing? Hello, all.
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