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"trickle down theory" seems obviously correct to me. Like, if a person has lots of money, it's stupid to sit on it - they invest it, found businesses, hire people, buy things - all of which are putting money back into lower tiers of the economy to me. Am I missing something big?

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It sounds fantastic in principle. But, the people who should be moving the money just sit on most of it.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

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@Dogrules23

But are they actually sitting on it? If they were then this might change my opinion. Do you have any sources or something

11:45 PM · Dec 27, 2019

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and

No, they’re not. Even if they just put it in the bank, it then gets loaned out and invested by someone into something. People with money don’t tend to hide it under their mattress.

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and

The recent tax cuts that promised trickle down lead to enormous stock buybacks instead of investing in the economy forbes.com/sites/annemari

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I don’t know if this is exactly a source, but it’s a pretty well-renowned person saying it. cnbc.com/2018/01/04/war

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and

The fact that there are literally billionares is source enough. No one ever needs that much money to just live off of.

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and

Too lazy to look up myself, but if money weren’t being sat on unused I doubt there would be such a thing as negative interest rates to compel folks/corporations to take money out of bank their accounts.

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and

I think a lot of rich people spend their money on yachts, mansions, fancy cars, political lobbying, expensive vacations, gifts for family & friends, etc That all sound like it’s “trickling down” any? ...

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and

money is changing hands at multi-decade lows while the economy is supposedly "booming". Gains are being concentrated at the top and not trickling down. This is why Friedman advocated for a negative income tax. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MZMV

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and

Every chart you've ever seen that shows "1% pulled in X% of the country's total income earned this year" - and X is always 80+ proves that you're wrong. If they were spending it income would trickle down and evenly distribute.

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and

In not so well regulated/policed markets, investing in market is risky so people rent seek with land or buy gold or just stash cash.