Life is complex. It’s not as simple as checking a box. Are you a conservative or a liberal? Are you with me or against me? The reality is that life is not one-sided. We are rarely all for or all against something. This is where cooperation comes in.
Cooperation is critical to a healthy society and Americans generally come together for the common good. Although we value working together to solve community challenges, we also thrive on competition. We balance these realities with the power of our wallets. The stronger our wallet, the greater our influence on the health of our economy. People are at the center of Middle-Out economics.
For 40 years Americans were told that transferring wealth from working people to corporations would drive the economy because money at the top would trickle down to the working class. The results are in. Trickle-Down made a few people rich while exploiting the working class.
Middle-Out economics distributes economic power into the hands of average Americans. We are witnessing a powerful economic transformation where a healthy democracy is dependent on both cooperation and competition. We know that people produce market demand, and when working people have money, we spend it. If we can, we save it for a better life. When we are free to participate in a fair economic system, big business responds. Demand drives supply.
Middle-Out is a political strategy. For example, Michiganders are now seeing tax relief bills passed so that seniors and parents with children have more purchasing power. These small steps are part of a bigger American idea that will lead to a better life for everyone.
All of us need to talk about Middle-Out economics and draw the contrast between a world where people work to enrich a few (Trickle-Down) and a better world where working people thrive because of good paying jobs, livable communities, and fair government policies (Middle-Out).
Inform friends and family about the differences:
- Trickle-Down was top-down. Middle-Out is bottom-up.
- Trickle-Down benefited the rich. Middle-Out benefits us all.
- Cooperation and competition are American ideas that work for us all.
- A healthy democracy runs on people-driven economies.
