Summary:

Dr. Jim examines the shifting political landscape, focusing on economic and tax policies from the Reagan era to Trump's presidency. Highlighting the disparities in wealth distribution, Dr. Jim critiques "trickle-down" economics and details a $50 trillion wealth transfer from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. He emphasizes the impact on the American working class and life expectancy, cautioning against misplaced admiration for presidential economic policies. With comparisons to Western Europe and a focus on societal outcomes, this discussion urges listeners to understand and vocalize the implications of these policies today.

Key Takeaways:

• Reagan-era tax policies significantly shifted wealth distribution in favor of the top 1%, leading to an ongoing economic imbalance.
• Dr. Jim advocates for deeper analysis of political marketing and its role in shaping public perception and policy acceptance.
• Economic comparisons between the U.S. and Western Europe highlight differing outcomes in wealth distribution and societal welfare.
• Increased national debt and economic mismanagement are associated with recurring Republican fiscal policies, particularly noted under Trump.

Chapters:

00:00

Introduction to Political Shiff

00:50

Reagan's Economic Myth

01:53

Tax Policy Shifts and Wealth Distribution

03:10

Income Distribution Change Post-Reagan

05:14

Republican Spending and Debt Legacy

07:20

Definition of Working Class

09:16

Wealth Theft and Societal Impact

11:29

Republican Policies and Racism

11:58

Trump as Contemporary Reagan

12:59

Conclusion: Importance of Vocal Opposition

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Music Credit: Good_B_Music



Mentioned in this episode:

Left in Exile Intro

Left in Exile Outro

What's the biggest con job that you ever fell for? One of the greatest things about the Republican party is their ability to market effectively. And the key to their marketing is that they will always have a surface level veneer of truth to whatever they're saying.

And they're counting on people to buy into that surface level truth and not really count on looking any deeper into the details, and that's what I fell for. When I was coming up as a teenager in my earlier twenties, where I was more conservatively aligned than centrist or left aligned.

One of the things that I often say is that if my 20 year old self met myself today, he would not recognize who I am today because my politics have completely gone to the other end of the aisle.

The big myth. That exists around the Republican party is that Reagan drove a massively successful economy. And he did have economic success, but the key difference in looking at the economic success that Reagan had and the presidents before him had is how that wealth was distributed. When you look at the greatest period of economic.

Prosperity in the U. S. That was the post World War II era.

Now, in that era, you had massive segments of the population that weren't included in that, but you still had a long period of prosperity that you could look at, and that was based on a tax policy and structure where the rich were paying their appropriate share, the more wealth they accumulated, the more they had to pay

that shifted when Reagan took over.

The top 1 percent have blown away all of the other percentiles in the American population are, and are accumulating more and more wealth. And that is a symptom of Reagan's trickle down economic policy, which ended up. Leaving everybody behind.

You've heard me say over and over again, that since the Reagan era, there's been a 50 trillion dollar theft of wealth from the bottom 90 percent to the top 1%.

That falls right on Reagan's feet. And yet none of your conservative commentators will actually talk about it because it pops a hole in the myth.

S. of the things that I would recommend that everybody take a look at is look at income distribution pre Reagan and post Reagan. And you can find a lot of this data on the world inequality index or the world inequality database.

And one of the interesting things to observe is that prior to Reagan taking over, you had an an income share where the bottom 50%. Got a larger percentage of the income share than the top 1 percent in the U. S. Now, post Reagan, what you'll notice is that the bottom 50 percent share of the national income has gone completely into the seller, while the top 1 percent share of the national income has continued to rise.

And now where we have the Trump regime taking over again. One of their big initiatives is to give another massive tax cut to the billionaire class.

Now, when you look at the Reagan economic record and you compare it to that of Western Europe, what you'll notice is that the income share has remained fairly stable with the bottom 50 percent of the the population earning a larger share of the national income than the top 1%.

And that's remained stable from the eighties going forward. So that gives you an idea of the impact of Reagan era policies on the American citizenry compared to European environments.

And what you've seen is a ballooning debt. That has been consistent except for when Democrats are in charge.

You've got to give credit to Republicans when it comes to the, spending debate, because they painted this picture of Democrats, quote unquote, spending like drunken sailors.

But what happens anytime that Republicans control the house and control the presidency? Spending goes through the roof. You saw it in the George W. Bush term, and nobody said anything after he took us into two foreign adventures.

And then as soon as Barack Obama took over, it was, Oh, Obama's spending like crazy.

And you saw it again with Trump in his first term, where he accounts for one third of the total national debt through his poor spending policies. We shouldn't be surprised by Trump's spending record.

I mean, this is somebody that has been bankrupt seven or eight times or whatever the number is. You lose track after a period of time. So you knew that he was going to be draining the country's reserves and resources as fast as he could to Pat his own paycheck, which he certainly did during his first term.

And looks like he's got that on steroids this term. And it's only been six days

And here's the thing, the interesting thing that Republicans have done is that they've kind of divided up society in a way where only certain people qualify as working class and everybody else is. Taught or brainwashed into thinking that they aren't working class. Let me redefine what working class actually means.

Working class means if you rely on anybody else for your paycheck, you're part of the working class. So essentially the only people that are immune from Republican policies are those people that have 50 million or more in net worth. And that's being generous. Let's say if you don't have at least 2 million in a, in net worth or in the bank.

Impacts you, which is clearly a lie.

The top 5 percent has gotten a greater and greater share of the income gains that have happened over that period of time. And you're seeing the middle and the bottom of society get left [00:09:00] further and further behind. Again, the 90 percent of us are falling further and further behind thanks to Republican policies when it comes to meddling with the tax code and giving away.

Resources to the ultra ultra wealthy

and all of this Has had a massive societal impact. When you look at the situation that we're all in today, just there's something like 70 percent of the U S is living paycheck to paycheck. And when you're looking at that percentage of the American population that is doing whatever they can to make ends meet, that is a direct.

Outcome of Reagan policies and poor Republican economic and tax policy showing up as they put in policies that absolve the rich from paying their share. The burden falls to the bottom 90%. And this is how that wealth is stolen from us on a regular basis. Thanks to Republicans.

And that's had a massive outcome in terms of our individual life expectancies as well. One of the enduring legacies of Reagan's policies, his giveaway to the rich policy that has been taken up by every Republican since him has led to lower. Life expectancy, poor health outcomes for, for Americans compared to the developed world.

And then the other part of it is, is that the marketing machine of the Republican Party has vast numbers of the population thinking that. If these things are put into place, the people who are going to be taking advantage of it are going to be the Brown and Black faces in society. So the institutional racism is being played by Republicans to make sure that no one has any sort of safety net.

When you think about the biggest con job that you fell for in your life, that can take shape in any number of ways, but this, the whole Reagan mythology about him being a great president and him his policies setting America up for success and prosperity, that is one of the biggest cons that I have ever fallen for.

Joe Biden, and he's going to have a year to 18 months of good economic performance, maybe less based on some of the policies that he's putting into place.

And when the economy tanks, his game plan is going to be to blame Biden when it's all his policies that are causing the economic crash. If we aren't vocal about the Impact and implications of the Trump economic policies.

We're going to have another 40 years where we're living under the myth that Trump was some sort of economic genius when he's already coming into the office, having engineered the worst economy since Herbert Hoover.

Being saddled with a entire segment of the population that buys the myth that Trump was a business genius, a presidential genius, and an economic genius. Reagan was a fraud and a failure and the negative impact of his economic policies are being felt now. And if we don't do a good job of educating everybody on what the impact of Trump's economic policies are.

There's going to be a generation of people that are going to be looking at what they're seeing in front of them and blaming the wrong person