Money in Motion
It's how economies work
If you want to understand how the economy should work, then comparing it to the human body is useful. We all know we need blood continually flowing everywhere for our body to work. Cells and organs need a steady supply of blood for them to remain a useful part of the body and for the body to stay alive. The more healthy cells, the better. If the flow stops then bad things happen.
Likewise, money should continually flow around for the economy to work – money in motion. The more hands that touch a dollar bill, the better. If too much of it gets shoved into an offshore account, stashed away in stocks, or sent overseas to pay for products that could have been manufactured here then that money is not moving through our economy – and bad things happen. The same can be said for local economies. When you buy stuff from local Mom & Pop shops, that money floats around in your community for a while. When you buy stuff from a local Big Box then most of that money goes to corporate headquarters, wherever that is. When you buy stuff online you can kiss it all goodbye with a click of a button.
When money is allowed to move through the economy it results in a healthier economy.
Trickle Down economics has been a remarkable drain on our economy – sucking up our money, which is rarely, if ever, seen again. With trickle-down economics, we’ve been giving a bigger and bigger chunk of our money to the wealthy and corporations (via many different types of lower taxes, write-offs, loopholes, etc.) with the idea that they will create jobs. However, there is absolutely zero promise that they’ll actually use that growing pile of cash to create jobs. In many cases the exact opposite happens – they often stash it away, buy back their own stocks so the price goes up (along with their bonuses), payout stock dividends, or invest in overseas manufacturing (resulting in more layoffs here), etc. When you hear “trickle-down” think of Uncle Sam hemorrhaging blood all over the floor.
When money is allowed to move through the economy it results in a healthier economy. Some fun ways to increase that money flow include: increasing the minimum wage, tax breaks for the middle class and below (after tax breaks for the wealthy are rolled back to where they were), and bringing jobs back home. More ambitious ways include green energy, rebuilding our infrastructure, and expanding healthcare – all of those create jobs while doing incredibly important stuff.
We need to be careful about tax breaks though because one of the best ways to keep money moving is to give it to the government. No, this is not crazy…
The government plays a big role in creating money moving throughout the economy via all its employees and the many projects they fund or do themselves. Every government employee takes their paycheck dollars and pumps them right back into their local economies – federal employees are located all over the country. Civilian government contractors spend a ton of money on salaries and projects, again dumping money into local economies. Anyone paid through the government is doing things for us and then buying stuff and services from us – pretty cool.
It should also be mentioned that much of the stuff that our government works on is stuff that we need but that businesses would not waste their time on. This is not picking on businessmen – there are high-risk, high-expense, low profit, but forward-thinking and important activities that businesses simply cannot pursue and stay in business. On top of all of that, our government buys a ton of stuff and services from big and small companies every single day all across our country – keeping that money moving along.
A good example is USAID. USAID plays a vital role in promoting global stability and safeguarding U.S. national security. By addressing critical issues like food insecurity, basic healthcare, climate change, weak governance, and corruption, USAID helps stabilize regions and reduce the risk of conflict. Maintaining a strong U.S. presence in vulnerable areas through USAID is essential to countering the influence of nations like Russia and China, which are eager to fill any void in pursuit of their own interests.
These efforts also drive demand for thousands of private-sector jobs across a wide range of industries. Sectors like farming, manufacturing, logistics, shipping, and engineering all benefit significantly. These workers, along with many federal USAID employees pump their earnings right back into the economy, with any taxes going back to the government. So, in addition to promoting global stability and protecting U.S. interests, USAID strengthens the American economy. This ripple-effect payoff is seen across all U.S. agencies.
There are plenty examples. Infrastructure projects are supported several federal agencies. These projects are expensive but that money goes somewhere – labor, supplies, materials, engineers, heavy equipment, tools, etc. Plus we get better roads and safer bridges. Likewise green energy projects allow us to learn new skills, create green technology manufacturing jobs where jobs are needed, export that technology to other countries, reduce pollution, and maybe even save the planet – not bad.
Lastly, the more money moving through an economy, the more money is taxed. This allows the government to do boring government stuff like defend America, prevent pandemics, cure diseases, develop medicines, explore renewable energy, etc. When you hear pundits and corrupted politicians say we can’t afford infrastructure or green energy what they really mean is that their wealthy friends want to pay as few taxes as possible and cling to their outdated profit sources. They want to siphon money out of the economy with all their little loopholes but they don’t want to put money back into the economy – corporatists and the billionaire class are the blood clots and the stab wounds of our economy.
When it comes to the economy – remember a few things:
- The more of our money that moves, the better
- Money isn’t burned when we invest in healthcare, infrastructure, and green energy – it moves and these investments improve our lives
- Think of yourself as an organ in the human body – your money, either taxed or spent, will find its way back to you
- Forget about the “trickle-down” con job … remember to keep your “money in motion”