But trickle-down has it exactly backwards: Properly understood, the middle class is the source of all growth and prosperity in a modern technological economy, and economic security is the essential feature of what it means to be included in the middle class.Įconomic security is what frees us from the fear that one job loss, one illness-one economic downturn amidst a business cycle guaranteed to produce economic downturns-could cost us our home, our car, our family, and our social status. The trickle-down theory-the one that lionizes the rich as “job creators”-insists that the American middle class is a consequence of growth, and that only if and when we have growth can we afford to include more people in our economy.
And inclusion requires policies that secure a thriving middle class. It is social, civic, and economic inclusion-the full, robust participation of as many people as possible-that drives both innovation and demand.
Innovation is how we solve problems and raise living standards, while consumer demand is how markets distribute and incentivize innovation. In the technological economy of the twenty-first century, growth and prosperity are the consequences of a virtuous cycle between innovation and demand. DIRECTIONS for the question: Read the passage and answer the question based on it.
