We've all heard of the "Trickle Down" theory and we all know it's BS.
I've been pondering a modern corollary that I've called the "Hoover Up" theory. Basically the idea is this: print a bunch of money, distribute it to average Canadians and poorer Canadians, and before too long the large bulk of that money will be in the hands of the wealthy... drawn there by a gigantic sucking force.
I only have anecdotal evidence right now. The major banks all posted huge increases in their profits this year. Lots of Canada's biggest companies and richest people have also done very well in the past year. I recall seeing an article that tracked a number of Canadian billionaires and saw several of them had seen huge increases in their wealth. Instead of giving money directly to the rich in the form of tax cuts, we're now giving it indirectly to the rich in the form of money transfers to the masses. It takes a slightly more circuitous route to get there, but the destination is the same.
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If you give the masses money, they will buy stuff from people who own businesses who are often rich, and/or park it in savings accounts or put it in the markets. So I think rich and poor all benefit.
Then what will the rich do with that money? Many different things I guess. They could invest in markets or their own businesses, which means creating more jobs for the masses.
The thing that sucks is inflation, especially now housing inflation. That won't benefit the average home owner unless they at some point sell and buy in a less expensive market. It benefits the developers, banks, real estate speculators, and governments since rising property values mean rising property taxes and more tax revenue.