I'm getting tired of seeing people support candidates based on some economic theory that has been PROVEN wrong.  I believe that if people would understand some of the basic tenets of economics, and how the system works, they would know to support candidates for office who will truly work to improve the lives of working people.

I once told an economics professor of mine that "economics is someone's attempt to confuse common sense" and his response was that "economics is an attempt to explain common sense".  Either way you look at it, it becomes much easier to understand when you realize that common sense can give you correct answers, without having to understand all of the ins-and-outs of economic theory.  Over time I will flesh out this concept, and work on a way to educate people as to the true nature of economics.

A few basics:

What is "Trickle Down" Economics?

Trickle Down, or Supply Side economics, is the false theory that jobs are provided by those who invest in capital infrastructure, therefore to provide more jobs, you must provide more money to the rich.  This "theory" is in fact the exact opposite of the truth.  Jobs are created when there is demand for the work.  Demand comes from what people need and can afford.  In a completely undeveloped economy, with NO existing capital infrastructure, then it would make sense to work on building capital accumulation so that major infrastructure investments can be made (even then though, it does not necessarilly mean that money must be concentrated into a few rich individuals hands).  In a modern economy, there is sufficient capital already accumulated, and systems for groups to combine capital investments, such that NO additional effort is necessary to ensure sufficient capital is available to respond to the demands of a healthy economy.

What is meant by "The Law of Supply and Demand?"

Basically the Law of Supply and Demand is the common sense understanding that, in general, when there is more demand for something than the supply can currently meet, the price of that item will increase, and the opposite occurs when there is more supply than is currently demanded.  There are MANY ways to influence a market, by affecting the supply, the demand, or the price.  There are also many other factors that influence any particular market, such as quality, communication, laws and regulations, etc.

What is needed now, is a clear explanation of how economies function, and the results of various economic policies.

Labor  -  Capital  -  Land

Labor, is the human input.  Labor includes manual labor as well as intellectual input.  Essentially, anything that is produced by a person's time is labor.

Capital is the product, held for future use or sale.  This may be in the form of equipment, buildings, supplies, inventory, cash, etc.  Capital can be converted to some other form (sold, traded) without requiring additional labor.

Land is just that.  Land may include natural resources, location, or other factors which affect production and trade, but which are derived from that site.  Note that Natural Resources on a site may be converted to Capital through the application of Labor.

Natural Resources+Labor -> Capital+Labor -> Product+Labor -> Consumption

The typical path of goods is 1) Natural Resources are converterted to Capital by the application of Labor.  2) Capital is converted to Product through application of labor.  3) Product is delivered for consumer consumption by the application of labor.

Some interesting places to read more:

Progress and Poverty by Henry George

Economics in Wikipedia

www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons">

Capital circulates -  economic strength and growth is NOT dependent on the accumulation of capital, it is dependent on the CIRCULATION of capital.

In a developed nation, like the United States, there is ALREADY sufficient capital accumulated for the construction of infrastructure, production, etc, to respond to the demands of the economy.  What is necessary, is for the DEMAND to be sufficient to ensure that the capital is used to provide jobs.  Thus, any policies which increase the accumulation of capital, results in taking money out of circulation, thus contracting the economy.

Investments:

There are two ways that investments can be generated.

1)  Accumulated capital controlled by an individual, or a small number of individuals, who control the investments.

2)  Comibination of capital from large numbers of individuals who jointly control the investment.

The first method is the model traditionally practiced by feudal societies where the royal class controls the economy and the government.  Labor is provided by the "serfs" who are entirely at the mercy of the royal class for their livelihood.

The second model can be achieved through a variety of tools.  Development of the corporation provided a method for numerous investors to combine their resources for a larger capital investment.  Cooperatives are a method for the workers themselves, or small land owners, to combine their work and resources for a larger combined investment.  With the increased speed of communications and resources sharing, a growing form of combination is "crowd funding" where individuals can come together to combine their own resources for a capital investment.  All of these methods, the corporation, the cooperative, and  crowd funding, work best when wealth is distributed throughout the community, and not accumulated into only a few hands.

The success of the Free Market economy requires that competition be among competitors who have a basically equal footing.  A truly competetive free market will reward innovation and quality improvements.  A monopolized market suppresses innovation while reducing quality in order to increase profit margins.

More later.