Bill Gates, Al Sharpton and Trickle Down Economics

One of the countless annoying things about MSNBC is the self righteous promotional spots featuring diatribes from several of their commentators. Al Sharpton's is particularly confounding. His rant is a critique of "trickle down economics". A pejorative for supply side economics pioneered by the Ronald Reagan administration. Supply side economics involves the reduction of top marginal tax rates and reduced regulation in order to boost economic activity. Reagan's policies created the second biggest peacetime recovery in US history with a net jobs increase of over 21 million. Reagan was able to bring down the unemployment rate to 5.4% from a high of 10.8% during the recession of 1982. Many companies benefited from the Reagan era boom and were able to take advantage of our vibrant capital markets. One such company was started by a geeky Harvard dropout named Bill Gates which went public in 1986 creating 12,000 millionaires along the way. Microsoft as we know would go on to revolutionize the way we live and conduct business and make Bill Gates a billionaire and one of the richest men in history. Microsoft would expand its brand into cable television and create a partnership with NBC called MSNBC. In early 2012 Mr. Sharpton was given his own low rated show on the network, Politics Nation which reportedly pays him a seven figure salary . In addition, the Reverend earns a reported $700,000 a year from his gig as host of his syndicated Radio show 'Keepin it Real'. Sharpton's employer and radio syndicator is publicly held Radio One, headed by media mogul Cathy Hughes.

  Sharpton's non-profit National Action Network (NAN) boast some heavy hitter corporate donors. American Honda Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company, Home Depot, McDonald's and Wal-Mart, plus recent arrivals such as Facebook and Mars are just a few. The good Reverend also pulls down about $240,000 a year from NAN. Sharpton's willful ignorance of supply side economics is the ultimate irony. He fails to acknowledge how he has benefited handsomely from the success of not one but two very wealthy entrepreneurs. In the aforementioned MSNBC promo piece, sharpton exclaims "we've experienced the down, but not the trickle". We? Speak for yourself  Al. From where I sit, $2 million dollars a year is an awful lot of trickle.

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