Before anyone called it “trickle-down economics,” there was another way of describing the same basic idea. It was called the horse-and-sparrow theory. Feed the horse enough oats, the thinking went, and eventually some of those oats would pass through the horse, land on the road, and the sparrows would get something to eat. It is crude. It is unflattering. And it may be one of the most accidentally honest metaphors ever attached to an economic theory. For decades, we’ve been t

You probably used the word “socialism” recently. Or at least heard it. It gets thrown around a lot these days, usually with a tone that suggests something dangerous is lurking just around the corner. But here’s the problem: most people using the word aren’t actually talking about the same thing. And if we’re not using the same definition, we’re not having a real argument. We’re just reacting to a label. Think about your day for a second. You turn on the faucet and clean water