Why didn't the Bush Tax breaks for the Wealthy Elite / Big corporations work?

They continue to believe because the myths people base their lives on, the myths that justify the extreme disparities of wealth in the US, are difficult to kill. The newly wealthy use this myth to rationalize their favored-person status in America's new economy. The workers believe it because they are no longer in positions to stand up to the injustice of it.

American workers have slipped a few pegs down the power ladder and are under constant pressure to produce or be replaced. It's only common sensical that I hire when demand exceeds my ability to produce. The government could fill my swimming pool with hundred dollar bills and, if there's no demand for my services, I have no reason to hire additional employees.

You've forgotten my favorite part of the whole "Give America Away" scheme: corporations used to get the majority of their tax breaks from depreciation of and from re-investment in the tangibles like machinery, trucks, warehousing, etc. So the longer the company existed and the more profit that was plowed back into the company, the less the company's tax liability was. This policy encouraged a stable economy because it encouraged companies to maintain themselves at peak operating efficiencies. The tax laws were changed to allow profit that was shunted to the executive offices to also be deducted from tax liablity and the floodgates were opened to profit flowing to CEOs, CFOs, etc. And because these people now had a personal stake in the profit, the layoffs, downsizing, union-busting, outsourcing and offshoring began.

Hedge funds that thrive on merger mania prosper under this scheme making corporate stability a thing of the past. It's made most of America's stable, family-owned companies extinct. All the millions flowing into the pockets of executives incentivized the creation of new and riskier investments - they had to have somewhere to put their money.

Speculation and the false economy it creates is now the way America's economy operates and a lot of young people, because they've never known any other America, just accept this as normal, as how things should be. And then to complete the deal, the personal tax liabilities of those in the upper brackets were cut. So people in the upper brackets were not only making a great deal more, they were allowed to keep more of it.

This only further destabilized the economy by locking the wealth produced into the upper brackets while the lower brackets watched their buying power plummet and the share of taxes they pay increase.

You know...you're right. I worked in Baltimore for Citi. Balt.

Had given them big tax breaks to stay in the city. And yet - they hired out the IT staff to an Indian firm who brought non English-speaking natives to work.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.