Letter: They must have failed Econ 101

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 4:31 a.m.

Economics isn't my field, but history indicates to me some of our Congress members have their economic theories upside down, especially the ones who are still pushing tax cuts. How do we pay for the war on terrorists? Osama bin Laden's goal is to destroy the economic structure of the West.

Historians place the blame for the Depression on the concentration of too much of the nation's wealth in the hands of too few wealthy people. Government back then was giving all the breaks to big business under the theory that capitalists would expand their factories, hire more people, and money would trickle down to the poor. There was one big hitch in their thinking, however: There weren't enough people in the country who could afford to buy their products; so factories continued to lay off employees and shut down production.

The economy went on spiraling down until Franklin D. Roosevelt and a wise group of advisers diagnosed the problem and began pouring government money into programs that put millions of unemployed people back to work at decent wages, putting some money in their pockets so they could buy those excess products and services the factory owners were capable of turning out. Both the rich and the poor benefited in the end.

Roosevelt, by the way, was one of the wealthy people. He just understood government's role in economics better than his peers.

PAUL GWIN