During the Reagan administration, the Republicans tilted the economic playing field to favor the rich by instituting their "Trickle-Down" economic policy (which they then doubled-down on in the last Bush administration). This policy deregulated Wall Street & financial institutions, weakened labor unions, gave corporations tax breaks for exporting good U.S. jobs, allowed owners and management to hog all of growing productivity, lowered taxes for the rich and corporations, and cut social programs that helped hurting Americans.
The result of this policy is a shrinking middle class, stagnant wages for the bottom 80% of all workers, a minimum wage at far below a livable level, and millions of workers who no longer have jobs. But perhaps the most egregious effect was a huge gap in wealth and income between the richest Americans and the rest of America -- a gap that is still growing wider, and is turning this country into a nation of "haves" and "have nots".
To say this policy is a failure would be an understatement, but the Republicans refuse to allow any change. In fact, they want to continue it by giving the rich and the corporations even more tax breaks. They are still preaching the failed argument that giving more to the rich will benefit everyone in the United States.
But it looks like that may now be falling on deaf ears with the American public -- finally! A new Gallup Poll (done between January 5th and 8th of a random national sample of 804 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points) shows that around two-thirds of all Americans are dissatisfied with how wealth and income are distributed in this country. They want a fairer economic policy -- like we had prior to 1980.
Unfortunately, voter apathy in the 2012 election, which resulted in the GOP seizing control of both houses of Congress, means that cannot happen until at least 2017 (assuming the Democrats do well in the 2016 election).
