Historical data shows that the economy does dramatically better under Democratic policies than under Republican ones
By Tom Davis
One of the great puzzles is why so many businesspeople seem to support the Republican party. Not all do, of course. My father owned a small grocery store all the time I was growing up and told me that he always voted democratic because the Democrats were for the little guy. He believed his store did better when the average person rather than those who were better-off had more money to spend. Still, how many times do you hear of a business refusing to join the Chamber of Commerce?
There have been times when Americans understood that trickle down theories of economics were good for the rich, but bad for America. The Chamber started off as a booster organization that was designed to strengthen small town businesses. It was not automatically in the pocket of the railroad trusts, Standard Oil, and the other oligarchs of the time. Today the Chamber is a powerful lobbying force primarily for big business interests such as Wal Mart and the big tobacco and oil companies.
Republican Policies Are Bad for the Economy, Bad for Business
The truth is that current Republicanism is bad for small and medium sized businesses. If they are voting for their best interests as businesspeople they should always vote Democratic. What’s more, this has been true for a long time. A chart from Forbe’s magazine shows what the data shows, comparing economic performance under Democratic presidencies vs. that of Republican presidents:
Businesspeople tend to have better business and more profits when the economy is doing good. If they are interested in making sure their business performs well, then there best option is to support Democratic economic policies and ignore the myths associated with Republican talking points on the economy.
As Hartung goes on to demonstrate in his article in Forbes, which is, after all, a business magazine:
- Personal disposable income has grown nearly 6 times more under Democratic presidents
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown 7 times more under Democratic presidents
- Corporate profits have grown over 16% more per year under Democratic presidents (they actually declined under Republicans by an average of 4.53%/year)
- Average annual compound return on the stock market has been 18 times greater under Democratic presidents (If you invested $100k for 40 years of Republican administrations you had $126k at the end, if you invested $100k for 40 years of Democrat administrations you had $3.9M at the end)
- Republican presidents added 2.5 times more to the national debt than Democratic presidents
- The two times the economy steered into the ditch (Great Depression and Great Recession) were during Republican, laissez faire administrations[2]
Democrats, and Democratic policies, are clearly better for businesspeople than the rhetoric of Scott Walker and the rest of the Republican party. So, if you are a businessperson, and you want business to do well, you really ought to vote Democrats into office.
[1] Hartung, Adam. 10/10/2012. “Want a Better Economy? History Says Vote Democrat!” Forbes. Accessed at https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/10/10/want-a-better-economy-history-says-vote-democrat, 7/22/2015.
[2] Ibid.
