So when someone says “trickle-down,” they think of some guy buying a yacht and then the yacht-builders get paid. At least that’s the way I’ve heard it said back to me. I just found the term didn’t help explain anything and certainly didn’t sound persuasive.
I appreciate the input, because I nearly always conflate Supply Side stimulus with Trickle-Down theory. Trump was definitely pushing a Supply Side agenda, despite all wealth migrating upwards already, and it really showed during QE (Given that he was proposing QEshortly after his tax cuts started going through, it's almost like he was an ultra-rich property holder that owed money ...)
What's interesting about your version is that it is a Demand-Side argument. "People will spend money" is the essence of it and honestly I'm happy to sell hot dogs to either teachers or trust-fund college kids, a dollar is a dollar and I need dollars.
The 2nd part of Trickle-Down is an embracing of the idea that the government is 'taking money away' from people when they collect taxes, so the yacht owner is getting less money taken away and therefore will buy more hotdogs for his yacht parties. I have no quibble with this heuristic, even. I think of taxes as a user-fee, but this doesn't gain any traction with the muggles.
It just doesn't work in practicality, because the rich don't
just purchase goods and services with their extra dollars. And they don't
just make investments with their savings. A significant portion of their savings is devoted to either finding arbitrage or purchasing rent-seeking assets. On an individual levels, this is fine (it's what everyone would do given the chance, even if they're charitable).
And then we're back full circle as to why Trickle-Down doesn't actually work (and why it's so hard to ruin people's intuitions of). The yacht owner is going to look at opportunities to buy my hot-dog stand so that he can rent it back to me
before he's going to buy more hotdogs from me. And if he cannot find a good deal, he'll hoard legal tender until the opportunity presents itself.