‘Horse and sparrow economics’

Sir, – Pippa Crerar reports on the UK prime minister’s support for “trickle down” economics arguing it was wrong to view all economics policy through the “lens of redistribution” (“Liz Truss urges world leaders to follow UK with ‘trickle down’ economic approach”, News, September 21st).

The principle invoked here is that a very small improvement for the worse-off in society justifies the huge windfall for those in society who already enjoy the largest share of global wealth.

This so-called “trickle down economics” was the policy of the Reagan and Thatcher era of the 1980s, where large tax cuts for the wealthiest lead to greater economic growth and hopefully improving the prosperity of the poorest.

However, it was the economist JK Galbraith who dismissed this claim as “horse and sparrow economics”: “If you feed enough oats to the horse, some will pass through to feed the sparrows.”