The rest drown. It actually did occur to me in the shower just how heartless (but also accidentally accurate) that old conservative political adage really is.
People arguing about if the rising tide phrase is a good or bad metaphor, well it’s neither, it is vague enough that people can add whatever meaning they want to it.
Is it trickle-down or growing the pie? Who knows. But it is accurate to say that increasing GDP often leads to far worse outcomes for many workers. Massive health insurance costs boost GDP compared to universal health care, but the only people benefiting are the ultra wealthy in their fancy boats
You’re misinterpreting the metaphor. There isno separate class of boatless people in the metaphor, the boats are the people.
OP is pointing out there is another layer to the metaphor, which is quite pertinent
I think we’re making the same point. In the real world, there very much are boatless people. Or non-boats, if you prefer. Those non-boats don’t fare so well when the tide rises, fyi.
It also apparently originates from a christian saying, and spent a long time as a regional adage before JFK (or more accurately a speechwriter) turned it into an explicitly macroeconomic political message.
To the extent that it is used as a conservative political saying, that’s a fairly recent development, and one that is intentionally calling back to a moderate democrat.
I’ve often heard it used as a way to define a class of students in the educational space, whereby any influx of new information is the tide. The only thing we can do as our own shipmaster is to help the others patch their vessels as we all learn and grow together through the unspoken knowledge of the seas.
As one born where shoreman are the lifeblood of a community, the old adage fortunately isn’t as tainted as you’ve made concern.
It’s funny to read the different contexts in which people have encountered the quote. I first heard it from a hundred-millionaire Republican congressman, sorta chuckling to himself.
For idiots like me a good example of this analogy is LeBron James. When he is on your team you all objectively get better.
LeBron is the rising tide. His teammates are the boats.
I’d suggest that a good coach may be a better fit? Le Bron could join an U12 team and dominate for them, but they individually won’t get better. If he leaves youre back to being the original U12 team.
But a good coach can improve each individual player, such that even after the coach leaves that are a better team still.
(I am not a basketball person, I know he was a player, but did he ever coach? If so, I retract my suggestion).
Yes, but on the bright side, you can take the wrapper off a bar of soap, make a bunch of tiny paper boats, and with one foot over the drain, control all their destinies at your whim. Who is their god now, giant who controls both the rain and the tide?
Rising
Swype-o, thanks.
A big tax break lifts all the yachts.
A rising tide drowns those stuck in the mire.
old conservative political adage
Is that a conservative adage? It definitely sounds more like the opposite of “trickle down economics”.
I personally first encountered it when a Republican Member of Congress worth nine figures said it, the intent being to argue in favor of trickle-down and against taxing the rich. “What helps us ultimately helps you!” You’re right that it’s surely not the original intent, as it was popularized by Kennedy. I could’ve framed it all better. I was responding to it as I’d personally heard it used.
In practice it is. People use it as a synonym for trickle down economics. As in, the billionaire’s yacht rising with the tide will somehow trickle down to the rest of us.
Its actually a good phrase and one of the reasons rich people with brains actually want more wealth taxation. the rising tide is a healthy economy and when all boats are not being lifted then its not a rising tide. Its a bubble.
The rest get trickled down on, obviously.
The boats aren’t actually boats. Metaphors are confusing for some.
Whether or not you have a boat is also a metaphor.
Not when ‘having a boat’ is ‘having a pulse’.
Please, PLEASE, go understand the meaning of the phrase and comment when you do.
