Trickle Up Economics

Type: Concept

As of November 2026, Trickle Up Economics has been mentioned in one podcast episode on The Daily Show (Feb 2026). Used to describe the claim that wealth and income are flowing upward from middle-class families to the top, countering 'rising tide' narratives.

Trickle-up economics is an economic policy proposition that final demand among a broad population can stimulate national income in an economy. The trickle-up effect posits that policies that directly benefit lower income individuals will boost the income of society as a whole, and thus those benefits will "trickle up" throughout the population. It is the opposite of trickle-down economics.