“Shaq is rich. The white man who signs his check is wealthy.” — Chris Rock, comedian

An economy is not the collection of wealth. It is the circulation of wealth.

Basic economics says an economy stems from natural resources and a labor pool to turn those natural resources into goods. Everything in the economy springs from the environment. That’s why it will be good for the economy in the long run to take care of the environment. Previous generations wanted to build a country for their children and grandchildren to thrive in. They took a long view. Americans today are short-sighted. I hope we will leave more for our children and grandchildren than pollution, international enmity and crushing debt.

First and foremost, the economy works best when the wealth circulates. Economists will tell you in the Great Depression people didn’t have money to buy goods. America had these factories that were shut down or working below capacity because people couldn’t buy things. And that meant fewer jobs. Paychecks circulate money; unemployment stunts the economy.

Plus the government was struggling to pay off the debt of World War I, hurting the dollar’s value. So when it did circulate, it wasn’t worth much anyway.

That period in American history is a prime example of money failing to circulate well.

One dollar actually can buy a whole lot. Think about how many goods a single dollar buys as it circulates. Plus, it gets taxed each time it is spent, whether it is you buying goods (sales taxes) or your employer buying your time (income taxes) or you owning real estate (property taxes).

But if I stuff that dollar under my mattress, it does little for the economy. Saving is important for personal finances and good for future growth, but if we all saved at once and stopped spending, that would stall the economy. Or say we all spend on one item — gasoline — and not others, it hurts, too. It hurts the government because fewer transactions means fewer opportunities to tax.

When people buy goods, the money works its way up the economy to the wealthiest of Americans. If I go to a big-box store and spend a dollar, yes, it could go to employee wages or to building maintenance or to taxes and maybe even to charity, but my spent dollars will eventually find their way into the hands of the owners of the store and the products.

Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and wealthiest corporations do not help redistribute wealth. It makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Taxes on the wealthiest Americans and wealthiest corporations do redistribute wealth. It allows the people on the bottom to spend that dollar yet again, where it gets taxed as it works its way back into the hands of the wealthy.

Well, that is, the tax revenue that gets spent on services and amenities and other ways for the public good, rather than the tax revenue handed to the wealthy in the form of contracts and subsidies. (Read “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense” by David Cay Johnston.)

That aside, though, wealthy Americans who understand the economy — not just how to make money — realize that increased taxes for the rich helps their investments in the long term. The more the money circulates, the better everyone does. If the people at the lower and some in the middle have programs, it helps them improve their personal finances, which allows them to increase spending power, which is good for the economy.

Two of the best such programs in the 20th century were the G.I. Bill and the building of the Interstate Highway System. Both had excellent results for the U.S. economy.

One of the federal programs cut this decade has been Head Start, which is child care for the poor. This was a direct result of tax cuts for the rich. The program was cut again for 2008 — this is more of our federal government’s mismanagement of the economy. If you are a working mother and can’t afford day care, Head Start gives you that assistance. Or I should say “gave.” Your income could be spent on helping you make ends meet, probably by going to that big-box store to buy diapers.

There’s more. The wealthy tend to be greedy. Go figure. You don’t get wealthy and maintain it without greed. They spend their wealth to make more money — which is good for the economy and we all thank them for that — but they also use their money to pay lobbyists and special interest groups to get what they want out of government.

One thing many of the wealthiest of Americans want is less taxes. Reducing taxes is another way to make money, right? And when you are astoundingly wealthy and spend it to get what you want, politicians tend to do the things you ask them to.

So over the course of several tax bills going back to about 1981, the federal government has shifted the tax burden away from the wealthiest of Americans and onto the middle class. What now happens is a poor family or perhaps a lower-middle-class family works hard and rises into a nice middle-class life or even an upper-middle-class life but notices they have a greater tax burden. Who do they blame for high taxes?

So they end up voting for the party that is only trying to put greater tax burden on them, instead of the party trying to shift the tax burden off the middle class and back onto the upper class.

The next time you hear a politician talk about tax cuts, be sure they truly have your interests at heart. Tax cuts sound good. But do they mean tax cuts for you or for Glen Taylor, Carl Pohlad, Richard Schulze, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, the Waltons, Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, Jeffrey Bezos and billionaires like that.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.