School inequality as a symptom of a deeply fractured society

In 1896, W.J. Bryan, the Democratic candidate for the American presidential election, presented two conceptions of government : the one that legislates to let the wealthiest prosper, (while waiting for their wealth to spill over the poorest), and the one that legislates to make the masses more prosperous, their prosperity handing up through all the upper classes.

In 1932, W. Rogers denounced the same situation : “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickles down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot. But he didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellows hands. They saved the big banks, but the little ones went up the flu».

Does it make you think of something? The Subprime Crisis ? The "trickle down" theory we've been listening to for decades, without any economist having supported this pseudo theory by any study ? The issue of inequalities of all kinds ? Debates on monetary circulation in the eighteenth century ? Many issues that are still in the current debate in reality, right ?