The claim of "trickle down" was that giving money to rich people, specifically, would somehow have the same effect as making the average household better off.

The claim of "trickle down" was that giving money to rich people, specifically, would somehow have the same effect as making the average household better off. It turns out that rich people buy things that don't employ many people, and they buy them from other rich people: high-priced art works, famous jewellery, and other collectibles, existing mansions or apartments at exclusive addresses, and so on. So the prices of those things go up, but no-one else has any more money.