In the early 1900's Henry Ford realized that it would be wise to pay the workers in his factories enough for them to be able to buy the cars they were producing. In 1936 John Maynard Keynes produced a book that touted using higher taxes on the rich to subsidize the middle class.

A really new idea is a "democratically distributed income." That might sound radical, but it is not (though it is revolutionary, in the positive sense of that word). It would allow us to eliminate unemployment, poverty, taxes, and public debt while increasing sustainability — all with a Single Act of Congress.