I'm not going to get into a class warfare argument. The wealthy got the biggest tax cut because they pay the most. It's their money, not ours. And no, the wars were not a good idea.
The wealthy got what they actually didn't need and the revenues lost did not go into creating jobs by the wealthy. It is one thing to give a tax break, if the money saved is actually spent helping our own economy. With the savings in dividends, did that money go to actually creating jobs? Not likely. It likely went right back into buying more stocks, or bonds. Buying stocks does not create jobs per say, especially when American corporations are moving jobs to other countries or just sitting on piles of cash. The oil industry has made so much money over the past decade...how much of that has created jobs or reduced the price of energy? It is a scamola. Here is what I don't understand Mav. I can agree that we need welfare reform, that we should not just hand money to lazy people...but why can anyone turn around and support corporations who don't use their tax breaks to help America grow? I just want to hold anyone who gets breaks from the government accountable...rich or poor. Is that wrong? Can we finally dispense with the fallacy that tax breaks necessarily create jobs?
Well, it's not black and white. OK, the wealthy may not be running out to Walmart and Best Buy to buy shit from China that will break in one year like the poor would do. Rather the wealthy use their money for investment. Now, before you roll your eyes at that, those investments help companies raise cash, expand their operations. Some of it goes into R&D. And yes a lot of it leaves the country. AS it should. It's not leaving for emotional reasons, it's going where it can get the best return. Shouldn't we change our policies in this country so that we can actually make this country a better place to invest. So those dollars don't actually leave our country? You can't have it both ways. You can't attack corporate America with regulations and taxes and then get mad when that money leaves. Money votes with it's feet. And you think giving those tax dollars to the poor will spur investment? All they do is take their money to buy shit they don't need made in China. Their money is flowing out of the US just as the money from the rich. Look Zzz, the solution is simple. We need to get better. We need to give capital a reason to want to stay here. Not force it against it's will. Again, this is the part that drives me nuts about liberals, you support the ALCU and support the notion of individual civil liberties. Yet you become fascists when it comes to capital. How can you live with that duplicity? I'm not disagreeing with you that we are having a really hard time keeping money in this country. But my God Zzz, we are destroying our currency, we subsidize inefficiency and we chase away any talent we have. How can you really expect capital to stick around for that. Of course any money that does only does so because the government is backstopping the risk. If you want to really help our economy, use the same principles you would to defend civil liberties to defend economic liberty. Ever heard of the story about the bet the sun made with the north wind? The north wind goes up to the sun and says, I bet I can make that man take off his jacket. The sun says, I'll take that bet. So the north wind blows and blows as hard as he can. The harder he blows, the harder the man holds onto to his jacket. When he is done blowing the sun comes out and warms up the air. Man takes off his jacket. The moral of the story is usually anything done by force is met with resistance. Create the environment for change to happen....and change will happen.
But we are making conditions for capital more favorable here: we are lowering wages, cutting benefits, and increasing working hours. If we can only get those below the Chinese and Indians, we will win the war for the heart and mind of capital!
Money for investments? Investing in something that actually creates jobs for America, or just creates wealth for them? Companies are sitting on more cash than ever before. You and I might say that they should invest in R&D, but they aren't going to do that. If the traitors leave, let them leave. We do need to get better, we do need to try harder, but on a playing field that is level. The ACLU protects constitutional rights, not business rights. The problem with America is that we lost what made America great, and bought into the Madison Avenue marketing, the greed is good, the globalization at any cost of our own way of life, we accept a lack of quality in products because they are cheap. We don't repair or use, we consume. Consumerism does not work, doesn't actually raise the quality of life, and has created generations of people as addicted to spending money as a crack head is addicted to crack. Stop for a moment, look around and ask yourself, do I buy more than I actually need? Do I have wants programmed into me by my culture that don't really make me content when those wants are met? A drug dealer gives free drugs to kids at school, knowing they get hooked and then he has them by the balls. We market, and advertise to convince people to buy shit they don't need. People are like sheep, and the capitalists turned the sheep into consumers who are forced now not to consume because real wages decreased and cost of living increased. I've argued that we have seen consumption decline in America...not out of a natural desire to reduce consumerism by Americans (unlike say someone who philosophically and morally decided that consumerism is bad) but by economics. That means that there remains a hunger (just like a drug addict who can't afford drugs) that is just itching to spend again like before. So unless we just want to repeat this cycle over and over again, the habit of consumerism and globalization at the expense of the American way of life needs to be changed at a deeper level. After the depression, those who survived became frugal by nature...even during good times they were frugal. Sam Walton didn't go all Donald Trump and flaunt excess. But people didn't want to be Sam Walton (they wanted his money, but not his frugal and moderate nature) they wanted to be flashy Donald Trump. We saw shows like "Lifestyles of the rich and famous" that glorified excess. Excess doesn't bring happiness...or contentment, or a stable economy, or anything but profits to the few who are at the top of the food chain.
More favorable, but until the workers live in the same squalor as the Chinese and Indian people, the capital will flow to were insatiable greed takes it.
Ronald Wilson Reagan The father of deficit spending. The president during one of the biggest crashes of US markets in history. The father of excess and greed is good.
That doesn't make the statement any less true. The people aren't taxed too little, the government spends too much. -Ronald Wilson Reagan