Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Will Raising Taxes On The Rich Threaten Your Job?


Will Raising Taxes On The Rich Threaten Your Job?
Poor People Don’t Provide Jobs!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Rich people provided every job I have had in my life. I expect the same is true of your work history.

One of the truisms in life is this: “If You Bought Something, Someone Worked to Make It; If You Have Something that Requires Service, Someone Is Servicing It; If You Have A Lot of Money, It Is Working Somewhere.” (SOURCE)

Today in America unemployment is hovering near the ten percent mark. Well, that is the figure supplied the public by the government. Honestly, I am not comfortable with the unemployment figures provided us by the government. I have heard reports from private organizations that the REAL national unemployment figures are closer to 22% than 10%.

How can that be? Because the government plays all sorts of “tricks” with the numbers to get a, shall we say-- more favorable figure for the administration in power at the time. A true accounting would very likely result in a figure closer to 22% than that ten percent we have been offered for sometime now.

Let’s say we split the difference and agree that the real unemployment rate in America today is around 16% to 17%. That is still a whopping chunk of the American workforce out of work.

Why are there no jobs, then? Well, that takes us back to the point I made at the beginning of this piece. Wealthy people provide the jobs in America.

Yes, the wealthy still have money. Maybe not as much as they had before the recession hit us so hard, but they still have an ample supply. But they are not spending it on plant expansions, new operations, purchasing new equipment, building up their inventory, etc, etc. When that money they are sitting on is static, when it is not working, then it is not creating jobs. As a result, Americans can’t find jobs.

For the most part, rich people are not fools. They did not get rich by doing stupid things. Risking their fortunes on an American economy on the threshold of being regulated into oblivion by a President and a government on the cusp of completely embracing socialism and fascism would, indeed, be stupid.

Wealthy Americans are nervous. They are sitting on their money waiting, and hoping, for better times, when they can again put their fortunes to work creating jobs for the American work force and making lots more money for themselves. That’s the way business works.

I don’t know where the idea that -- business is in business to do you and I a favor -- originated. But I tell you as strongly as I can, that it is untrue. Business is in business to make money, to make a profit, for the owners and the stockholders of that business.

Bludgeoning the wealthy with even more taxes is certainly not going to make them take what’s left of their fortunes and blow it on “make work” jobs creating “stuff” the public doesn’t have the money to buy because they don’t have the jobs with which to earn the money it takes to purchase that “stuff.”

If anything, increased taxes will result in the wealthy holding even tighter to their fortunes and spending even less of it. It will also result in corporations looking for countries around the globe that have a ready workforce, willing to work for much lower wages, and a government that is willing to provide a tax friendly environment within which that corporation can operate at a substantial profit. The latter is happening even as America is beginning the long road back from the recession.

Corporations have seen where the American government is going with their regulations and taxes and they are not stupid enough to sit here on American soil and allow the new American socialism to take over their corporate investments. They are getting out – sooner, or later -- and they are taking their companies offshore to countries that welcome the jobs they bring to that country’s people with open arms.

So, the answer to the question I posed above is – yes. Higher taxes, on the rich, do threaten your job. There is no question about it.

We haven’t even touched on the whether, or not, the government’s taking over half of what a wage earner makes to redistribute to those who make less, is even moral. I didn’t bother to spend much ink on that topic because the answer is so obvious. NO, it is NOT MORAL. It is, in fact, thievery. When a government does it -- it is called taxing. When an individual does it, it is called robbery.

In the next few weeks, we Americans are going to hear and see a lot of debate about raising taxes on Americans, and on American business. Raising taxes will prolong the recession, and make the unemployment figures continue at unacceptable highs. It will also drive many large corporations away from America and stop those considering locating in America to look elsewhere. In short, higher taxes will crush what is left of the American economy.

With Election Day approaching we ask that you observe which political party is pushing those higher taxes, and remember them when you cast your vote in November.

J. D. Longstreet

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