I like your analogy because while one can argue the ritch get rich off investing… trueth is that money is a layer of fat not allowed to burn and thus letting the larger body (roads, healthcare, ability to respond and rebuild from disaster) are starved.
Well put. I have a simpler allegory.
Imagine you’re the president of Widgets, Inc. You’ve got a factory, and 100 workers making widgets.
Suddenly, the government cuts your taxes. Yay! You’ve got an extra million coming home! What do you do?
Do you hire more widget-makers? Why would you do that… just to get rid of that excess money? Is that how business works?
Or would you hire more people when there’s a demand for more widgets? And when is that? When there’s more money to go around? Business is not magic. It’s entirely logical. Mostly.
7 Likes
I’ve heard conservative colleagues at work laughingly call such programs Republican welfare.
4 Likes
Sounds like they got a hold of Ron & Nancy’s crystal ball.
If you want to grow your economy, you need to put cash in the pockets of poor people.
Poor people spend, rich people hoard. Money in motion drives economic growth.
7 Likes
I heard Martin Pearson perform this once at the Woodford Folk Festival, but I’ve never been able to find a recording online.
Shame; it’s a catchy song.
George Papapveris’ It takes a soldier
3 Likes
If we’d not have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, that’d be several trillion dollars saved right there without cutting back the number of enlisted.
But think of Blackwater and Halliburton - how would they get by?
Don’t play world police.
But how would we protect our interests around the world? Having stable banana republics in critical regions keeps our friends the giants of American commerce healthy.
3 Likes
https://twitter.com/BlackBlocBoi/status/897506179605303296
https://twitter.com/BlackBlocBoi/status/897511265295376387
https://twitter.com/BlackBlocBoi/status/897515084808941568
2 Likes
Exactly what I was getting at.
1 Like
No, they’d start buying back their stock.
1 Like
Well, there’s also the possibility that you can give some of the money to a politician who will in return will get on a committee which will award Widgets Inc. a lucrative military contract for Tactical Widgets (10X the price of consumer widgets). So then you can hire more people to make those. And with the profits you can help elect politicians who will keep wars going (and even start new ones), meaning that the future of Widgets Inc. and your fortune is secure!
4 Likes
Any time I hear about dear old Grover I find myself musing that he is already small enough to fit into that bathtub.
My favorite is:
- We’re in a
boomeconomy. We can’t raise taxes! Now is not the time to inhibit growth and trigger a recession! - We’re in a
middlingeconomy. We can’t raise taxes! We need to cut taxes and stimulate the economy! - We’re in a
recessioneconomy. We can’t raise taxes! Now is not the time to inhibit growth and lengthen a recession! [And they might have a point in this particular case.]
Also, when you talk about raising taxes-- they always jump to “Oh, so you want a 90% tax rate?! How can that possibly be fair or good for the economy?” I’ve seen this happen multiple times. They cannot entertain a 1% increase. They need to cynically conflate a 1% increase with a 90% increase, to make the former as equally inconceivable as the latter. And/or, in their brain, “raising taxes” triggers their fear center, and it translates to “taking it all.”
4 Likes
An old story, a proven reality. But since when have facts influenced GOP policy?
The entire GOP agenda is to enrich special interests at the expense of the rest of the nation. The only tax policy of interest to them is another tax cut, sold with the lie that it will help everyone. Again, proven false.
But that hasn’t stopped them before sand won’t stop them now.
Someone tell me when the corporate media reportage notes that going forward every time they mention the current tax “plan”.
Republicons don’t care if the tax cuts fail to stimulate the economy or crush the middle/working class. By god they’re going to get theirs even if they have to destroy our once great nation.
Same family size here slightly higher income but we live in Norway which is famously expensive. Yet I don’t feel that my situation sucks. I thought the US was supposed to be cheaper to live in than Norway so what is all that money being spent on?
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
