Tax the Rich...

[Molon Labe]

The government provides services. Our economy today is more service based than it is production based. We don't have the manufacturing society that we did many decades ago.

Consumers are a vital part of the consumer economy. All businesses rely on demand, and when consumers are in weaker economic positions (as hawkgirl described herself in), they have less demand for consumer goods and services.

You just said it. The private sector is not "producing" anything.

And yet our government is thriving like never before in terms of the amount of services it provides and the amount of revenue it takes in? There has never been in history a government of this magnitude taking in and providing this many persons the amount of government services ours provides.

Bu the population as a whole is currently suffering severe unemployment. And you are asking for....and increase in taxation on the wealthy..who albeit will pass that on to everyone else.

How about we break the paradigm and go in the opposite direction? Let's not tax anyone anymore and let's get more private sector solutions.

Trillions of dollars to wage wars, billions to bail out banks, and the like are not Keynsian policies. Keynsian policies are supposed to increase demand, these forms of extreme spending don't do that. It's a fallacy to lump all "spending" under the umbrella of Keynsianism.

The nation used Supply Side trickle down policies all throughout the 80's and also during the last decade, you can't claim that we are facing effects of Kensianism.

Yes...you cannot sustain an economy that both spends recklessly on war and bails out the banking industry.

Iinflating the money supply and lowering credit ratings is the dominant factor over the last 20 years is it not? Incidental "Tax breaks" on the wealthy or "supply side" is an incidental policy within a much larger structure. Keynes basic construct has NEVER been sacrificed in favor of a total supply side economy. It's still the dominant belief and it's economists have advised every POTUS since before I was born.

Firing government employees raises unemployment.

So what? Unemployment currently sits at around 18% in terms of real unemployment numbers.

The Federal government is the one area that is not being affected. Have you recently read the Post article on how Washington D.C. metropolitan area have the highest median household income than anyone else in the country?

Something like 5 of the top 10 jurisdictions in America.

That is a really bad argument for trying to redirect and fix the rot in this country....that we can't reduce spending and must raise taxes or some 22 million federal employees might lose their jobs.

By the way...when the federal government employees 22 million people something has gone terribly wrong.

[Molon Labe]

I think tax cuts could actually help hiring, if they were done right, on a conditional basis. Rather than just cutting trillions of dollars of wealthy taxes, how is this for an idea:

Raise taxes 10% on the top 5% of the country. That's a big jump, oh that's going to stop them from hiring isn't it?

Where do we raise taxes another 10%?

Income tax isn't the only way we are taxed to death. American's pay roughly anywhere between 35 and 50 percent of their real income in taxes of one type or another.

The super wealthy don't pay taxes....never have.

Yes, the tax system needs reform, but that is never going to work until you get a hold of spending. Deal with the monster in Washington first, then we can talk about a tax system that is fair.

[lacarnut]

It doesn't, but the data shows that the wealthy elites are doing better today than ever before and they are not creating jobs. They have so much right now, they can spare a little without going broke. They aren't hiring people as it is and we've been using supply-side economics for a decade now.

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It really must hurt to be as ignorant as you when it comes to creating jobs. Business are not hiring for a number of reason:
1. They do no know what the idiot in the WH is going to do to them next. In other word, uncertainty is a huge factor on whether to invest capital or not.
2. Health care cost are going thru the roof raising the cost of doing business
3. Regulations are increasing on a daily basis. Opening a small business in a large city like NYC could take 9 months. In Hong Kong, it takes 1 day.
4. Energy costs go up and down like a yo yo because we have a bunch of Democratic haters of fossil fuels.
5. Small business owners will not expand due to the anti- business climate in DC
6. Large corporations will not expand because they are making money with the employees that they have and looking for way to increase production with less labor.
7. Large corporations move overseas because of the tax advantages. They take their money and flee the country.
8. We have a President who would rather score political points by bashing the rich than giving the rich a reason to hire more employees. Obama scares the shit out of most small business owners.