Do tax breaks for the rich really create jobs?

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   pagesvoiceposted 12 years ago

   Do tax breaks for the rich really create jobs?
   
   Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist states consumers create jobs and not the wealthy. He claims the rich only hire if consumers are buying goods and products and that there are not enough wealthy to support our economy. He says, "If it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to more job creation, then today we would be drowning in jobs. And yet unemployment and under-employment is at record highs."

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   screamingposted 12 years ago

   I voted for President Bush,believing tax breaks would create jobs. Somehow I got suckered into believing that money would trickle down to start up new businesses and jobs. Did it? NO. And yet Romney wants us to  believe it will. If Romney is elected, we will have more of the same from the past.

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      pagesvoiceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      To quote Yogi Berra, "It's deja vu all over again," if Romney wins the election. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Trickle down economics has not and does not work.

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   handymanbillposted 12 years ago

   I don't know if giving more wealth to the wealthy actually is the correct idea or not. i think it more has to do with the more business, a business does then the more people that they would have to hire to keep up with making whatever they are selling.

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   nightwork4posted 12 years ago

   no they don't create jobs. i know some really wealthy people and they will tell you the same thing. what it does help though is to keep them doing business in your country but even that isn't as true as it used to be.

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   MarleneBposted 12 years ago

   I don't know if it would create jobs or not, but I can tell you from my own personal experience that I had to shut down one of my companies because of the huge amount of taxes for this and taxes for that. The amount of money I had to pay out in taxes was enough that would have allowed me to keep my employees. Instead, I had to let people go so that I could pay the taxes. If I could have had a break of some type, I could have kept the employees. Eventually, I ended up closing the business down just to keep the madness down.
   
   A lot of people think business owners are all greedy, but that's not the case. The majority of people have no idea how businesses (small ones in particular) are taxed to death. Those taxes cut into profits. I know for a fact that at the time I made the decision to close down my company and let employees go was in direct relation to the huge amount of taxes my company was being charged. I can't speak for other business owners, but I can say that if I could have received a break, I might still be in business and I might still be employing people.

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      pagesvoiceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I understand what you're saying MarleneB, but from my perspective I disagree. I too had a business with 10 employees who I paid a fair salary, commission and bonus. A lack of customers, not too many taxes caused me to let them go.

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      feenixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Marlene, from the early 1970s to the present, there has been an ever-growing number of stories like yours. Increases in regulations and taxes have driven a whole lot of enterprises, large and small, out of business.

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      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OK. Well, pagesvoice, I guess it depends on whose perspective we see it from - what's considered fair, and whatnot. My experience was totally different from your experience. Nevertheless, I took my tax accountant's advice.

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      screamingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Pagesvoice, Ditto! I had to downsize, not do to taxes but lack of business. Had to let 5 people go, the loss of income forced me to downsize. This allowed me to keep my doors open for the others and myself. Adjustments had to be made.

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      feenixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Tax increases = Less money in people's pockets.
      
      Less money in people's pockets = Down trends in consumption and customer bases.

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   feenixposted 12 years ago

   No doubt about it, tax breaks for the rich do generate jobs.
   
   And that is because among the rich are big-time consumers, savers, investors and contributors to charities -- each of which are things that serve to generate jobs.
   
   Thus, when the rich see tax decreases, less of their money goes to government and more of it spills into the economy. And the more money that spills into the economy, the more new jobs, new businesses, new workers for charities, and I could go on.
   
   I must also say that the relatively-high rate of unemployment in the U.S. does not stem from such things as the rich not being taxed enough and the "outsourcing of American jobs." It is rooted in the fact that the job market is undergoing the greatest transition in the history of the country.
   
   For quite some time now, the U.S. has been transforming from being a "manufacturing nation" to being a "high-tech nation." And the workforce and other segments of society have not caught up with that change yet, but they will in the future.
   
   What is going on now is a present-day version of when the introduction of the automobile to society put a whole lot of blacksmiths and buggy makers out of work.

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      pagesvoiceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Henry Ford purposely paid his employees a fair wage so they could afford the cars they manufactured. So my question today is where are the jobs rich people made? Tax breaks for the rich do not work. Middle class needs the income to sustain us.

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      feenixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Tell all the folks employed by New England yacht builders that the rich do not generate high-paying jobs. And tell that to all the well-paid folks who work in Silicon Valley, CA.

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      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      feenix, I agree with what you say about the U.S. transitioning into a high-tech nation. It's written all over everything being done these days. Even the way politicians operate is going "techno". And, I do believe tax breaks for the rich works.

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      feenixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Way back in the 1970s, an author named John Naisbitt wrote a couple of books entitled "Megatrends." And those writings were quite prophetic in that they predicted everything that is going on today in the U.S. workforce and economy.

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      MarleneBposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      feenix, it is interesting that you mention Megatrends. I  ran across it when I moved last year. I thought about reading it again. It's almost like, John Naisbitt wrote it, therefore, it must happen.

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   GNelsonposted 12 years ago

   No, tax breaks for the rich do not creat jobs.  The bush tax cuts only added to the deficit.  Jobs continued to decrease for about seven years after the Bush tax cuts.  There is only one example in the last hundred years when tax cuts were followed by more jobs.  There are many examples of tax cuts followed by fewer jobs.  They don't work and the party pushing them doesn't work for working people.  It is a shame that our collective memory is so short that we believe a 30 second sound bite and forget the past.

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      pagesvoiceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Can anyone who echoes the Reaganomics philosophy show me how we prospered by keeping the rich richer? They can't because it doesn't work. Class warfare? You bet, and it is the rich that have declared it.

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   d.williamposted 12 years ago

   no doubt about it, they DO NOT.  The records speak for themselves.  Since the wealthy have had these exorbitant tax breaks the number of jobs have not gone up, but rather have gone down.  To think that continuing giving breaks to the wealthy will in anyway produce more jobs is insane.  The definition of insanity is: doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different outcome each time.
   The only thing that these tax breaks produce is more wealth for the politicians in the form of their own personal monetary gains.

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   ackman1465posted 12 years ago

   I think this justification for tax breaks for wealthy people is based on  "trickle-down" economics ... which is based on the belief that IF you make sure that the WEALTHY have lots of WEALTH, then THAT (wealth) will "trickle down" to less-wealthy people in the form of wages, for jobs to make the goods or provide the services that the wealthy "need" or "want".     We've had plenty of opportunity to learn that "trickle down" economics DOESN'T WORK!!!  Even George HW Bush, HIsself, referred to it as "voodoo" economics.....
   
   It has a pleasant ring to the ears of those who ARE wealthy... and those who ARE wealthy get to INFLUENCE those who can keep or change the taxing rules... so we hear of this (trickle down"), ad infinitum as justification for leaving Federal tax codes and rules as they are......

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      ackman1465posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Incidentally, there has been a very good string about this subject in the cartoon "Doonesbury" over the last several days...

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    Attikosposted 12 years ago

    What tax favors do is steer investment into areas chosen by government. It may choose those areas out of genuine national security motives, from outright influence peddling by politicians, or anything in between. In general, if the tax incentives to put capital into such a favored investment were not there, it would still be invested in something, that something would still require labor, and so the answer to the question is that tax "breaks" for those who have money to invest have little or no effect on the overall number of jobs. All they do is shift money around, reward politicians' friends, and punish politicians' enemies.

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       ackman1465posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       This is an interesting - and, likely, and accurate - take on the matter..... I give you a +

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    dzephaniahposted 12 years ago

    The point is not whether they create jobs or not. First of all, the rich will always have some tax breaks, because all the politicians are rich, democrats and republicans alike, and they take care of their own. Secondly, I am against raising any more taxes. I don’t think that our government is spending money wisely and giving it more money is outright stupid. There are other solutions for their shortfall. The more that you give to those “poor people”, the more children they will bring to this world, without supporting them, and then ask for more money. When does that end?
    We need to reevaluate assistance programs and give people a reason to rise up to the occasion and become better citizens, rather than throwing a few dollars at them, and keep them down low for generations.

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    UnnamedHaraldposted 12 years ago

    Well now, the rich have enjoyed tax breaks for a while now... so where are the jobs?

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