Creating Jobs, Who To Tax and My Poor Dog....

My rant for the day…

As the dog is begging me to walk her, I just remembered a conversation I had with a fellow student several months about our current economic system.  Yeah, here I go again…

“You believe in a deregulated economy, right? Doesn’t that make us slaves to the ‘man’? We’re slaves to the system we’ve adopted. Capitalism.”

I was pretty curious about this and sort of agreed with this person on certain terms but I mentioned this could not literally be true, right?
I’m sure some of you can imagine everyone tied up in shackles, lined with money, waiting in line for the meat grinder with a greedy CEO turning the dials and pushing the “grind” buttons. You hear about it in songs and movies with everyone having to abide by the rules of the “man,” and live in a world of hate or greed. Hell, even my favorite band (which I won’t name) sends a constant message of greed and anti-capitalism in their songs but I still love them for who they are.

Anyways, further into the discussion this person agreed but still joked that it’s sort of true in that we don’t really have a choice. This could be certainly true if you’re impoverished. I totally agree to that. I suppose that may be true for people not impoverished as there are places in the United States that don’t really have much of anything (as far as jobs go), or places where people can buy healthy food for their children. Are we slaves to the ‘man’? If you go to work, clearly you’re working for someone unless you have your own business, right? Makes sense, though. Ok, got that. What about the people who live in rural areas, for their whole lives, that never had a real opportunity for socio-economic growth due to where they live? I was curious about this so I investigated a little further.

As it turns out, this country’s Economic Freedom Index is not as high as some might think. Though it is pretty good right now. There is room to grow but maybe not for the moment.  Look at page 9 and you’ll see what I mean.We are doing OK but we could be better, I think!

Myth of American Exceptionalism, you ask? Well, believe what you will. I will believe in my country full-heartedly (and try to fix its flaws simultaneously!) and I feel as though others don’t exactly appreciate what we have in America, despite its current economic status. I understand that as of now the economy is not that great but it’s also not horrible. Well, so it pretty much sucks, yes. As to my feelings about my country, I do not condone the mentality of, “My country, right or wrong!” I also can’t stand the mentality of “My country, always wrong!” We know the U.S. has its flaws when it comes to health insurance, congress’ ideologies tugging and pushing constantly and of course our tax system (in whatever way you see the flaws) and all of these issues (including the wars) are burdening its citizens. But some of these issues don’t have anything to do with the government, indirectly.

The margin of profit for many business owners is relatively small but could be increased with a reduction, not increase of taxes. Think about it: payroll tax, business license/fees, property tax, insurance, employee’s salaries/benefits (a must), paying for goods/services for your own company, products to make those goods/services with and….the owner/manager’s salary. There’s clearly a lot more than just this, by the way. What about giving these people a little break? The tax revenue being produced by the business owner is not so great due to the economy and lack of people buying their products so why is this making it impossible to hire people?

Why would you want to even fathom increasing the tax rate? Surely, increasing taxes on those above the $250,000 per year bracket would only affect them, right? Remember that these are your fellow Americans that are wanting to provide for themselves, their families and to keep their business running so people can have the benefits of having a job. I don’t understand why taxing more would increase the tax revenue. How is this possible when the economy is so down in the first place? What changes we make on these wealthier, business owning Americans will surely affect the lower classes, right? How? No, I’m not talking about trickle-down-economics (that is actually not even an economic theory, by the way) but more like thinking about everyone in America, as a whole. What changes we make to one group can change the socio-economic status of another group….

What if this business owner wanted to hire another person or possible two more workers?  Be it low-skilled, undereducated or a person with a Master’s in whatever. Would it be possible if the greedy owner gave up some of his/her salary to hire another worker? Sure. This is possible they could do this. So, why aren’t they? Because they don’t have to! They own the business, remember? Or they at least share a huge chunk of it… Remember that this person owns the company so they can do what they please… Unless your advocating to have the government tell them they have to (but for that you would have to read some history).

Also, some people are forgetting the role losses come into play. If that company has several years of losses (such as right now, in this economy) then wouldn’t that be hard to hire a few extra helping hands? When they don’t have any money to spend. I’m talking on broad terms here, not just a few very large companies here and there.

There is also the issue of economic uncertainty.

“Oooooh! The Boogy Man!”

How? A lot of these business owners have no idea of what lies ahead in terms of taxation (the Dem/Rep debate), how the American debt crisis will be solved (again, the Dem/Rep debate in congress), the major spending/debt crisis that is happening in much of Europe and a great deal of people protesting (that even they don’t know exactly why) against…..? What, I don’t really know yet.

All of these factors add up to a lot of this: uncertainty. Why would hire anyone, invest or save your money somewhere, buy a house for that matter, if you have NO idea what lies ahead. Or have at least a tiny grasp of what lies ahead.

Everyone is out to take a risk in life but this is largely due to our government not coming to terms with common sense….

I am asking a lot of questions because I think it’s important to provoke thought.

Think, please.