Maslow's Peak: Reports From the Left
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Talk to me like I'm a 49 year old.

6/1/2012

2 Comments

 
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Mitt Romney and all his surrogates and media lapdogs are out in full force, talking up a storm about today's disappointing jobs report.  The numbers are indeed depressing, and looking forward, it's hard to say what's going to make the difference - especially since we are at such a stalemate politically that we are unlikely to be able to implement any remedies between now and November, whether they are more stimulus-oriented or free-market oriented.  But the Republican officials and media conservatives I have heard addressing the issue so far today sound like they are talking to a class of 4th-grade Social Studies students.  And if this were a class they were teaching, they would not be doing it with any integrity or effectiveness.  Their commentary is wholly theoretical, and is not based on a logical progression of ideas.  Let me see if I can walk through their message, and someone please tell me what I'm missing.
  • Obama's policies are at fault for slow job expansion. 
  • Government investment is counter-productive to growth.
  • CEO's and big investors are the people in our country who create jobs, expand companies, put people to work, and get consumer activity going again.
  • These job creators are the ones we need to protect, encourage, support, and free-up so that they can do what they do best in a free market.
  • The policies that hamper investment are things like increased taxes and regulation. 
  • Obama has not actually been able to increase taxes, but he has proposed some increases.  Concern about tax status makes investment less appealing now.
  • Obama has not actually led the country's regulatory entities to expand regulation, and has even conceded we should do away with some of what we have now.  But just knowing he's the type of person who probably likes the idea of regulation in general makes investment less appealing now.
  • What also hampers investment is an uncertain economy.  It is not appealing to invest when the numbers are this bad.
  • The investors are the ones who can make these numbers improve, by expanding their companies, hiring more people, bringing back overseas jobs, etc.
  • They certainly can't be expected to do that in this climate.
  • Government is not the right sector to improve this climate. The private sector needs to do it.
  • The private sector can't improve during a bad economy.
  • The economy is the province of private sector.
Will someone jump in here?  Explain it to me like I'm a grown woman.  Make it make sense.







2 Comments
Mike Tierney link
6/5/2012 10:18:49 pm

Ummm.....taxes bad, profits good?

Reply
Julie link
6/6/2012 02:01:02 am

Very happy to hear from you Mike! But oops - looks like you got the directions backwards. I said talk me to like I'm a 49 yr old, NOT a fourth grader. And actually you seem to shooting for even lower than that - maybe a 4 year old?

I can play it that way too, if that's what you want. Profits are in a happy place where nobody can get them, and that's okay! Taxes are not a scary monster trying to hurt profits. Taxes help all the nice boys and girls get smart so they can go to work for the nice big profit people. Taxes pave the roads that the nice profit people drive their big big trucks on! Taxes pay the smart scientists that tell the nice profit people when big scary hurricanes are coming so they can protect their fancy beach property. Taxes help the nice profit people with the big fancy companies that make our medicine with research, FDA and NIH drug trials, and other fancy things so that the nice profit people can have even more profit! Taxes are not mean to profits, profits and taxes work together in a jolly mixed economy so all the people can live happily ever after.

Or...we could have an adult conversation about it, which I think the topic deserves.

Reply



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