Scaly, evidence of your 21 families that run Jamaica

[Don1]

mi nah talk bout dat...mi juss ah wonda why yuh wudda waan fi address a mannequin 4 years lata...das all

[Baddaz]

willi... what do you think of this article...

Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators: Nick Hanauer
December 01, 2011, 8:53 PM EST

By Nick Hanauer

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- It is a tenet of American economic beliefs, and an article of faith for Republicans that is seldom contested by Democrats: If taxes are raised on the rich, job creation will stop.

Trouble is, sometimes the things that we know to be true are dead wrong. For the larger part of human history, for example, people were sure that the sun circles the Earth and that we are at the center of the universe. It doesn’t, and we aren’t. The conventional wisdom that the rich and businesses are our nation’s “job creators” is every bit as false.

I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc.

Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

Theory of Evolution

When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it is like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it’s the other way around.
It is unquestionably true that without entrepreneurs and investors, you can’t have a dynamic and growing capitalist economy. But it’s equally true that without consumers, you can’t have entrepreneurs and investors. And the more we have happy customers with lots of disposable income, the better our businesses will do.

That’s why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion’s share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

And that’s what has been happening in the U.S. for the last 30 years.
Since 1980, the share of the nation’s income for fat cats like me in the top 0.1 percent has increased a shocking 400 percent, while the share for the bottom 50 percent of Americans has declined 33 percent. At the same time, effective tax rates on the superwealthy fell to 16.6 percent in 2007, from 42 percent at the peak of U.S. productivity in the early 1960s, and about 30 percent during the expansion of the 1990s. In my case, that means that this year, I paid an 11 percent rate on an eight-figure income.

One reason this policy is so wrong-headed is that there can never be enough superrich Americans to power a great economy. The annual earnings of people like me are hundreds, if not thousands, of times greater than those of the average American, but we don’t buy hundreds or thousands of times more stuff. My family owns three cars, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and a few shirts a year, just like most American men. Like everyone else, I go out to eat with friends and family only occasionally.

It’s true that we do spend a lot more than the average family. Yet the one truly expensive line item in our budget is our airplane (which, by the way, was manufactured in France by Dassault Aviation SA), and those annual costs are mostly for fuel (from the Middle East). It’s just crazy to believe that any of this is more beneficial to our economy than hiring more teachers or police officers or investing in our infrastructure.

More Shoppers Needed

I can’t buy enough of anything to make up for the fact that millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans can’t buy any new clothes or enjoy any meals out. Or to make up for the decreasing consumption of the tens of millions of middle-class families that are barely squeaking by, buried by spiraling costs and trapped by stagnant or declining wages.

If the average American family still got the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would have an astounding $13,000 more in their pockets a year. It’s worth pausing to consider what our economy would be like today if middle-class consumers had that additional income to spend.

It is mathematically impossible to invest enough in our economy and our country to sustain the middle class (our customers) without taxing the top 1 percent at reasonable levels again. Shifting the burden from the 99 percent to the 1 percent is the surest and best way to get our consumer-based economy rolling again.

Significant tax increases on the about $1.5 trillion in collective income of those of us in the top 1 percent could create hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in our economy, rather than letting it pile up in a few bank accounts like a huge clot in our nation’s economic circulatory system.

Consider, for example, that a puny 3 percent surtax on incomes above $1 million would be enough to maintain and expand the current payroll tax cut beyond December, preventing a $1,000 increase on the average worker’s taxes at the worst possible time for the economy. With a few more pennies on the dollar, we could invest in rebuilding schools and infrastructure. And even if we imposed a millionaires’ surtax and rolled back the Bush- era tax cuts for those at the top, the taxes on the richest Americans would still be historically low, and their incomes would still be astronomically high.

We’ve had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs. Middle-class consumers do, and when they thrive, U.S. businesses grow and profit. That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all is a great deal for both the middle class and the rich.

So let’s give a break to the true job creators. Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth by putting purchasing power back in the hands of the middle class. And let’s remember that capitalists without customers are out of business.

(Nick Hanauer is a founder of Second Avenue Partners, a venture capital company in Seattle specializing in early state startups and emerging technology. He has helped launch more than 20 companies, including aQuantive Inc. and Amazon.com, and is the co-author of two books, “The True Patriot” and “The Gardens of Democracy.” The opinions expressed are his own.)
--Editors: Max Berley, Stacey Shick

[Assasin]

You see mi disrespect anyone by calling them that kind of names?

Mi and Karl have had our banters but I never had and never would respect him or 99.9% of people on this forum. I will defend myself and even in doing so I try to keep away from the name calling. I personally think that is disrepectful to call Karl that.

[Don1]

guhwhey! yuh juss ah seh dat now cause di likkle man deh nuh deh bout

is like yuh start chat tuh one doormat...yuh tink wi nuh site di rake

[Assasin]

Not supporting you call Karl a dimwit. Karl is fair sport on the board. He has his points but he never put down people so and I know even though you don't share view with him, you can put your point accross without bashing him so.

[MdmeX]

Bricktop the numbers don't lie...it's not a political thing.
There has never been a time when the weallthy Jamaicans keep any of their money in Jamaica.

Just ask PJ where he stashed his

[Assasin]

yeah I have a problem with that too as I have seen it firsthand but you know what, it is also up to us to take some off the tourists and stop squander our oppurtunities. See Ochi people them out fi the tourism goose.

I am convince if we serious about tourism many more can benefit.

[Reggaedoc]

Agree with you Comment. Jamaica's per capital income is probably closer to a paltry $2500. A real disgrace. BTW what with the personal attack. We usually reserve that for the circus clowns who run our country and haberdasheries under the guise of being investors.

[Muadib]

'benefits them in the long run'

lol ! woiee !

We know dat !

Who yuh tink was lending Omar money after FINSAC ?

Yuh know wheh yuh ah chat bout ?

[Willi]

Top line vs bottom line. $1.5b is bottom line.

Bank deposit are CASH and which portfolio should be that liquid? If we use a 10% threshhold, then the $6b reprents a total value retained of $60b.

Money will be kept in hard assets like real estate, plant and machinery, Guvvament paper, mattress bottom, pardnah throwing, fancy cyars, etc.

[Muadib]

oh..? no wealthy Jamaican was ruined by the policies of the PNP ?

yuh ah chat juss fi tek up server space ?

[Scaly Spurs]

Would you keep your money in Jamaica if you were wealthy, and risk having a megalomaniac seize it? It seems as if it is a crime to be rich...

No it's not, you talking to a Capitalist.....I just want more investment back in the country, both the Goverment (anyone PNP/JLP) should do more to encourage this and the 21 families need to understand it only benefits them in the long run.

[Bricktop]

Would you keep your money in Jamaica if you were wealthy, and risk having a megalomaniac seize it? It seems as if it is a crime to be rich...

[Reggaedoc]

Tillable you are getting carried away with this source thing now. You seem to want the source of the source of the source. Use simple judgement. By your own intelligent observation do you think what was quoted in the article was fact, fiction, or something else?. Also is the current level of black leadership in commerce, in Jamaica, a black country is acceptable to you?. And yes, I did say a black country. It's not a typo. No out of many one people nonsense cliche please.

[Scaly Spurs]

I don't understand some of these posters...most of them have got to reside in the United States...detached from third world reality...

Bricktop the numbers don't lie...it's not a political thing.
There has never been a time when the weallthy Jamaicans keep any of their money in Jamaica.