Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Cure To Our Economic Problems Is The Same As It Was Four Years Ago

I originally wrote this almost 4 years ago. It’s amazing how it still fits.

Oct 23rd 2008 7:16PM
I would hate to be the winning Presidential candidate. Both candidates are delusional in thinking  their economic policies will drag us out of a recession or even improve the economy. The reality is that the solutions offered by both are the equivalent of shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. They are meaningless.
You can cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans and raise taxes for the rest. You can cut taxes for businesses and retain the Bush Tax Cuts. You can increase or decrease the capital gains tax five or 10 percent either way.  Under both programs the deficit for the country will increase, we will borrow and print more money. Five or 10 percent variance either way, given the big hole  our economy is in, won't matter.
The cure for what ails us is the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this country. We are a nation of people who encourage, support, and invest in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their ingenuity and come up with a new idea.
It's always the new idea that re-energizes this country. Industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc.—each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of living. Tax policy has never done that. The American People have.
Entrepreneurs who create something out of nothing don’t care what tax rates are. Bill Gates didn’t monitor the marginal tax rate when he dropped out of Harvard and started Microsoft (btw, it was a ton higher than it is today). Michael Dell didn’t wonder what the capital gains tax was when he started PCs Limited, and then grew it into Dell Computer. I doubt that any great business or invention started with a discussion or even a consideration of what the current or projected income or capital gains tax was or would be.

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