Posted by Bill on May 06, 2003 at 14:08:37:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Our business posted by Rick Denney on May 06, 2003 at 13:21:21:
One of the best quotes I have heard goes something like this: a conservative at a dinner party said, "Liberals are just people who believe different facts than I do." From that perspective, let me begin.
Rick, the superwealthy were really well off before anything like America existed. Imagine the wealth of kings and popes, much greater than the average person of their day. Somewhat like the House of Saud today.
Fast forward to the rise of the middle class. As the middle class gets bigger, the rich get poorer, but the quality of life goes up for everybody. Henry Ford knew that paying his employees well was important to Ford Motors because somebody has to buy the cars. A healthy economy needs a large middle class to continue to prosper.
Who do you think puts up the money to make new companies that, in turn, create new jobs?
Small business creates more jobs than big business. Small business investment is vital to an economy. The middle class creates small business, with help from banks and government spending.
People buy goods. People like you and me and the people that read this board. If we don't have money to buy goods, the economy gets smaller. If lots of people are losing their jobs, spending will shrink. No one creates jobs to lose money. Demand creates jobs. Demand can be sparked in two ways, government spending (even on things like the arts) and cutting taxes on people who will spend the money. The rich do not spend extra money, they invest it. If profit is non-existant, or worse, illegally exaggerated, they will look somewhere else to invest, like foreign countries.
I think demand is low in this country. I think a temporary cut on the payroll tax might just be the stimulus we need. We can agree to disagree.
Bill Nazzaro