Corruptbuddha
Governor
...
I am amazed to still see the lefties on this and other boards rabidly supporting higher taxes on the 'rich' as though it is some sort of weapon in the war on the middle class.
Listen up folks, you could raise the taxes of everyone making $1 million a year to 100% and still not be able to save the middle class and turn this economy around.
Quite simply, the reason the middle class is dying has nothing to do with how much Mitt Romney, Warren Buffet and Paris Hilton made or paid last year but has everything to do with the type of economy we now participate in.
Over a century ago, the US moved from an agrarian economy (based on agriculture) to an economy based on manufacture. Through the next few decades we found that through our innovation, our drive to excel and our hard work, we had built perhaps the strongest, most productive and wealthiest middle class the world had ever seen.
Somewhere in the late 20th century, however, that economy once again underwent a metamorphosis and evolved into an economy based on services. The high skill - high pay jobs that our grandparents built a life on disappeared to be replaced with lower paying jobs flipping burgers and cleaning pools.
What was the progenitor of the loss of those jobs? Outsourcing.
Since 1994, according to the AFL/CIO, over 3 million manufacturing jobs and at least 600,000 professional services and IT jobs have fled our shores. And it's not only the private sector that has embraced this job killing trend. "At least forty states contract out administration of electronic benefit cards for the food stamps program offshore. In one audit, the state of Washington found 36 out of 41 agencies were contracting out work overseas." So, in addition to well paying manufacturing, professional and IT jobs, we are also losing mid-range public sector jobs as well.
And, according to a study by the University of Berkeley, this trend looks to accelerate as the study finds that 14 MILLION jobs are at risk for outsourcing.
And now, to make matters worse, the very service industry upon which our anemic economy is now based, is outsourcing at a breakneck (literally) pace. Not to mention that many, many of the lower paying service jobs (again, the bulk of American jobs in total) are now being filled by immigrants both legal and (more numerous) illegal.
And, here's the rub; these jobs, left to their own devices, will never come back to our shores. Unless this outsourcing trend is stopped, they are gone for good.
The loss of those jobs, besides taking away to real wealth and spending power of a vibrant middle class, is also a catalyst for another trend we're seeing. Namely, the loss of tax revenue.
If you don't have a job that pays a good wage, you don't pay as much in taxes. As a matter of fact, some 46% of Americans pay ZERO federal and state income taxes. And most of that 46% actually receive a subsidy in the form of 'tax credits' that turns their tax liability into a tax windfall.
So, what is the latest plan to stop this outsourcing? In his recent State of the Union speech, President Obama proposed to 'stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America' through the liberal application of tax breaks. A minor, if not insignificant, action that would, at best prevent some serviced based outsourcing, but would do little if anything to stop manufacturing outsourcing as the amount of the 'tax breaks' would just be too great to compensate for the increase in labor costs.
Not only that, but it will add to the already stifling national debt.
Now many of you are probably wondering what my solution to this issue is. The truth be told, I don't have one. I can not divine a mechanism that will magically lower the cost of labor in the US, while simultaneously increasing the cost of producing overseas. And that, I fear, is the only thing that will reverse this trend. Why would any business willingly pay more to produce a product in the US and sell it at a lower profit, when they can manufacture overseas, import it to American shores and sell it with a tidier bottom line?
Answer, they won't.
So, as you can see, the issue of this economy has little to nothing to do with the amount of taxes that any one group of American's pay but rather the downsizing, quite literally, of the core of the American society, the middle class.
I am amazed to still see the lefties on this and other boards rabidly supporting higher taxes on the 'rich' as though it is some sort of weapon in the war on the middle class.
Listen up folks, you could raise the taxes of everyone making $1 million a year to 100% and still not be able to save the middle class and turn this economy around.
Quite simply, the reason the middle class is dying has nothing to do with how much Mitt Romney, Warren Buffet and Paris Hilton made or paid last year but has everything to do with the type of economy we now participate in.
Over a century ago, the US moved from an agrarian economy (based on agriculture) to an economy based on manufacture. Through the next few decades we found that through our innovation, our drive to excel and our hard work, we had built perhaps the strongest, most productive and wealthiest middle class the world had ever seen.
Somewhere in the late 20th century, however, that economy once again underwent a metamorphosis and evolved into an economy based on services. The high skill - high pay jobs that our grandparents built a life on disappeared to be replaced with lower paying jobs flipping burgers and cleaning pools.
What was the progenitor of the loss of those jobs? Outsourcing.
Since 1994, according to the AFL/CIO, over 3 million manufacturing jobs and at least 600,000 professional services and IT jobs have fled our shores. And it's not only the private sector that has embraced this job killing trend. "At least forty states contract out administration of electronic benefit cards for the food stamps program offshore. In one audit, the state of Washington found 36 out of 41 agencies were contracting out work overseas." So, in addition to well paying manufacturing, professional and IT jobs, we are also losing mid-range public sector jobs as well.
And, according to a study by the University of Berkeley, this trend looks to accelerate as the study finds that 14 MILLION jobs are at risk for outsourcing.
And now, to make matters worse, the very service industry upon which our anemic economy is now based, is outsourcing at a breakneck (literally) pace. Not to mention that many, many of the lower paying service jobs (again, the bulk of American jobs in total) are now being filled by immigrants both legal and (more numerous) illegal.
And, here's the rub; these jobs, left to their own devices, will never come back to our shores. Unless this outsourcing trend is stopped, they are gone for good.
The loss of those jobs, besides taking away to real wealth and spending power of a vibrant middle class, is also a catalyst for another trend we're seeing. Namely, the loss of tax revenue.
If you don't have a job that pays a good wage, you don't pay as much in taxes. As a matter of fact, some 46% of Americans pay ZERO federal and state income taxes. And most of that 46% actually receive a subsidy in the form of 'tax credits' that turns their tax liability into a tax windfall.
So, what is the latest plan to stop this outsourcing? In his recent State of the Union speech, President Obama proposed to 'stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America' through the liberal application of tax breaks. A minor, if not insignificant, action that would, at best prevent some serviced based outsourcing, but would do little if anything to stop manufacturing outsourcing as the amount of the 'tax breaks' would just be too great to compensate for the increase in labor costs.
Not only that, but it will add to the already stifling national debt.
Now many of you are probably wondering what my solution to this issue is. The truth be told, I don't have one. I can not divine a mechanism that will magically lower the cost of labor in the US, while simultaneously increasing the cost of producing overseas. And that, I fear, is the only thing that will reverse this trend. Why would any business willingly pay more to produce a product in the US and sell it at a lower profit, when they can manufacture overseas, import it to American shores and sell it with a tidier bottom line?
Answer, they won't.
So, as you can see, the issue of this economy has little to nothing to do with the amount of taxes that any one group of American's pay but rather the downsizing, quite literally, of the core of the American society, the middle class.