Sunday, September 18, 2011

"Class Warfare Makes Good Politics But It Makes For Rotten Economics."

(Link)  It can be argued that Obama's taxing of the rich more, as well as his jobs plan, is all for "popularity".  As Congressman Paul Ryan said: "Class warfare may make for good politics but it makes for rotten economics."  So even if the wealthier population gets taxed more, making taxes among everyone seem equal, it might only serve to hurt the economy in the long run.  If the wealthy get taxed to much, there is a distinct possibility that the  wealthy business owners will become more conservative with their money, and end up hiring less workers, or not hire at all, in order to keep profit margins high and expenses low.  Thus, some workers may end up losing their jobs, and those searching for jobs will have a much harder time finding a job because no one is hiring.  There will be some who will oppose Obama's decision simply based on the fact that he is a liberal, and the opposition is made up of primarily conservatives.  To many, Obama's recent proposals, with the most recent being the American Jobs Act, seem like a way to gather supporters to prepare for the 2012 presidential elections.  The future of America's economy, depending on whether or not President Obama's plan gets passed, is uncertain, but supporters and opponents of Obama's economic proposals are already predicting what will happen.

2 comments:

Joseph Chua said...

Obama's jobs plan speech did seem like an attempt to increase popularity, but I have to disagree with this article's stance on taxation. Investing (including hiring workers)is based more on expected profit than available cash. What this article says about taxing the rich sounds like Reaganomics to me. It is interesting to note that Congressman quoted is a Republican ("interesting" meaning I am not surprised at all), and "class warfare" sounds almost like a weasel word with intended communist implications.

JeremyHardy said...

I felt that the American Jobs Act was a clever political move by Obama heading into election season. If the bill passes and has noticeable positive effects, people might be more willing to reelect Obama for a second term. If Congressional Republicans don't pass the bill and our economy continues to spiral downward, Obama will be able to criticize Republicans for being stubborn and putting party politics before country. The only other outcome is if the American Jobs Act goes into effect and does nothing to relieve our economy, in which case the Republican presidential candidate is almost guaranteed a victory in November 2012.

I'd have to disagree with Paul Ryan - if there's anything that's proven to be rotten economics, it's been these ridiculous tax cuts for the wealthy. Sure these are mainly the people who expand our economy through investment and job creation, but we ought to reevaluate this past decade and decide what's really fair.