Edwynn
Posts: 4105
Joined: 10/26/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mnottertail Some self-appointed guardians of the nations business have assured me that if we give large corporations tax breaks the jobs they will create in America will have us in a land of plenty in no time. (see bold underlined text) Then they lay the second paragraph on me when I tell them that the idea that an extra few $K in tax breaks (of which they are not paying the bracketed amount now.....) ain't gonna be sticking a handle on it. I am not feeling guilty about the berating I get. But they will never feel stupid either, which is sort of sad. The politicians spouting this nonsense might be stupid, but the corporate interests feeding them with their reading material are anything but. The latter know full well the detriment to society in enactment of such tax breaks, but that is neither their nor such politicians' concern. There are always a good number of people greatly attracted to such cons, so they worry not too much about those sorts being interested in veracity. What you might think of doing when people annoy you with such piffle is to direct them to Sweden, not necessarily because they are absolutely the most successful in every economic regard, but because the economic stats of Sweden so perfectly counter every braying these people delude themselves into thinking of as "argument' so perfectly. Sweden: Among highest taxes of developed countries, along with; among the highest GINI index, p/c GDP, "quality of life" indexes, GDP per hours worked, high total personal savings, and before the crash had a government surplus, a parental leave regime that does not require mom to quit or have to return to full time after only 6 weeks, dad having more time to help out and let mom work more as the child heads toward grade school, etc. all of which keeps unemployment low and total output being less affected than in other countries., the list goes on ... And even with the taxes and employer requirements regime, ranks highest of continental European countries, along with Denmark (another similar tax/social benefits country), in the "ease of doing business" ratings. How do they save so much even with high taxes? The largest answer to this, by far, is that single payer health insurance is immensely more effective and efficient than all-private-insurance-based care, at least as the way the Swedes do it. Look at the annual bill of typical private health insurance; how do you think both individual and aggregate/national economic conditions would be if half that total went to taxes, and the other half to personal savings? Bingo. Positive net national savings year after year. Not having to worry about the insurance companies response when you actually hold them to their end of the bargain either. Much more than all that, even, if we took several pages for it.
< Message edited by Edwynn -- 3/29/2011 1:56:14 PM >
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