Posts tagged: debt
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
I suspect that hampering efforts in wealth redistribution (even in the form of taxes) will negatively affect economic progress of an economy or society.
Five years ago—no, three years ago—it would have been difficult to imagine picking up a Chinese newspaper and finding this: “China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets.”
The balance of world power just shifted again. We’re in for dangerous times.
Stanley Oland, 62, a Republican from Kalispell, Mont., said that the government needed new jobs to generate the economic activity and the revenue it requires.
“That revenue supports the basic foundation for the economy, creates more jobs and stimulates the economy,” he said. “Unless you have working people you don’t have revenue from taxes. If you cut spending, jobs will be eliminated and you won’t get any revenue. Every dollar spent creates jobs.”
That’s a thinking Republican there.
The Republicans compromised too little, a majority of those polled said. All told, 72 percent disapproved of the way Republicans in Congress handled the negotiations, while 66 percent disapproved of the way Democrats in Congress handled negotiations.
Good. I hope they get that during the coming elections.
Then again, with crashing stock markets, it makes a good time to go shopping.
![Policy Changes Under Two Presidents (from How the Deficit Got This Big - NYTimes.com)
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Policy Changes Under Two Presidents (from How the Deficit Got This Big - NYTimes.com)
[via]
