I chose this chapter because at the moment it's the top issue facing the United States today. We currently face a $1.4 Trillion deficit. Unfortunately, we cannot grow our way out of it. The US economy has been lackluster the past ten years, as 20 million unemployed Americans are painfully aware. This has left Politicians bickering over the best way to fix it. The Obama Administration believes the best way to raise taxes on the rich. Currently, less than 1% of Americans control 40% of our wealth. This seems like a no-brainer, but Republicans are staunchly against it. Their argument is that the rich are the “Job Creators” and taxing them would cost us more jobs.
This video clip of Stephen Colbert explains the Job Creators and their
relation to taxes and unemployment. Colbert is one of my favorite sources
of news. I'll frequently dig deeper into issues he brings up on his show
While this sounds nice on paper, the sad reality is that these “Job Creators” have enjoyed significantly lower income taxes over the last ten years, which coincidentally is about how long we’ve been in this economic slump. If these “Job Creators” need tax breaks to create jobs, what are they waiting for? The other thing that no one seems to address is during the Clinton administration, they paid significantly higher taxes, and yet the US actually had a SURPLUS.
The Republicans seem to ignore the Clinton economy and the fact that the Bush tax cuts have done nothing but hurt our economy. Why in the world do they think it’s a good idea to cut them even more? What’s even more baffling is why so many voters seem to think it’s a great idea to keep these people in office.
Bottom line is Obama needs to make a chart showing how when the taxes on the rich fell, unemployment went up. Like he said “It’s not class warfare, it’s math”. CNN Money explains a little more about the Tax hikes and Jobs.
Sites for more info on The Economy and the Governement:
The Daily show with Jon Stewart does regular reporting on the matter. Even though it is heavily satirical, they always seem to find a humorus way to explain complex economic info in layman's terms.
The Economist is an excellent website and magazine if you are interested in Economics. It gives unbiased insight to many world financial issues. I like the way they have critical views and analysis of a wide range of topics and translate the econmic impact of current issues.
