Actually, There's No Problem With The Economy

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

Really, there isn't. The economy is rolling along just fine. In fact, corporate profits for 2010 will probably set a record - and let's just be real here, folks, it's the corporate profits that are important. Yes, yes, I know; small businesses employ 52% or thereabouts of the nation, but they don't bring in the cash that Big Corp does. It's Big Corp that decides our economy. It's Big Corp that is the standard of American wealth. Big Corp money is what we all strive for, the ultimate American dream. You don't see small businesses bringing in 1.6 trillion dollars in profit. And we still manage this with the highest corporate taxes in the world.

A lot of people will say "What about the unemployment?" The correct response to this is "What about it?" Let's be clear: The people who have been laid off were made redundant because a) their jobs were unnecessary and the companies were tired of carrying the fat or b) because the people in them were incompetent. And before anyone baws, yes, the public sector is also suffering cuts. It's easy to get hired by someone these days - if you're already gainfully employed. Corporations admit that they are not hiring the unemployed, but why is that so surprising? Why would a corporation want to hire a failure? No, really, I'm being serious.

Some might ask where these record profits are going. Why isn't there new investment? Why haven't any markets picked up? The answer is pretty simple: the record profits are going where they need to go, into the pockets of the shareholders. There's no need to reinvest in Americans when you have a global market out there.

So by the standards of the moneyed and those who make it, we're doing gangbusters. And by those standards, the economy is just fine.

(Personally, I feel the solution is just to eliminate small business. Once we're all working corporate, everything will be just fine. *thumbs up*)

Comments

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Wait no way has the U.S. got the worlds highest corporate tax rate.

If that were true and they had such a high tax rates for any significant length of time, surely it would kill the whole national economy. The U.S. would end up a 3rd world nation, if they had such a high tax rate.

Everyone knows that the country governed and taxed the least is the best governed and wealthiest nation. Just ask any laissez faire / libertarian / conservative economist.

Oh that makes me think...I wonder what the corporate tax rate is in Somalia?

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

Somalia doesn't have a government. That is what anarchists think is good. Libertarians and conservatives don't think that anymore than dietitians think that zero intake of sugar and salt makes for the best diet. There's a level that is best, above and below it is bad.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Wait no way has the U.S. got the worlds highest corporate tax rate.

Not highest worldwide, but we're slated to have the highest among the OECD countries once Japan's cut goes through later this year.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

People giving Somalia for what is supposed to pass for a libertarian example is one of those nonsensical things that keep boggling me.

[normaltrouble.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this compact overview, and I just joined the community.

Thinky thoughts have ensued and been enabled, and definitely some learning was done.

I am here via friends of friends.

And uh hello all those out there in talkpolitics community!

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Thinky thoughts - I liked that. :)
And hello!

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is a significant problem in the structural economy that is unable to absorb excess labor into new industries and markets. This places a drain on the economy, and is highly inefficient. The wealth and production lost by not being able to fill 8 million jobs can get quite substantial.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Yeah but that's just citizens, that's not a problem for the big corporations.

[frodomyhero.livejournal.com]

And why is the "structural economy" is unable to absorb excess labor into new industries and markets? Because the vision and foresight of our leaders aren't there to protect us and help solve the problems of the future. Instead they wield jargon about how great the "economy" is while getting ready to axe any sort of investment in our country's most important resource. Our brain power. This country is wilting in it's "structure" of education: it has been molded into "No Child Left behind ( I like to call it "No lawyer left behind") and "Race to the top" ( I prefer to call it collapse at the top and have that trickle down to the bottom) So if we as a nation had vision and purpose to see and act upon what is needed for future, progress economically, we wouldn't be continually drilling, (the old, out dated way of making money and jobs) for oil, we would be using bio- fuels : coming from algae or even cut grass and there would be plenty of jobs to create this IN OUR COUNTRY, not in the middle east. It would be a cooperative ( is there anything like that in Washington? No , it's broken) and many people would have jobs for a future of not having to deal with pollution from the raping of the land , exploited at the hands of the big boys who want to keep the status quo. They are the ones who stand to profit and we our loss of land, it's value, it's drinking water, it's beauty and the wonderful air we breathe. We will become unhealthy (it's actually already happening in parts of the country- rural areas mostly) and the health care will become so costly that the people will have no choice but to die because there is not enough doctors to take care of the many who will be sick from a sick environment. (JUst ask all the people who live near a dump)
Ok. I'll get off my soap box now. You can turn the station but this I do see. Do you?

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Yes it will be a bright shiny world - except the unemployed who can't get hired again by the Omni Consumer Products corporations. I guess they become cannibal mobs, preying on corporate drones.

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Stop eating your fellow unemployed. You have 30 seconds to comply.

[torpidai.livejournal.com]

Omni Consumer Products

I'll just assume ACME's name change had certain tax benefits?

[torpidai.livejournal.com]

Now if we can just return to 10% interest rates for savers (I know it means high repayment rates for borrowers, but that's their own fault!) our 80's revival will be complete!

fun with satire

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I wish the "satire" tag could be left off a satire post for the first 24 hours or so. This one actually had me wondering for a second, we've seen crazier non-satirical posts here I'm afraid, but then the tag gave it all away.

Re: fun with satire

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Re: fun with satire

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

Except I wasn't being satirical.
No, really, no satire here. Just LOTS of cynicism.

Re: fun with satire

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem to matter with me, as I almost never look at the tags. I guess I should have clicked on some of the links, I thought this was just another disgruntled leftest post. (in fact I had to double check to see who had posted it, it sounded so familiar ;) )

[ninboydean.livejournal.com]

Its a common misconception, repeated above, that being a shareholder makes you the supreme capitalist in industry.

In fact, it is the executive positions which allow the most valorization of "owned" (managed) capital. Manipulation of stock value, toxic asset sell-offs, etc... This has been a major factor in recent criticism of banking institutions, but none of it is really "wrong" from a purist propertarian perspective.

Shareholders routinely get screwed by the people up top. Its the same kind of market manipulation that people complain about the government doing - the difference is that capitalists seem to think that its OK for private parties to do the same thing, for some reason.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

the difference is that private shareholders aren't forced to get screwed by penalty of law.

[msretro.livejournal.com]

The stockholders and the power players, in a lot of cases, are the same people. While stock ownership has become more common, over 80% of stocks are owned by the wealthiest 10% of all Americans: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

[whoasksfinds.livejournal.com]

Yah, my halliburton stock was up almost 8% yesterday. All is good in the world :)

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

NO, only rich people are shareholders. Working class and middle class people aren't, nor are their pensions funds invested in the stock market.

[anosognosia.livejournal.com]

Probably American corporations are not going to like the upcoming hyperinflationary period any more than American citizens are.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

wheelbarrow manufacturers are looking forward to it...

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

Yeah. People need to decide whether profits, employment, GDP, or something else (or some combination) is the true measure of our economic health.

They also need to realize that corporate interests and individual interests are usually not the same.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Good troll. Well referenced, written without going into hyperbole etc. and makes salient points that should get people thinking as well.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Is "troll" the new codename for "I disagree with you"?