I had a commenter on this blog tell me that she thought we should never tax business because taxing business was 'punishing' the entity that creates jobs. My first thought was, when did making business pay it's fair share of things become punishment?A few weeks ago, this commenter and I went back on forth on Facebook over the value of labor unions. Basically she blamed them for ruining our economy and I told her she was an idiot for thinking and saying that. Her point was that unions have become so corrupt and greedy that no business would want their employees to be in one. Umm, duh. No business wants their employees to be in a union, they don't want them to have the protection or collective bargaining power that a union offers it's members. Business wants to make a profit as cheaply as it can and it wants no roadblocks to it, and all businesses see unions as roadblocks.
But this post isn't about her right wing view and irrational hatred of the only protections that workers have, it's about her idiotic comment that taxing business is punishing it.
Businesses, both large and small, want their workers, for the most part, to be able to read and write. And where do people learn to do those things? In schools, public schools for the most part, and public schools are funded by taxes. So therefore business should pay taxes that will go to funding schools.
Businesses like using publicly funded things like roads and bridges, therefore they should pay taxes to help build and or repair those things. Businesses like police and fire protection, therefore they should help pay for the police and fire departments. They like trash pick up, so they should help pay for the public landfills they use. They like their workers to be healthy so they can work them long hours for little pay, so therefore they should pay for things like the Centers for Disease Control, for public health clinics, and for inoculations of school children who will become workers later on.
Most of you get my point. However, I'm sure it will be lost on the idiot woman who thinks that unions and not greedy short sighted corporations ruined our economy and that taxing business is punishing it.
If stupid could be taxed, we'd make a fortune off her.
7 comments:
Besides, business doesn't create jobs. Demand creates jobs. If there is demand, people (like you and I) will form businesses to meet that demand. No demand... no job.
Not to mention that the United States is the least-taxed major economy on the planet right now. Only 24% of U.S. GDP goes to taxes, while in much-faster-growing economies like Canada the average is 35%. The only major economy that's even in the same low-end ballpark as the United States is South Korea, which taxes 28% of its GDP, everybody else is above 30%. *PLUS* only 7.5% of taxes paid in the United States are paid by corporations as income taxes, because they are adept at finding tax dodges. The remaining 92.5% of taxes paid in the United States are paid by, err... you and me.
So let's recap. The Fortune 500 had $10T of revenue in 2008 (last year I have figures for). The U.S. economy was roughly $15T that year. Thus the Fortune 500 is 2/3rds of the U.S. economy... yet paid only 7.5% of taxes paid? Uhm, something wrong there, yo...
- Badtux the Numbers Penguin
With some people you wonder does it hurt to be that stupid or is it that there aren't enough brain cells to cause a headache??
I worked with a guy once that kept chanting the mantra "Cut Taxes". I asked him how much did he think he would benefit from a tax cut. He said he didn't care who got the money as long as the government didn't get it. This from a guy whose entire income was dependent on the government, retired military(I usually call them retarded military, because after 20 years they come out that way) and working for a defense contractor on a government contract!!
I think it's one of the talking points that conservatives get handed out to them. Taxes = punishment. Punishing success because I guess lib's are supposed to just hate success or the successful or whatever.
To piggyback on the Professor, we must control the language and recreate the image of "taxes". Taxes are how we collectively buy a better life. I appreciate what my taxes buy. Is there waste? Sure, and that needs to be addressed. But basically taxes keep our lives civilized, clean, and safe. We need to control the message.
Frame to use is "deadbeats". Business is dependent on educated workers, on roads to get their goods to their stores and get customers to their stores, cops to deal with shoplifters, on all these things, yet don't want to pay taxes to pay for all this? The Fortune 500 is 75% of the American economy, yet of all the taxes paid in America the Fortune 500's income taxes are only 7.5% of that total? People who say we must not tax business are defending DEADBEATS who aren't paying their fair share and want something for nothing. How can anybody defend a deadbeat?!
- Badtux the Non-deadbeat Penguin
These nuts might like to try funding their Wars with bake sales and lemonade stands (or maybe Koolaid would be more fitting).
If we only taxed the stupid and the greedy, there would be no need to tax the rest of us. Just a suggestion.
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