I heard Barack Obama saying today that the Republicans need to tax the rich that can afford it. He said the Republicans need to extend unemployment benefits again instead of giving tax breaks to the rich. What is Obama talking about? The rich have certainly not gotten any tax cuts lately. When the Bush tax breaks expired, there effectively were tax increases on the rich. President Obama, if your economic policies were working, we wouldn't have high unemployment. If unemployment was lower, we wouldn't need to extend unemployment benefits.
I work for a small business with about 15-20 employees. All of us are either professionals or skilled workers. Our biggest problem these days is finding people with the right skills to work on the manufacturing floor. I'm sure that the success of our business has made the owner pretty well off. He's certainly not a billionaire, but I'm quite sure he's a millionaire. Does that make him bad or greedy? I'm certainly glad he started the business that provides a good living to all of these employees and their families. I'm able to do the type of work I know and enjoy doing. He reinvests in the business and creates more jobs. This business didn't exist 15 years ago, and now it is a vibrant enterprise. We buy parts and materials from other businesses, engineer equipment using the parts, and assemble the equipment in our shop. We provide engineering services to our customers to improve their productivity and equipment reliability. There is a definite value that we deliver to our customers, and we charge a price that is less than or equal to that value, making the transaction good for the customer. As long as we deliver more value than the cost of delivering it, there is a profit. None of our customers complain that our owner is making too much profit. If our customers didn't think they were getting a good deal, they wouldn't buy our products and services.
I started thinking about this today, when I noticed how taxes aren't paid in an exchange for goods or services of equal or greater value. My wife will be working a little late tonight, and she said that we should take an hour of her salary and use it to buy a fast food dinner. I had to correct her, because she doesn't really get to keep her entire hourly wage. The state, federal, and local income taxes will take away around 25%-30% of her wage. The government doesn't do anything for her except confiscate a pretty big and growing chunk of her paycheck. Politicians take it away and give it to others that don't work. We don't get anything in return, and these politicians don't even represent our interests. Too many of these recipients of government payouts choose not to work. They are unable to earn enough to make it worthwhile to find a job. The MessAPolitico takes money from those of us that pay taxes and give it to people that vote for them. They are greedy enough to demand money from us and give it away to increase their personal political power.
I'm personally very happy to work for a person that has been successful and would be considered rich by many people. I'm glad he has been successful enough to give a bunch of us jobs. I hope he continues to be profitable and continues growing the business. I wish the MessAPolitico would quit taking away more and more of the capital available to grow this business. I hope the MessAPolitico will stop regulating and squeezing these type of businesses that employ 80% of Americans. If you would leave the American economy alone, you wouldn't need to extend unemployment benefits. Stop the handouts, and folks would need to get a job to keep from starving.
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