Friday, July 23, 2010

Debunking the Myths about Unemployment


The Progressive Pulse – Debunking the Myths about Unemployment

Investment in job creation should be in the form of tax cuts for businesses and indviduals, even as we reform a tax code that should be thrown in a waste lagoon. The US Tax Code is 2000 pages at last count, more pages than the Bible! Is it really that hard to determine a percentage of your income? Apparently, the largest corporations in the country feel it's cheaper to buy congressman and hire the smartest corporate tax attorney's in the world, than to pay their fair share of the tax burden, which goes right into the pockets of the top 1% of the wealthiest of Americans.

Face it America, your jobs were sold overseas to the countries with the cheapest labor force, and given to millions of undocumented workers who will work cheaper than you. Even while Congress, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac greased the skids for Mortgage Companies and Wall Street to earn $B's selling $T's of worthless securities, and compounding the damage by betting against their scheme in the form of credit swaps.

The total of bad assets worldwide is between $135 - $175T. A few $T here and there in stimulus spending isn't going to fix the problem, not when federal spending has grown out of control and there is a projected $52T in unfunded entitlements in addition to the current federal deficit. If deficits don't matter, then why doesn't the federal government write a check for the projected $278B in revenue shortfalls for the States? Is it because 11 of 50 states are literally bankrupt, owing more than they're worth? When does that become true for the federal government.

We have a $14T GDP in the US, the largest in the world. What needs to happen is for the US Government to get out of the way, and the surest and best way for that to happen is cut taxes and cut spending. Legislators in Washington need to take a hard look at themselves and the Executive Branch and begin to reform entitlement spending.

In the 1960's, government largess brought about Medicare and Welfare. Medicare hid the real cost of health care in the federal deficit. Why, when a person has paid insurance premiums their entire life, should the federal government assume responsibility for your care at age 65? Welfare was reformed in 1996, why are we re-instituting it now in the form of Unemployment Insurance. When you pay people to have babies, they have babies. When you pay people not to work, they don't work. Instead of welfare insurance, implement public works projects, where is the Great Community Organizer in all of this? At least then the government will have something to show for the 10's of $B's, instead of just more debt.

Employment figures are a lagging indicator of the health of the economy, which is pitiful, mostly as a result of our federal government, whether it be lack of oversight or improper incentivisation. The quickest and surest way to bring stability and equilibrium to our economy is for government to get out of the way, by cutting taxes for the middle class Americans, which, by the way, are going up, and begin the process of reforming entitlement spending, without which every budget hawk knows is paramount to having any meaningful dialogue about addressing federal deficits. In the meantime, the average American citizen trying to earn a living and make their way in world, will have to work a little harder to make ends meet, and enjoy a lower standard of living, while Federal beneficiaries enjoy a COLA adjustment every year.

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