Tax cuts?

350 billion dollars, for instance.

Let's say a "job" costs about $50,000 a year - that includes benefits, some supervision, etc, on top of a salary that could support a family in most of the U.S., and doubled (both parents working) could even support a family in one of its more bustling major cities.

So, 2 jobs cost $100,000.

And 20 jobs cost $1,000,000.

20,000 paying jobs cost a mere $1 billion ($1,000,000,000).

Do you see where I am going?

2,000,000 (two million!) jobs cost $100 billion a year.

So Mr. Bush's tax cuts, which would mostly reward his wealthy supporters and the investor/speculator class, could simply create TWO MILLION jobs per year for THREE AND A HALF YEARS!

Alternatively, if he really wants to put people to work and jump start the stalling economy, it could create SEVEN MILLION jobs for one year.

Since he is completely prepared to set America up for the deficit created by a tax cut double this size, this "super sized" plan could be modified, by starting with 3.5 milion jobs the first year, then be attenuated by cutting about 1/2 of the program each year for two or three or four years, with those left out of work by its shrinking finding work in the freshly primed private sector.

And what would the jobs be? Building roads. Repairing bridges. Running broadband internet service to the boondocks. Teaching retarded kids in small classes. Hell, we could send 100,000 people to Iraq to not only help them rebuild their roads and bridges (and electrical, sewer, water systems, etc., that we blew up to free them) but expose them to how people who grew up with freedom think and act.

Call me a collectivist, a socialist, even a liberal, but I see no harm in doing this. At least the loan we would be paying back would have bought something besides the favors and comfort of the already-rich.

This is how the wealth of a nation is invested - by using our collective efforts to build up the capital infrastructure during bad times, so that the money spent flows around the economy and generates private investment in job producing industries - that dearly need that infrastructure in order to make money.

5/16/03

© Huw Powell
printed 28 March 2024

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