Responding to the Melissa Harris Perry Show

While channel surfing I came across the Melissa Harris Perry Show where the topic of Taxes were being discussed.  Her guests were JoAnn Reid of the Grio, Rick Newman of US News and World Reports and Randa Fahmy Hudome, Former Energy Secretary for the Bush Administration.  There were quite a few good points made but there were also some of which I took issue with.

Ms. Hudome mentioned that the true job creators were the millionaires and billionaire which is why their taxes should not be raised.  She said that all of them want to do the right thing.  She further stated that there appears to be no trust in the economy as if trust were a necessary ingredient to boost consumer confidence.  I agree with the need for trust but her premisie misses the target.  If millionaires and billionaires wish to do the right thing then the right thing would have been paying those corporate taxes and not hiding money overseas.  The right thing would be creating those expensive jobs right here at home while fighting tooth and nail to get the tax rates lower.  It would not have been taking much needed American jobs overseas for the sole reason of profits.  I believe Ms. Reid said it best when she made the point that Millionaires and billionaires are not the real job creators but the rest of America with disposable income to spend on the products manufactured by business that create the jobs.  Her point was well made that if no one buys your products, you have no base on which to build or expand and most importantly you have no reason to hire more workers to keep up with demand.

Mr. Newman made it a point to direct everyone’s attention to the feeling of fairness saying that “fairness won’t create jobs”.  I could not disagree with that statement more.  If I am getting a good product at a fair price, I will tend to continue patronizing that business and the more I do the more products they have to order or make.  I will also make it a point to share my content with that business with those I socialize with causing them to also seek out that business to solicit products from.  Word of mouth is the only proven form of advertisement that costs business nothing but can garner them huge rewards.  This all goes back to Ms. Reid’s point of more customer equals more demand and more demand equals increase supply.

Ms. Reid made another great point that I do not think resonates with many people when she said that until those fighting for lower corporate taxes are able to prove that lower taxes means more jobs, they are barking up the wrong tree.  If lowering taxes for the wealthy was the answer then what happened to the jobs this should have created in 2001 and 2003?  Until that question is answered successfully, that dog won’t hunt.