My long time friend Mike implored me the other night as to whether I believed that cash in our pockets was money that could be put to better use than if it were in the Government's... and although I wanted to say a lot, I hesitated looking for the right answer, because unlike the sound bites of the media, it needed an answer that was as deep as the economic hole we are in... so Mike, here is my answer, taken from an email to you, copied and pasted here for others to give their two cents....
_____________________________________________________________________
Mike,
Hope you are well.
Just wondering about your feedback here to something you raised, so please read when you have a chance.... because I would really like to hear your response... (if you have one).
You asked me whether I agreed that money is better in our hands than in the Government's. Basically, you were asking the tea party question of did I like higher taxes, and to that, I really do not mind paying a few more bucks in taxes because for what I get from that money goes a longer way than when it just sits in my savings account, depreciating, or on whatever uselessness I seem to spend my money on whenever I have more to burn. The people who are most against such tax hikes are those who have more cash... "the job creaters." When there's a tax hike, they feel it, because taxes are like interest, the more cash you have, the more it affects you, whereas if you do not have as much cash, it is negligible. The old, and now debunked, argument (that you cannot argue against Mike because the job numbers don't lie) is that giving rich people tax cuts have not trickled down... and have not created jobs. Since the Bush tax cuts (2001 was it?), we've lost a tremendous amount of jobs... Obama, by the way, came into office right after Bush at a time when 3 quarters of a million jobs were being lost a month!. The so called "job creaters" did what with their money except give themselves large bonuses? They sure did not, and have not, and are not creating jobs.
Government can be improved, as with anything, but it is not the bogey man the tea party makes it out to be. The taxes we have paid to the Government have created the internet I am using to send you this email, and has had a tremendous commercial application; IBM / Apple / Facebook / Google--countless companies and countless jobs that have been created from a Government project, with Government money that went to fund the D.A.R.P.A. program which spawned the internet--GPS--sequencing of the human genome, which, I found out from my company is a huge success, and which is why I have a job at all. Although the typical tea partier would today oppose the $300 or so million for initial program funding of the research associated with the sequencing, it is today estimated to have contributed 100s of billions (and counting) to our economy--not to mention priceless medical discoveries that are allowing us to live better, healthier lives. And how about clean-up of the gulf oil spill?... And why Government oversight /regulation such as through imposing building codes, for example, leaves a country like Chili well intact after their 2010 earthquake, with little damage and loss of life as when compared to Haiti--a country with no such Government code enforcement / oversight, that was devastated by an earthquake that was 100s of times smaller than the one that hit Chile... but don't ask a tea partier if we should spend money on such things, because it would get cut, right? Now, that kind of spending, versus me buying new Nikes, booze, or apps for my phone is much more meaningful. Of course consumer spending accounts for 70% of the American economy, and 20 - 25% of world GDP, but that is mainly the typical American consumer we are talking about.. not the few people at the top. The American consumer is the reason why the guys at the top are even there in the first place... because the guy at the top has so many people below him, the army of American consumers, with disposable income buying his products and services he makes money. Without the consumer, there is no profit; without profit, there is no guy at the top... there is no business... and there is no job! And so it goes. Bottom line, I can afford a few more dollars in taxes, I don't care... to be honest, I probably would not even notice. I'd probably just loose that money on the slots at Vegas or at the bar here meandering through a boring night... and the guy at the top, although not seeing how having to get hit with higher taxes actually positively affects him, should not mind it either. This whole argument over big Government might in some instances be true, but really it is mainly based on self interested motives. People just don't want to pay more taxes... that's all it is. The sad thing about it though is that everyone benefits from those taxes, even the people at the top (if not through the consumers adding to his bottom line, then with Government infrastructure that allows him to even have and operate his business in the first place).
The fact is, I got through college with the help of the Pell Grant and other Government programs. If I did not have those programs to help me, I would have most likely not have been able to attend, and let a lone graduate college. And if there was a way, but just harder, then it would have taken longer for me to get to working, and cost more (i.e. interest + time = more money on the loan). But, regardless, because the Government put up some few pennies from its spending in my direction, I am now making many, many, many more times the wages than without my degree. Now, instead of McDonald's, or some other remedial job, I work at a biotech making good money. Now, the Government not only gets back what money they put up for me in getting this degree (through taxes), but for the rest of my life, they are also due to get it back ten to one hundred fold over what would have been if they did not invest in me. Not only that!.. but now I have more money to spend that will appear on the earnings reports of the guys on top. NOT ONLY THAT!!! but now, I, as well as others like me, are in better positions to be the job creaters ourselves than the guys at the top who do not deserve another excuse to avoid paying their fare share!... which, more than me, they can afford.
Hope that answers your question...
Kind regards,
Mike
