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'Job Creators' Aren't Doing Their Job
If you put in long hours and hard work into a job, would you be upset with a boss who paid you with a handful of nickels, especially if hundred-dollar bills spilled out of your boss’s pockets while he dug around for the coins?
As taxpayers, Americans expect to get what they pay for—safe infrastructure, prompt emergency response, good schools, and a strong social safety net. As shareholders in profitable companies, investors expect to get what they pay for—dividends. And as job seekers in a troubled economy, America’s unemployed are trying to find work wherever they can; but corporate greed is depriving taxpayers, shareholders and job seekers of what they need and deserve.
With $2 trillion at home and $1.4 trillion abroad, corporations are sitting on record-high piles of cash. For example, Apple holds $76 billion by itself, more than the U.S. Treasury. Yet, these hoards of cash remain untaxed. A 35% tax on corporate America’s cash reserves in the United States alone would generate $700 billion in revenue. That amount would reverse every budget cut in every state, rejuvenating America’s schools and infrastructure by re-creating almost a half-million public sector jobs lost since the recession.
If corporations simply invested their American stash of cash reserves in creating good jobs for America’s unemployed, they could put 3.5 million new people to work in the private sector each year for five years, at an annual salary of $40,000. If corporations just used their cash reserves to pay dividends to their shareholders, investors like the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System wouldn’t have to cut benefits for their retirees.
Corporate executives blame the “uncertainty” of the economy as an excuse to sit on piles of cash, yet the economic boost of 17.5 million jobs created in five years would dramatically lower the unemployment rate and increase GDP, bolstering local economies by creating a surge of new demand for struggling small business owners. Using cash reserves to pay dividends to shareholders would restore confidence in the market and strengthen the investments millions are counting on for their retirement.
It is both greedy and irresponsible for American corporations to allow untaxed cash to pile up on their balance sheets while American infrastructure crumbles, public education suffers, the unemployed struggle to survive and shareholders lose their investments. It’s time for America’s “job creators” to do their job.
46 Comments so far
Show AllWell, what Mr Gibson doesn't understand is that the corporate money is being held back by a dam of taxes that are still too high and burdensome regulations. Once taxes and regulations are finally cut to zero, the dam will break and money will come flooding down on us 99%ers. This flood will replace the nonexistent trickle down that the Heritage foundation has told us about. Judging on their track record we really should trust them about their latest prediction.
So lets cut corporate and 1%ers taxes to zero, then put our rain coats on and wait for the flood of money to splash down on our heads. The Heritage Foundation says this is so, and they have never been wrong before, now have they...
Thought you were serious for a minute there, Tom. I'm sure the first libertarian troll will be along to tell us exactly that, but with a straight face, any minute now.
Yea, when you deal with the far right it can be hard to tell the difference between comic parody and their actual beliefs.
Historical evidence has proven that the only time in history the alleged "job creators" actually "did their part" was from 1934 to 1984 when they were regulated and fraud was a crime.
On the other hand, when you deal with the far left, it very difficult to find any sense among all the nonsense.
this is yet another example of an article that seems to be reasonable on its face but it is an article that profoundly misses the point that the amerikan economy has been off shored, especially the manufacturing sector, and that without these off shored jobs there can be no recovery
a simple hard fact really
no jobs - no recovery
dr paul craig roberts, undersecretary of the treasury under reagan, has been writing and lecturing about this disaster for years
he has a new website that can be found here:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
from his site: "Jobs offshoring, financial deregulation, and ten years of wars have severely damaged the US economy and the economic prospects of 90% of the American population. The signs are everywhere in front of our eyes. They are in the income distribution data, the BLS jobs data, the Census data, the poverty figures, and the high number of food stamp recipients.
The New Economy was a hoax, like Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” and the “war on terror.” Americans were deceived by “their” corrupt government, by greed-driven corporations, and by corporate shills among economists and the pundit class into believing that they were trading middle class “dirty fingernail” jobs in manufacturing for better middle class “clean fingernail” high-tech service jobs. Instead, reasonably paid manufacturing and professional skill jobs, such as software engineering and information technology, were traded for lowly paid jobs as waitresses and bartenders and for jobs in ambulatory health care."
his latest book: How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds
http://www.amazon.ca/How-Economy-Was-Lost-Worlds/dp/1849350078
"The US economy has disintegrated, and with it into the abyss plummet the blueprints of neoliberal economists, whose theories about "the free market" have now gone the way of medieval alchemy. No voice has been stronger, no prose more forceful, than that of Paul Craig Roberts in predicting collapse."
off shoring was a way for greedy businesses like walmart to use slave labor overseas to increase profits, off getting tax breaks for our government every step of the way
we paid to cut our own throats
the 1% got all the benefit and the 99% became unemployed
you can be sure these jobs aren't coming back and unless and until they do there can be no recovery
for this writer to expect companies like the anti-union scab apple to spend money to "help" the amerikan economy - well let's just say its naive in the extreme
no jobs - no recovery
There is a way. Re-instate Glass-Steagall. Conduct bankruptcy re-organization (shoving the phony-asseted 1%er wallstreeters out of the way, revoking corp charters of any who stand in the way...corps executed). Organize a Dept. of Public Works (DoPW; a permanent New Deal/CCC/WPA on a par with DoD;btw DOWN-SIZE DoD). Issue Greenbacks, Lincoln-style, for recovery from the Long Emergency. Still some idled factories, machine tools, warehouses around; nationalize them (DoPW take-over) for the Emergency. Appeal to idled/retired Machinists, tool/die techs, etc... to come train the new generation of machinists, etc.... Issue five trillion dollars of Greenback-monetized credit at permanent fixed low interest. Go to work rebuilding the national infrastructure for the 21st century. Co-ordinate with other major powers along same lines (they're in the same sad shape and WANT to do it). Economy recovered. Ecology restored. Peace at last (since manpower is now working at recovery, restoration, healing, INSTEAD of war-making).
You forgot probably the most important of all possibilities. Removal of ALL private money from elections has to be the first step or nothing else you've suggested CAN happen. With our current system of legalized bribery, the money will ALWAYS be the thing that wins out. Humanity can't do a thing about it as long as money calls all the shots. Take that power away from the rich and they can find out what one man one vote really means.
True. We've got to find a "TEAM" willing to do this, then get them into the driver seat somehow. I wanted to eliminate the sense of impossibility of fixing our situation. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, we just have to find a driver who'll get us "from here, to there". That may start a OWS flame that the 1%ers CANNOT extinguish.
The health care industry spends about half a billion dollars a year lobbying Congress. This means that they are spending about one million dollars per Congress person. There are a total of 435 Representatives in the House. 100 Senators in the Senate. If a million dollars is being on each one of these people by lobbyists, how likely is it that they are listening to anything the rest of us say? Why do people spend so much money running for political office? The jobs pay fairly well, but people don't spend a million dollars to get a job that pays less than two hundred thousand a year. Obviously they are spending the money they spend for something "more" than what they will receive in their salaries and benefits. Where did those no longer members of Congress get the money they now have? Take Newt Gingrich... Where did he get the millions of dollars he's now worth? That "trophy wife" of his looks "expensive" to me. Newt's education is in American history. Yet Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae paid him a couple of million dollars for his "advice"! What kind of advice did Mr. Gingrich give that was worth that amount of money? He's a history professor! OK, obviously he got paid for his "political connections". Mitt Romney "destroyed" tens of thousands of American jobs working for Bain Capital. Bain Capital bought up businesses via the "junk bond" route, sold off the profitable parts and let the rest go bankrupt. So Mitt Romney's not the sort of person we want as President. No doubt the rest of the Republicans are just as "dirty" if someone was to investigate their backgrounds carefully.
For the past 20 years a US Senate seat to "represent" an east or west coast state has cost more than $10 million per six year term...thats $1.6 million per year for a job that pays less than $200k per year.
Multimillionaire candidates can loan themselves the $10 million to get elected, knowing that coporate contributions will allow them to pay themselves back.
What motivates lobbying? Mainly two things: 1) a desire to reshape America through the legislative process, and 2) self-defense from 1). Abramoff was hired by Indian casinos to keep Congress from making it impossible for the casinos to operate. He charged them millions and the casinos got their money's worth. The casinos simply wanted to be left alone.
Yes, there some dirty Republicans, just like there's go to be a few clean Democrats.
R-I-G-H-T. Let's let the government decide who runs. Oh, would the prohibition apply to unions cash and in-kind contributions?
medmedude:
..........PC Roberts is one of my favorites to read. He is very knowledgable and makes more sense than most economists. Max Keiser has done several interviews with him. I would encourage everyone to listen to them. If you google Max Keiser and Paul C. Roberts, you'll find the interviews for Aug./Sept. 2011.
I heard a caller on C-Span yesterday morning ask a historian from New Hampershire why none of the candidates were mentioning anything about the the lost tax revenues from companies that shelter their holdings in the Cayman Islands.
His reply was that most citizens are aware that this is even happening, and it's not an issue for the candidates in New Hampershire or the country at this time. I am guessing Gay Marriage, Abortion, Family Values, and Religion etc. are more important and will be job creaters and offset austerity cuts in some way.
Of course New Hampshire has no State Income or Sales tax. But he didn't outline exactly how New Hampshire generates revenues. Must be real estate taxes. The money has to come from somewhere to operate the state.
Did you ever consider that New Hampshire may not need much to run its govt? When govt only does 'inherently governmental' things it's not that expensive. At the beginning of the previous century, the Federal government cost less than 2% of the GDP. This was the general rule except during war time. Then socialism started taking hold.
"no jobs - no recovery" correct so far. However, before jobs can be created, the opportunity for profit must be there first. Duh! No profit - no jobs - no recovery. Govt cannot create a net gain in jobs, but it sure can destroy them.
It is a misconception that the corporations are interested in participating in a system that benefits everyone. They are NOT. The one thing that they ARE interested in is saving civilization and the planet by cutting the population from the present seven billion back to around two billion.
The corporations under the control of the wealthy elite ALREADY possess almost ALL the money. They don't NEED to hire anyone to make things that will make more money for them. They would just as soon have all those pesky unemployed "useless eaters" just go away and die quietly.
In fact, THAT is exactly where this whole economic situation is heading.
It is already underway. There will be more and more stringent austerity measures implemented as the wealthy elite amass more and more of the economic liquidity.
Services and entitlements will be cut till the quality of life for the poor, the ill, and the elderly becomes untenable.
The social safety nets will be eliminated.
Without the means to provide for themselves, the poor will slowly starve to death.
Without the means to acquire health services and medications, the ill will slowly succumb to whatever ails them.
Without the means to sustain themselves, the elderly will die off because of being unable to continue living without the means necessary to survive.
And it will all be blamed on "The Economy" over which no one has any control.
The economic depopulation of the planet is on track and on schedule.
Mark my words.
MEL
And we will keep hearing that "nobody could have seen this coming".
What the article misses entirely is that the rich are essentially scum. They are psychopathic, greedy, selfish vermin who worship money above all. This didn't just happen, it was put into place by the very rich that everyone still worships like Gods. They should be locked up as dangers to everyone and everything, not emulated for their selfishness.
The whole Frank Luntz crap about "job creators' is 100% NONSENSE. They NEVER intended to create ANY jobs for ANY of us, the whole game was to bankrupt us, take away our security and financial ability to CARE about politics at all. They wanted us so beaten down that survival was ALL we could care about, and we would leave the running of the country to them, since they are SOOO smart. They saw us demand honesty and integrity and run Nixon out of office. He was THEIR boy and they didn't like US making demands for OUR country.
My last lady friend as, back in the mid 70's, driving around Denver with her husband and needed to use the restroom. They stopped and went into a hotel in one of the richest parts of town. An obviously rich woman followed Becky into the restroom, and berated her for even being IN there. She told Becky that she wasn't even fit to use THEIR restroom, and that the rich were going to take "THEIR country back from scum like her. Becky lit a cigarette with a Franklin and blew it in her face and left. The old bitch blew the secret before damn near anyone else knew it. This is a concerted effort by the SCUM in this country to destroy US for their own benefit. I hope that bitch got what she so definitely deserves.
The rich HATE you. They have NO interest in doing ANYTHING for you, let alone actually give you a job. Certainly not one that yo can LIVE on. They think YOU are WAY too comfortable, and need to be sent back to the tenements where you BELONG. They hate you and your life. If there is ONE thing that W told a partial truth about it's that there really ARE people in the world who hate your freedoms: They are called RICH AMERICANS. It's time they got treated the way they have been treating the rest of us and the way they deserve.
It's time for a fundamental sea change. No more worshiping the rich, PITY them instead. Don't tell your kids to be like that, tell them to be ashamed that we allow people to behave like that. Tell them that there are more important things in life than MONEY, which is a nasty, polluting thing that should only be used as a tool, which is what it is. To see it as the point of life is meaningless, empty, shallow and futile. And dangerous to those who actually have a point for their lives.
The rich are scum. They have been showing that to you for the last 35+ years. How much MORE proof do you need than that?
Perfect! Especially second to last paragraph..."no more worshipping...". Unfortunately even kiddie channels like Disney pump out "worship the rich" shows daily.
Spoken like a true socialist. Sure some rich are scum, but there's plenty more like you on the other end of the spectrum. You are truly over the top in your violation of the 10th Commandment. How are you going to convince your kids that there's more to life than money when you're so fixated on it yourself - especially other peoples money?
I was about to compare the mythical construct "job creators" with the Tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and Santa Claus.
But that would be patently unfair. The latter three actually deliver.
As Goebbels sed, the idea that the rich are job creators is mythology.
It's such a cute idea that the rich might read an article by a co-founder of US Uncut, and that it might prick their consciences, but I'm not sure those pricks have consciences.
You need to check your conscience at the door if you want to be rich,
How much more stupid can the people be to believe this "job creator" crap. The only job creators are consumers with money in their pockets!
True. No one "creates" jobs except for customers with money in their pockets willing to spend it. How long would any business last if no one bought anything from them?
We have to get rid of the Republicans. They destroying the country. If Obama's American Jobs Act had passed there would by 2 million more jobs out there. We need a new jobs bill every 4 months, at least. Interest rates are so low bond buyers are begging us to borrow. The wealthy corporations have more cash than places they know where to put it, which is a significant reason interest rates are so low. We need to tax them, and sustain those taxes as we dig our way out the hol they thew us in. Corporate pofits rose yet again this year, while their tax rate fell to an average of 18.2%. And what is the one economic idea shared by all Republicans? Lower corporate taxes... time to grow up all you politically arrested infantiles and abandon the "both parties are the same" naivete that loses us elections and puts Republicans in charge.
I'm confused. I thought the Democrats were in office. So hard to tell, these days...
If Obama had let the Bush tax cuts expire there would be more than 2 million new jobs and fewer workers would have been laid off. If Obama had lowered the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 rather than morphing Romneycare into Obamacare, there would be 4 million more older workers retiring, opening their family wage jobs to young Americans who are currently experiencing the highest unemployment rate of any age group.
Sorry Shawnberry, but if Obama's jobs program passed there would be no new jobs since it was just a bundle of populist platitudes designed to keep left of center voters from voting third party.
Source? I'm calling BS. Those people wouldn't even have jobs if Obama hadnt bailed out the auto industry. TARP started under Bush and the costs were recovered under Obama. I'm disappointed that Obama wasn't able to stop Bush's tax cuts but the Republicans made him extend them
Its time for a revolution, but the public is not well armed, so the oligarchy can kill with impunity and their MSM will cover for them.
job creators?
planet creators, we need...
our planet struggles to bear up under the jobs already foisted upon her...
she cannot tolerate even more...
I think this author wants his pet korporations to do good so he can feel less guilt while his stocks rise in value. Meanwhile, aren't we the people ready to take the reigns and be our own job creators? I think when we demand something in the local markets then someone local will produce it. I think it sends a message that will be heard in our local community, when we want something that isn't available. Maybe in the local market we can ask for something to be made and it will be made, by small local farmers and craftsmen. I guess it would keep korporations out of the legislature. What a gargantuan racket to be dismantled by the people, this korporatist status quo. I would not want to be in the doomed position of Harvard Business School faculty today. Would you like to help create the business curriculum of the future? There's a hefty demand to replace something so massive, and so massively failed.
The whole conservative mien of 'job creator' is unalloyed corporate feudalism, with the implicit message being 'You scum should be happy we deign to give you a job.'
"It’s time for America’s “job creators” to do their job." -- Carl Gibson
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
they're doing a fantastic job!
it's called a "snow" job
and it's working fine!
gotcha!
Mr. Gibson's comments are consistent with the revisionist and socialist education he may have received. Thank goodness people still love strippers or bouncers like him probably wouldn't have jobs either. Nevertheless, Karl's (purposeful misspelling) ideas that corporations have a duty beyond that of profit motive and shareholders returns smacks of Marxist ideology. The simple truth is that the money belongs to the company because someone took a risk and earned this money. If the company sees opportunity by expanding, then the company will surely do so, because this is how capitalism works. However, right now there are very little motives for expansion. Taxes and regulations limit the upside during tenuous times. Don't blame Karl, he's just an automaton programmed by a socialist public education system.
"The simple truth is that the money belongs to the company because someone took a risk and earned this money."
Perhaps, but in that context "the company" includes the employees as well as the directors and shareholders - they risked their livelihoods by working for it, and their investment of time is at least as significant as the shareholders' investment of capital.
I can appreciate the idea of a distribution of wealth according to whether someone "took a risk" or "earned" it., but this is not what capitalism does. It often seems to accomplish the opposite.
I think that with this article Carl (purposeful correct spelling) was hoping that those who had always regarded Keynesian economics as socialist or Marxist might understand them in terms that were familiar to them.
I'm not sure how well that's going.
One problem is that many want ads put in something like "No unemployed person need apply".
"the “uncertainty” of the economy"
I've puzzled over this comment (talking point?) which is heard frequently of late. I think it's another incomplete sentence and should be "... uncertainty that consumption fueled by Merikans borrowing against the equity in their homes (in lieu of wage increases) will start up again.
I am, however, certain my company intends to send our jobs off-shore. That makes me certain that I'm not spending much more than necessary.
Off-shoring occurs more commonly because of government making it more difficult to do business in this country. Yes, people in other countries work for much lower wages, but that's offset more than you think by the quality of American workers. To give you a clue, China has virtually the same GDP as the US, but with 10 times the work force.
The lure of off-shoring is summed up in two words: taxes and regulations. Federal, state and local govt have been milking and meddling with businesses for years, even before Obama. Now with ObamaCare, hiring is now prohibitively expensive, given the business environment, regulators have multiplied, the EPA is well and truly radicalized, and we the people wonder why no one's hiring. Businesses spend money to make money, but not when they're guaranteed to lose it. Only govt and idiots do that. (Solyndra anyone?)
You probably didn't notice, but the day after Obama was elected, many businesses started announcing layoffs and down-sizing business plans. Why? Because they paid attention to what he's said all along, and to the new makeup of Congress. Unemployment doubled after he was inaugurated, but it had already started to rise.
Remember the fable of the goose that laid golden eggs? Look it up.
"To give you a clue, China has virtually the same GDP as the US, but with 10 times the work force."
China's GDP is still less than half that of the U.S. Its workforce is about five times that of the U.S., not ten. Average salaries in China, however, could be one-tenth that of the U.S. and probably less. That's what American workers can't compete with no matter how much better they are.
"Federal, state and local govt have been milking and meddling with businesses for years..."
I thought the tax rate has dropped precipitously since the 1950s and businesses can take advantage of loopholes to make their taxes even lower and even negative. As for government meddling, I guess NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, etc. must have been a real pain for business.
"...the EPA is well and truly radicalized..."
Yes, it has been utterly disappointing in dealing with the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Definitely radical.
"(Solyndra anyone?)"
That was a doozie, but the government has always been involved in the energy sector. Do the energy companies complain when they benefit from such involvement? If you accept government input, then you have to take the bad with the good.
"...the day after Obama was elected, many businesses started announcing layoffs and down-sizing business plans."
Maybe that was due as much to the deepening recession as to his election, if not more. Funny how Obama received more campaign donations from big business than his opponent. Were they throwing it away?
"...and to the new makeup of Congress."
Congress has been the same corrupt bunch for generations. Faces may change, but the masters most of them serve don't.
Investors like the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System should invest in REIT's which are required by law to pay 90% of their profits in dividends. Congress should pass laws that require Corporations to pay a precentage of their profits in dividends. This would spread the wealth and encourage investment.
Greetings,
We're told that "free trade" is necessary in this modern world but only 1 in 100 US businesses exports to the rest of the world. That tells me that we could easily put a 50% to 100% tariff on pretty much everything coming into this country without harming our own industries.
This would do two things:
a: raise a lot of money which can be used to rebuild our infrastructure.
b: it would force many corporations to relocate production back to the US.
Many have said it and they are correct: no jobs - no recovery.
Corporations are no longer job creators. The are job exporters and the legislators they buy help make it profitable for them to be job exporters/goods importers.
The real job creators today are small businesses. Since banks are no longer loan money because they make more gambling with it, the engine of growth has been stymied. We need QE for small businesses instead of gambling addicted crooks.
The current corporate model needs to addressed. It's threatens the very structure of our government.
Read a grand stoty of the mess we are now in and and how the GOP got us here.
Unfortunatly they refuse io admit it.