- Joined
- Jun 10, 2009
- Messages
- 27,254
- Reaction score
- 9,350
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
A new contributer on the forum by the name of Swit, provided the following well thought out comments on this topic in another thread ~
"2. Regardless of the fact that many poor families (or individuals) could most definitely make better economic decisions (i.e. saving, investing, etc...) it does NOT negate the fact that it is BENEFICIAL for business (and thus our consumer-driven economic model) for them not to. I state this because it really is a no-brainer that when more and more money is saved and squirreled away, there is less and less opportunity for new businesses to sprout up as a result of the major driving factor of our economy which is consumer spending. Now if you take umbrage with my claim that we live in a consumer-driven economy then we can debate that. But, by conservative accounts (eliminating entitlement health expenditures by the government, and purchase of imports) consumer spending accounts for approximately 50% GDP and by the standard definition of GDP (which includes the previously mentioned exclusions) it hovers somewhere around 70%. Now take into account that we now live in a global economy, and that American's need to generally demand a higher wage (with no small part being an increased cost of living as opposed to those in say China or India with respect to the value of the Dollar) by outsourcing jobs and and forcing people to compete with people in areas where basic needs cost less. This forces even more money out of our consumer-driven economy. It is in EVERYONE'S best interest (particularly business) to have the vast majority of people to have the ability to not only provide for their basic necessities but also to buy stuff that they want. By definition this requires full time employment to provide a wage that is not only living but also has extra for discretionary spending. This fact seems to be missing from the current debate. If we develop an economy where only a small portion of the population has discretionary finances then new business will have a extremely difficult time taking hold as people will have to weigh eating with buying shiny new stuff. This type of mentality helps no one, rich or poor.
3. When all this is taken into consideration, ALL welfare and entitlement monies spent by the government inevitably end up in businesses hands be it food, health care or whatever those people spend money on. Its NOT the government robbing the rich to to give to the poor, it's the government robbing from the rich to sustain the economy which made the rich... er... well... rich. This simple math seems to be lost on most people. People on welfare are NOT saving money, they are spending it. So, those of you that are upset with our welfare system need to realize that what is really going on is that the high tax burden of the wealthy isn't really going to the poor its most likely going to the local small business owner (or even multi national corporations like say Walmart), as thats where the poor are spending their "free" money. It's merely Governments way of perpetuating the economic status quo and preventing societal instability."
http://www.debatepolitics.com/general-political-discussion/106949-world-class-warfare-poors-free-ride-over-98.html#post1059754308
"2. Regardless of the fact that many poor families (or individuals) could most definitely make better economic decisions (i.e. saving, investing, etc...) it does NOT negate the fact that it is BENEFICIAL for business (and thus our consumer-driven economic model) for them not to. I state this because it really is a no-brainer that when more and more money is saved and squirreled away, there is less and less opportunity for new businesses to sprout up as a result of the major driving factor of our economy which is consumer spending. Now if you take umbrage with my claim that we live in a consumer-driven economy then we can debate that. But, by conservative accounts (eliminating entitlement health expenditures by the government, and purchase of imports) consumer spending accounts for approximately 50% GDP and by the standard definition of GDP (which includes the previously mentioned exclusions) it hovers somewhere around 70%. Now take into account that we now live in a global economy, and that American's need to generally demand a higher wage (with no small part being an increased cost of living as opposed to those in say China or India with respect to the value of the Dollar) by outsourcing jobs and and forcing people to compete with people in areas where basic needs cost less. This forces even more money out of our consumer-driven economy. It is in EVERYONE'S best interest (particularly business) to have the vast majority of people to have the ability to not only provide for their basic necessities but also to buy stuff that they want. By definition this requires full time employment to provide a wage that is not only living but also has extra for discretionary spending. This fact seems to be missing from the current debate. If we develop an economy where only a small portion of the population has discretionary finances then new business will have a extremely difficult time taking hold as people will have to weigh eating with buying shiny new stuff. This type of mentality helps no one, rich or poor.
3. When all this is taken into consideration, ALL welfare and entitlement monies spent by the government inevitably end up in businesses hands be it food, health care or whatever those people spend money on. Its NOT the government robbing the rich to to give to the poor, it's the government robbing from the rich to sustain the economy which made the rich... er... well... rich. This simple math seems to be lost on most people. People on welfare are NOT saving money, they are spending it. So, those of you that are upset with our welfare system need to realize that what is really going on is that the high tax burden of the wealthy isn't really going to the poor its most likely going to the local small business owner (or even multi national corporations like say Walmart), as thats where the poor are spending their "free" money. It's merely Governments way of perpetuating the economic status quo and preventing societal instability."
http://www.debatepolitics.com/general-political-discussion/106949-world-class-warfare-poors-free-ride-over-98.html#post1059754308