Date: 8/19/2016
Trump’s latest economic talk shows how ignorant he is on the subject. Employers don’t hire people to do nothing just because they have excess cash. The cash can be safely placed in some offshore tax haven. They will hire workers even when they have to borrow to do so if the demand for the product is there. It all depends on demand and demand depends on a healthy middle class. The poor can’t afford to buy and the rich don’t buy in enough quantity to sustain the economy.
For example, if $5 billion from a hedgefunder were distributed to 50 million families, each family would get $100. Suppose they all went out to buy two pairs of sneakers for their kids. That creates a demand for 100 million pairs of sneakers. People will be hired to meet this demand. The hedgefunder might buy two or three pair but never 100 million pairs. A major problem we face is the shrinking middle class and resulting loss of demand and therefore jobs which occurs as inequality increases.
Another of Trump’s proposals is to scrap the Estate Tax which touches fewer than two out of every thousand families. It is not a death tax. There is no tax on the first $10.9 million that a couple passes to heirs. This is very generous already. Ending inheritance tax will increase the deficit and it is wrong. Money is always taxed when it changes hands. I pay my dentist with money that I already paid tax on when I earned it. When he gets it he pays tax on it again. When he spends it on braces for his kids, the orthodontist pays tax on it again. Inheritance is a case of money changing hands and tax should rightfully be paid.
Another of his great ideas is to cut taxes “across the board.” This will also increase the deficit and who will it effect? Poor workers pay Social Security and Medicare tax starting on the first dollar of wages earned but that tax will not be cut. Federal income tax will be cut. Forty-seven percent of Americans do not pay any income tax because their wages are too low. Trump’s deduction for child care expense is therefore useless as well. Only wealthier families will benefit while the deficit and national debt go up. Already the rich have opportunity to call their income “carried interest” or “capital gains” and therefore pay no Social Security or Medicare tax on it. If they did, the Social Security. problems would be solved.
Trump also wants to eliminate all regulations. This would make the rich richer but what about clean air and water and safe food for the people. What about the safety of our infrastructure and our very existence on the planet. Trump says that climate change is a hoax. He will tear up the Paris Climate Accord and bring back King Coal.
In short, Trump’s plans will help Trump, other billionaires and their heirs but the national treasury, most Americans and the planet will be harmed.
Malita Brown
Wilbraham
