Truisms for Fun and Profit.

Let me offer up a few truisms for my discerning readers:

1.     The Government has no money of its own.  Nope, none.  Before it gets any, or then spends it, it first has to take it from somebody.  Under the threat of force.  Which is the only reason we pay our taxes voluntarily.   

("Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that man behind the tree!")

2.     Regardless of what Democrat candidates for POTUS might tell you, the Government does not create jobs.  With the exception of Government jobs, that is, of which there are more than Seventeen Million!  The Government does not hire privately-employed people, or fire them, or give them raises.  All the Government can do is create the proper  environment into which jobs are drawn; i.e., a favorable legal, regulatory and taxation climate that causes investors to decide to invest their discretionary income.

3.     And lastly, jobs can only be created by those who choose to invest private capital.  In other words, somebody has to take a chance before anything else happens.  And that capital comes from what's left over after Government has taken its overarching taxes and fees and penalties from our puny, insignificant, plebeian lives.  And it makes no sense to invest that left-over capital to create a job for somebody else, until or unless a reasonable return (i.e., "profit") can be realistically expected for oneself.

That's called "enlightened self-interest."

(NOTE:  Those of you with socialist tendencies who just abhor the profit motive are invited to take a trip to any socialist country and see how well it works in absentia.)

So when a politician tells you he's going to create jobs by taxing the "rich," just remember he's telling you he'd stifle job growth by forcibly removing some of the excess capital the public might otherwise choose to invest.

("Trying to make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor, is the same as standing in a bucket and trying to pull oneself up by the handles.")  
                                   -  Sir Winston Churchill, Famous Guy

If you doubt me, just look back at recent history.  Obama's "Progressive" policies resulted in 8 straight years of abysmal 1% - 2% economic growth, the very lowest since WW2.  Under Trump?  3+% growth right out of the chute, the very highest since Ronnie Reagan did exactly the same thing, for the same reasons, and in the same way, back in the 'eighties.

It's no secret to economists: lower the taxes and eliminate stultifying regulations and the miracle of capitalism will be unleashed!   

It's nice to think about how much better our miserable, unimportant little lives would be if we could just pry loose some of the money the "rich" keeps in its mattresses.  I mean, they don't need it, right?  And we could sure use it, right?  And why not give socialism a try?  We could finally get rid of all this "income inequality" thing, right?

I mean, they tell us socialism is just fine.  It's just never been tried "correctly."  Out of the dozens and dozens of times it's been tried.  And the dozens and dozens of times it has failed...

NOTE:  They're eating their zoo animals in Venezuela.

The Truth:  The "Progressives" demand that we make the rich pay "their fair share."  They do, Mr. and Mrs. America!  The top "1%" of Americans pay 37.3% of all income taxes.  Yet, they earn only 19.7% of all income.  Do I hear anyone screaming for "paying their fair share?"  How about a tax break for these poor downtrodden folks!  Why, I ask rhetorically, do those who pay no income taxes constantly rail against tax breaks for those who do?

You might want to read that last sentence over again.  

Does it make anybody wonder why these uber-rich don't take their saddlebags full of cash and beat feet out of overtaxed America and head off in their Gulfstream 5's for Belize, or Costa Rica or Panama?  

The Bottom Line:  If we took Every. Single. Penny. these folks make, it still wouldn't be enough to accomplish all the giveaways the "Progressives" have in mind.    

Of course, if we did, the jobs those once-rich, and now newly-poor might have created won't get created.  And once we've taken their money and sprinkled it around liberally, doing their little socialist best to correct "income inequality," they won't have it left to spend and grease the economy, right?  But hey, it would sure make us feel better for a little while, right?  Sort of like the very best and most expensive sugar high in America's history, right?

Whether you like Big or Small Government, ask yourself this:  Do you feel good about having folks you never met in some far-away place you never visited spend your money for you, or would you just as soon spend it for yourself?  The unfolding mass exodus from high- to low-tax states tells you how many of your fellow Americans are answering that question...with their feet.

Some food for thought...