To Conservatives: What drives the economy?

[Nosmo King]

What drives our economy? Consumer spending or business investment?

If you think consumer spending drives the economy, what would be wrong about putting more disposable income into the hands of the middle class and the poor?

If it's business investment, what would be wrong about making adjustments to the tax code that would discourage outsourcing and off shore tax shelters? Shouldn't American business investment be made in, I don't know, maybe America?

 

[Mac1958]

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Any time a thread begins with an either/or question to a highly complex issue, hilarity is bound to ensue.

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[bendog]

Well, having a tax code that offers advantages to move overseas is not exactly a positive. You can't have spending without jobs from investment. But don't try to tell the community organizer in chief that.

 

[Pennywise]

Supply and demand drives the economy and the more government meddles in the process the more fucked up it becomes.

 

[Pennywise]

Well, having a tax code that offers advantages to move overseas is not exactly a positive. You can't have spending without jobs from investment. But don't try to tell the community organizer in chief that.

Obama (like all democrats) believes in punitive taxation.

 

[Skull Pilot]

What's wrong with letting everyone keep more of their own money?

Lower the income tax to a flat 10% for all income
Lower the corporate tax to the same percentage.

 

[TemplarKormac]

What drives our economy? Consumer spending or business investment?

If you think consumer spending drives the economy, what would be wrong about putting more disposable income into the hands of the middle class and the poor?

If it's business investment, what would be wrong about making adjustments to the tax code that would discourage outsourcing and off shore tax shelters? Shouldn't American business investment be made in, I don't know, maybe America?

Around these parts, people are supposed to earn money, not be handed money.

And for the record, our economy is driven by both consumer spending and business investments.

 

[whitehall]

How do you put "more disposable income" into the hands of the middle class? By destroying the corporations that fuel the GDP? Maybe lowering taxes and the cost of energy and eliminating government regulations that strangle big and small business is a better answer. Gigantic federal bureaucracies that skim confiscated taxpayer dollars and laws created by politicians who never had a job that wasn't funded by taxpayer dollars is not the answer.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

What drives our economy? Consumer spending or business investment?

If you think consumer spending drives the economy, what would be wrong about putting more disposable income into the hands of the middle class and the poor?

If it's business investment, what would be wrong about making adjustments to the tax code that would discourage outsourcing and off shore tax shelters? Shouldn't American business investment be made in, I don't know, maybe America?

Unemployment checks and food stamps drive the Obama economy

 

[healthmyths]

Supply and demand drives the economy and the more government meddles in the process the more fucked up it becomes.

Over the past three years, the bound edition of the Code of Federal Regulations has increased by 11,327 pages – a 7.4 percent increase
from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011.
In 2009, the increase in the number of pages was the most over the last decade – 3.4 percent or 5,359 pages.

Over the past decade, the federal government has issued almost 38,000 new final rules, according to the draft of the 2011 annual report to Congress on federal regulations by the Office of Management and Budget.
That brought the total at the end of 2011 to 169,301 pages.

Seventy percent of the regulations were economic, accounting for $1.236 trillion of the annual cost. The other regulations were, in order of cost, environment regulations ($281 billion), tax compliance ($160 billion) and occupational safety and health and homeland security ($75 billion).

Another reason companies going offshore with their headquarters!

 

[Nosmo King]

What's wrong with letting everyone keep more of their own money?

Lower the income tax to a flat 10% for all income
Lower the corporate tax to the same percentage.

I don't think that drastically lowering the taxes on the minority rich while drastically increasing the taxes on the majority poor is a fair sensible course of action.

 

[The Rabbi]

What's wrong with letting everyone keep more of their own money?

Lower the income tax to a flat 10% for all income
Lower the corporate tax to the same percentage.

I don't think that drastically lowering the taxes on the minority rich while drastically increasing the taxes on the majority poor is a fair sensible course of action.

That's because you're insensible and you get your ass kicked in every thread.

If consumer spending drove the economy then sending checks to consumers would have produced a windfall. It didnt. It was a demonstrable failure. Every such program is a demonstrable failure.

 

[g5000]

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Any time a thread begins with an either/or question to a highly complex issue, hilarity is bound to ensue.

.

Mac wins.

 

[Nosmo King]

How do you put "more disposable income" into the hands of the middle class? By destroying the corporations that fuel the GDP? Maybe lowering taxes and the cost of energy and eliminating government regulations that strangle big and small business is a better answer. Gigantic federal bureaucracies that skim confiscated taxpayer dollars and laws created by politicians who never had a job that wasn't funded by taxpayer dollars is not the answer.

The destruction of corporations isn't on the table. Why would you throw such a grenade?

 

[Avatar4321]

False dichotomy.

What drives the economy is the liberty to choose what deals we can and cannot make to make our life better as well as hard work.

 

[Mad Scientist]

You mean "What drives the Economy Today?"

QE Unlimited
Military Industrial Complex

 

[bripat9643]

What drives our economy? Consumer spending or business investment?

That's like what makes the engine work, the crank shaft or the pistons.

 

[dilloduck]

Right now the Fed calls the shots.

 

[bripat9643]

What's wrong with letting everyone keep more of their own money?

Lower the income tax to a flat 10% for all income
Lower the corporate tax to the same percentage.

That's like asking asking the sheep herder what's wrong with letting the sheep go where they want to.

 

[Nosmo King]

If consumer spending is responsible for greater than 70% of our economic growth, what have policies like out sourcing, casino financial systems, unregulated asset trading, elimination of collective bargaining and cut backs to the social safety net contributed to the strengthening of the Middle Class?

How can lowering the tax rate on corporate gains (money not earned but risked) and the marginal tax rate of those actually EARNING more than $1,000,000 benefit the majority Middle Class and poor?