Horsey Toon: Tax cut fallacies are creating a shabby, cheapskate country

[n2doc]

There is a crucial reality that pro-business, anti-government conservatives ignore: a modern economy cannot function without a robust public sector that provides the environment for businesses to thrive.

A top-notch education system up through the university level that produces highly skilled workers and cutting-edge research; a sound infrastructure of roads, bridges, airports and mass transit that allows for swift flow of goods and easy movement of employees; a safety net for dislocated workers and impoverished people to avoid social turmoil; courts, prosecutors, police and regulators to keep the economic playing field free of crime, corruption and exploitation – these and many other services of government are vital elements in our economic system. And yet, it is precisely those programs that are suffering at the hands of the budget cutters.

In Washington State, for example, state support of higher education has dropped during the last four years and, once the current budget is approved, the reduction is likely to reach an obscene 50 percent. At the state’s premier institution, the University of Washington – a place enlightened business leaders recognize as a prime engine of economic growth for the region – tuition will shoot up, limits on admissions will slam the door on many of the best local students and world class programs will be jeopardized.

This is happening in a city and state flush with multi-millionaires and major corporations, from Bill Gates and Microsoft on down. Yet, when Bill Gates’ father, the elder Bill Gates, helped put an initiative on the ballot last year to institute a strictly limited income tax to tap into that great wealth, anti-tax zealots scared voters into shooting it down.

more

http://blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/2011/04/07/tax-cut-fallacies-are-creating-a-shabby-cheapskate-country/

[liberal N proud]

1. K&R

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[TheFarseer]

3. perfect, I can't even ad to that! n/t

[JHB]

4. Low taxes on the wealthy encourages liquidation and specualtion, not long-term investment

How many of the "booms" that we've had since the "tax revolt" that Reagan rode into Washington have been fueled by financial wheeling and dealing, by liquidating factories and work forces here and moving them to other countries, rather than by new real development? In other words, cashing in the wealth that had been built up in the decades before, simply because those at the top had a freer hand to simply pocket the money.

Even the tech boom took off from foundations (early theoretical work, materials development, experimental research and development) that had been laid earlier through government-sponsored research, Defense Department programs, and corporate research centers (which had pretty good funding because their benefits as listed assets, as "seed corn" for new products, and as tax shelters outweighed their drain on The Bottom Line). Once tax rates were cut, however, they couldn't compete with the need for "more, more, more" and the tyranny of the "quarterly report" mentality.

[athenasatanjesus]

5. The message is more,if you don't plant the beans the beanstalks will grow from up top.

Trickle down.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. I love Horsey's cartoons

They always seem to nail it.