Ted Talk Storm Today (Video)

I think it needs a summary. It's a very good talk, and the main thrust of it is as follows:

1. that the rich are job creators - indeed, the job creators - in an economy has become an article of faith

2. a corollary of this is that reducing taxes on the rich leaves them best able to use their wealth to create jobs

3. unfortunately, like most articles of faith, it lacks evidence - the US has made huge strides in lowering taxation on the rich over the last 30 years, and the result has not been anything like the deluge of jobs that should have resulted.

4. on the contrary, the evidence points to the middle class consumer - that is, consumers with disposable income - as the real drivers of job creation

5. this is because the existence of customers with money to spend is what produces businesses with things to sell them, which in turn produce jobs

6. capitalists, in fact, prefer to do as little job creation as possible - jobs are a cost, and hiring more people is the last resort of a company which is driven to do so by the pressure of servicing customers

7. nor do capitalists spend as much as would be spent if the same amount of wealth was more evenly distributed - as Gatsby said, you can only wear one shirt at a time

This is an observation backed up history - the industrial revolution in England, the current boom in China, are/were driven by the rise of the middle class, not an expansion of the number of super-wealthy individuals or an increase in their wealth.

However, the talk is more applicable in the US than in Europe, which has never entirely lost sight of the idea that by taxing the rich and transferring money down the scale, the net result is better for everyone.

cordially,
Scofflaw