"Show me a poor man that ever created a job..."

[kentuck]

How many times have we heard that from Republicans defending the huge taxcuts to the wealthy? The truth of the matter is that money in the poor man's pockets create more jobs than money in the rich man's pocket. How so?

Simply giving huge taxcuts to the wealthy has not created jobs in this economy. Bill Clinton's Administration created an average of 250,000 jobs per month for eight straight years. Very few times has the Bush Adminsitration created 250,000 in just one month. And this after he gave the huge taxcuts to the wealthy.

The fact is that when the poor man has money in his pocket, he goes out and spends it. That creates demand for more products. It is that demand that creates jobs. We need to get away from this supply-side bullshit. Many of the dollars that was given away to the corporations and the wealthy found their way overseas. Greed was their compass. They were looking to make more money, just for money's sake. They did nothing for America.

So, I would argue that it is the poor man that creates jobs. If we give the money to the poor and the middle class, that will do much more for our economy than more taxcuts for the wealthy. But, I guess that's what make Democrats and Republicans different?

[Aviation Pro]

1. Show me a rich man....

...who faced with the choice of eating his children or becoming poor would choose the former over the later.

[Echo In Light]

They call it "family values"

[NewJeffCT]

23. True story

A die-hard Republican guy I worked with - married with 2 kids. He's probably close to 45-50 now, and his kids are probably like 14 and 10 maybe.

But, 4-5 years back, one of those big lottery jackpots came up and everybody was saying what they'd do with the winnings. I think it would have been over $40 million after taxes if you took the lump sum (meaning, the jackpot was over $100 million total)

What he said he'd do is give his wife & kids 60% to "get lost" and he'd keep half for himself and move to some tropical island somewhere. He probably thought he was being generous by offering his wife & kids over half the winnings.

[Aviation Pro]

35. Making him....

...a fucking scumbag. Let me guess, pale white, fat around the edges, loud mouthed whiner.

[NewJeffCT]

36. ding ding ding

we have a winner.

[bluestateguy]

2. Well, we warehouse a lot of poor people into prisons in this country

and often for non-violent drug offenses.

That creates a lot of jobs in the multi-billion dollar prison industry.

[loudsue]

22. The prison situation in the US is one of my pet peeves.

The whole thing is so corrupt it's hard to know where to start.

[Labors of Hercules]

3. Show me a person who believes this...

who isn't a self-serving asshole.

[Orsino]

4. Show me a poor man who ever shipped a job overseas...

...or who axed it in order to please shareholders.

[yourout]

5. Ding, Ding. Ding..........Money given to the middle class on down almost always goes immediatly....

into the economy.

Give it to the rich and it goes into Banks, Stocks, offshore accounts and were ever the Rich hide their money.

[liberal N proud]

6. Show me a rich man who shared his tax cut with someone who needed a job?

Trickle down economics has never been a proven method to boost the economy.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Isn't the problem with 'free markets' the need for everlasting expansion?

I think what's bringing on this recession is the fact that people no longer have the money to spend.
So, it doesn't matter how damn rich someone is, if nobody's buying, he's not creating any jobs.

[Extend a Hand]

19. A rmonetary system that requires everlasting expansion...

is the crux of our problem. The expectation for 'growth' is an underlying assumption for our entire system. It seems to me that any reasonably bright ten year old ought to be able to figure out that eventually we'll run up against resource constraints. I don't understand why our government leaders never ever manage to connect the dots.

The fix is systemic change and it's going to be painful

[Bonobo]

8. Show me a rich man that walked downtown and supported local business.

[NightWatcher]

9. I personally know 3 "poor men and women" who have created jobs

My mother is one of them who has started and sold three businesses. She is far from a rich woman, often we ate spam and tuna casserole growing up. She created a cleaning comapany then sold that to her cousin who runs it to this day employing 3-5 employees.

My aunt and uncle created a compant that sold and worked on business machine such as copiers and huge printers. They employed 4-6 people at a time before selling it twenty years later.

I too am a 'poor man' and I am in the middle of creating my own small business as we speak. It currently only employs myself, but hopefully will grow in the future.

Rich people hoard their money and send it somewhere so that they can avoid taxes for it. I hate to envoke the image of a John Melloncamp song, but blue collar middle class Americans built this country. We pay the bills and do the true heavy lifting.

"Eat the rich"

[lakeguy]

10. us poor people create all the jobs

through our hard work that makes profits. we then go and spend our wages, creating more jobs. any tax stimulus givin to us "regular" people would get spent right away, creating jobs. the people who get those new jobs will also spend right away...creating even more jobs.

that one tax dollar given to the lower/middle class will get used by many people in the economy. the rich guy puts it in the bank or maybe invests it.

[DangerDave921]

34. OK, but

Putting money in the bank or investing it also creates jobs because that money is used as capital to start businesses and expand businesses. Now if the rich just stuck their money in their mattress, that would take money out of the economy and hurt it.

[FormerDittoHead]

11. Yes. Show me a RICH man who ever created a job where there wasn't the DEMAND for his work... n/t

[havocmom]

12. The rapid shift of money to the top proves that the rich aren't "reinvesting"

Yes, when the poor and working class have coin, it gets circulated.

The rich seem to horde the coin.

Fact: we ALL do better when we all do better. The top 1% are lying to protect their castles.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. Exactly. More money in a rich man's pockets usually stays there.

Money in a poor man's pockets usually gets spent on goods and services. Someone has to work to provide those goods and services, therefore jobs are created. This is the same argument that I made for raising minimum wage.

[rAVES]

14. Trickle down economics is a flaming load of bullshit. only a simpleton would say it :)

so Bush did.

A strong economy needs a strong middle class.. if your policy is hurting them, you know your heading in the wrong direction, if you don't change course, then your intentionally trying to sabotage the economy, then you have a question needing answering: why?

[deminks]

15. We starve and die waiting for something to trickle down the rethug's leg.

It never does.

Trickle down economics, trickle down dreams, trickle down security, trickle down Jesus. The only thing they are eager to share is hate.

[rAVES]

16. Yes, hate is free, and with a well tweaked population, a mighty harvest!!

[underpants]

18. The phrase itself started as a joke by Nixon about THEM

They of course embraced it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. I just want to know who they think is going too buy their cheap China made crap

when all is said and done? It won't be the poor people they pay $2/day and it won't be us. Greed trumps long term thinking, I guess. :shrug:

[wryter2000]

28. IIRC, someone called it voodoo economics

George H. W. Bush

[Botany]

17. This guy?

Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan, when the railroad bypassed Milan
in 1854, but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running
from Port Huron to Detroit, as well as vegetables that he sold to supplement his income. This
began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discovered his talents as a businessman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

[NewJeffCT]

24. and, today GE employs 400,000 people worldwide

so, I would think that qualifies.

[jtrockville]

20. Every single taxpayer!

We all know that the rich don't pay taxes. Jobs are often subsidized by the government (ie, taxpayers). So every single taxpayer has created jobs.

[alfredo]

21. I did.

[michreject]

26. I worked with some people who were so inept

that the company had to hire someone to correct their mistakes. So actually they did create another job.

I worked and retired from the UAW.

[wryter2000]

27. How many jobs has Paris Hilton ever created?

Of course, she does support the prison system...

[CK_John]

29. PH is an industry. n/t

[EstimatedProphet]

30. Exactly. Here's why:

Company a has 1,001 employees. 1,000 lineworkers and one executive. Both make the same amount of money, as we've heard lately is pretty common.

The 1,000 workers, to get by, have to buy regularly:
1,000 gallons of milk
1,000 loaves of bread
1,000 lbs of ground beef
1,000 lbs of vegetables
1,000 monthly rent/house payments, etc.
1,000 tanks of gasoline
You get the picture. In comparison, the exec buys one of those things, if he buys any at all. His money goes into trips to the Bahamas, luxury items, things like that. Those things only support a small proportion of employment in the economy that the 1,000 workers would support, for the same amount of money.

[kentuck]

31. Economics 101 teaches that for every dollar spent...

It goes thru about 7 different hands. For example, for a gallon of milk from the farmer, it must be put in a container, it must be stored, it must be hauled to the supermarket, it must be stocked, etc...

[EstimatedProphet]

32. Right. And when someone spends it on other things, the economy shrinks

So all those dollars that were going through the economy before go somewhere else, and the people relying on them are SOL. The moneypig Repubs neglect to talk about that...

[catmandu57]

33. You build from the bottom up

The first thing is to make a strong foundation for the rest of the building to rest on. giving money to the rich is like building from the roof down. I've worked for many people who started on a dream and a shoestring.

[IdesOfOctober]

37. Kick!

[Elspeth]

38. Any small business owner who hires people is a job creator

These tend to be folks who are "poor" relatively speaking compared to the MegaCorporations that benefit from tax cuts. And last I heard, it was small business that was creating more new jobs in this country, while MegaCorps are downsizing and offshoring their US labor force.

[krispos42]

39. Poor people are creating tons of jobs... in China!

Because, they (or, uh, 'we') buy a lot of stuff made in China. In fact, unless you're buying a car, a book, or a gun, it's awfully hard to NOT buy something made in China.

Oh, and the rich are also creatings tons of jobs. Wanna guess where? Hint: it starts with "People's Republic of" and they're having the Olympics there this summer.

[librechik]

40. Edison was poor in the beginning. Carnegie was poor in the beginning.

Benjamin Franklin was poor in the beginning. Edwards was poor in the beginning.

[Jed Dilligan]

41. Yeah, the poor don't eat, pay rent, buy gas, wear clothes,

go to school, or get sick. They're just naked savages, howling and babbling and living on grubs and worms.

:sarcasm: