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MindMover

(5,016 posts)
Thu May 17, 2012, 03:56 PM May 2012

Facts About The Rich And Job Creation Are Too ‘Politically Controversial’ For TED Talks

TED, the nonprofit organization that organizes and promotes wonky web videos on varying issues known as “TED talks,” has reportedly decided not to publish a video on income inequality in which venture capitalist Nick Hanauer* declares, “Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs.” TED organizers deemed the talk too “politically controversial,” and in an email obtained by the National Journal, TED curator Chris Anderson told Hanauer that “we couldn’t release it, because it would be unquestionably regarded as out and out political. We’re in the middle of an election year in the US. Your argument comes down firmly on the side of one party.”


Just because TED regards the topic as too political, however, doesn’t mean Hanauer’s points aren’t valid. Income inequality has skyrocketed over the last three decades, as the richest Americans have seen their incomes rise and their tax rates fall. Middle class wages, meanwhile, haven’t kept up with costs or productivity. That led Hanauer to conclude that the middle class is the real engine of job growth, and that “we’ve had it backward for the last 30 years” by cutting taxes on the rich, according to his prepared remarks:

If it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to more job creation, then today we would be drowning in jobs. And yet unemployment and under-employment is at record highs. [...]

We’ve had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs. Rather they are a consequence of an eco-systemic feedback loop animated by middle-class consumers, and when they thrive, businesses grow and hire, and owners profit. That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all is a great deal for both the middle class and the rich.

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Facts About The Rich And Job Creation Are Too ‘Politically Controversial’ For TED Talks (Original Post) MindMover May 2012 OP
T.E.D.'s gonna be embarrassed. silverweb May 2012 #1
recommended! Bill USA May 2012 #2

silverweb

(16,402 posts)
1. T.E.D.'s gonna be embarrassed.
Thu May 17, 2012, 04:08 PM
May 2012

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Once this goes viral and gets more attention than it would have otherwise, and once T.E.D. gets swamped with petitions and emails about its futile attempt at censorship... LOL

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