This is the TED Talk that has caught so much attention. The Sapling Foundation, owner of “TED” (technology, entertainment, design) initially declined to air it, and demand had to grow on its own. Finally there was enough whining and complaining that TED was forced to air it. It’s making the rounds now.
In it, Nick Hanauer says some plainly true things that are a stark contrast to the spirit of the times. He makes lots of money, but doesn’t imagine himself a “job creator.” That function, he says, is the product of a feedback loop, with middle class consumers buying products acting as the real job creators. So low taxes for the wealthy has no influence on the number of jobs available to fill. (Quite the opposite, actually.)
That point is so basic that it takes whole university economics departments to obfuscate it beyond recognition. Sadly, that is the function of economics as we know it – not to discover truth, but to hide it.
Neil takes Nick to task.
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Good for him. what do you think? it’s technologically impossible to do a radio stream direct to this website, but I’ll settle for right wng talk radio passed through your brain before being written down here.
have a go at it.
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I’m thinking if you transported 20 multimillionaires to Cuba, let them purchase land and personal items freely, it would raise the status of the middle class in their communities.
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Would it be different if 20,000 people, each having $1,000 of disposable income, went there?
They’d have to get by the embargo.
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By the way, you didn’t watch the TED talk, did you. He addressed your point specifically.
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Nice work Mark. Soooooo, Swede, my good man, people (millionaires, billionaries, middle class and working poor) who purchase goods and services raise the overall standard of living. Lift the embargo and watch Cuba prosper. Isn’t that pretty much what Nixon and Kissinger started with China? Grumble, communists, grumble, grumble. I am cracking up right now.
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