Comments on: "Mass layoffs" in U.S. up 3 percent
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- Until Middle-Class America sees that Capitalism perverse pursuit of low cost labor also affects their white collar jobs, everyone has naively shopped for the cheap Chinese made products at Wal-Mart.
As we have seen in the last decade under W. Bush and the Republicans, capitalists have transferred the wealth of this country from the majority of working Americans to a minority idle parasitic investor class.
Capitalists are responsible for sending millions of jobs overseas and for bringing a foreign workforce take over American jobs. Capitalists are also responsible for keeping over a trillion dollar in revenues and profits in offshore bank accounts, rather than investing them here to create jobs.
I see that many Americans confuse capitalism with job creation. The Soviet Union maintained full employment and prosperity from the 50's to the 70's, right after the Second World War. Today, Communist China too is also pursuing this policy of full employment. However, unlike the Soviet Union, Communist China does it by pursuing an aggressive export policy in attracting foreign investments.
In the end, it is meaningless to say that business creates jobs. Rather, we should be debating about which economic system-capitalist, communist, or whatever-is most successful at allocating wealth and resources to as many people as possible. Rather than counting how many billionaires join in the richest persons in the World list like Forbes magazine, economists should ask themselves this question? Is the general US standard of living rising or falling in the last decade? - Reply to this comment
- U.S. corporations are supposed to pay taxes on the profits of their overseas subsidiaries — but only when those profits are transferred back to the parent company. Now there's a move afoot — driven, of course, by a major lobbying campaign — to offer an amnesty under which companies could move funds back while paying hardly any taxes. And even some Democrats are supporting this idea, claiming that it would create jobs.
As opponents of this plan point out, we've already seen this movie: A similar tax holiday was offered in 2004, with a similar sales pitch. And it was a total failure. Companies did indeed take advantage of the amnesty to move a lot of money back to the United States. But they used that money to pay dividends, pay down debt, buy up other companies, buy back their own stock — pretty much everything except increasing investment and creating jobs. Indeed, there's no evidence that the 2004 tax holiday did anything at all to stimulate the economy.
What the tax holiday did do, however, was give big corporations a chance to avoid paying taxes, because they would eventually have repatriated, and paid taxes on, much of the money they brought in under the amnesty. And it also gave these companies an incentive to move even more jobs overseas, since they now know that there's a good chance that they'll be able to bring overseas profits home nearly tax-free under future amnesties.
Yet as I said, there's a push for a repeat of this disastrous performance. And this time around the circumstances are even worse. Think about it: How can anyone imagine that lack of corporate cash is what's holding back recovery in America right now? After all, it's widely understood that corporations are already sitting on large amounts of cash that they aren't investing in their own businesses.
In fact, that idle cash has become a major conservative talking point, with right-wingers claiming that businesses are failing to invest because of political uncertainty. That's almost surely false: the evidence strongly says that the real reason businesses are sitting on cash is lack of consumer demand. In any case, if corporations already have plenty of cash they're not using, why would giving them a tax break that adds to this pile of cash do anything to accelerate recovery?
It wouldn't, of course; claims that a corporate tax holiday would create jobs, or that ending the tax break for corporate jets would destroy jobs, are nonsense.
So here's what you should answer to anyone defending big giveaways to corporations: Lack of corporate cash is not the problem facing America. Big business already has the money it needs to expand; what it lacks is a reason to expand with consumers still on the ropes and the government slashing spending.
What our economy needs is direct job creation by the government and mortgage-debt relief for stressed consumers. What it very much does not need is a transfer of billions of dollars to corporations that have no intention of hiring anyone except more lobbyists.
Paul Krugman-July 3-2011 - Reply to this comment
- New York Post-August-7-2011-nypost.com
Corporate America is sitting on a colossal $2 trillion in cash -- $1.4 trillion in the S&P's top 20 alone -- but that does little for the public. Depending on whom you talk to, it's either a huge rainy-day fund if the economy heads for a double dip, or it's top executives feathering their nest in order to grab huge year-end bonuses. "It's enormous by historical standards," Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P told The Post, describing the staggering scale of the unspent corporate bundle. "The $963 billion is more than the recent government incentive and stimulus spending."
Finally an article in the Times says it:
"The nation's tax laws reinforce the pattern. American companies have piled up mountains of profits overseas, but they must pay very high taxes if they bring the money home." - Reply to this comment
- A Big Reason for Dismal Job Growth
Corporations are sitting on piles of cash and no hiring is the normal state of business in America because there is NO DEMAND FOR PRODUCTS. The three engines of US economic growth — consumers, government and corporations — are radio silent right now. Consumers are still busy paying down the mountain of debt they accumulated over the past decade; the government is in big-time austerity mode after the debt/deficit negotiations; and corporations, which are making lots of money , are keeping the money, not boosting wages or creating jobs.
Consumers are tapped out and worried about their jobs. In the 1970's, 80's and 90's, the U.S. economy created more than 18 million jobs during each decade. But from 2000 to 2007, the economy added only 7 million jobs. The seven years before the great recession hit marked the worst business cycle we have on record as far as job creation goes. We have now faced about 11 years of really weak job growth.
Everyone knows people out of work, but the richest 400 people in the U.S. have as much wealth as the bottom 125 MILLION. The GOP still uses your tax dollars to ship our jobs overseas, tax breaks for Big Oil, 9 TRILLION in lost home equity which was the inheritance of the next generation, gone. The rich are laughing at you America, while we created 18 million jobs in each decade of the 70's, 80's and 90's, we are short 11 Million jobs in this decade. WHERE DID THEY GO?
GOOGLE HOW MANY JOBS WERE LOST OVER SEAS USING TAX DOLLARS TO BIG COMPANIES ?
5,160,000 HITS AND COUNTING, STILL THINK GOP HAS NOT SOLD YOUR JOBS AMERICA?
GOP and 400 of their closest friends are laughing all the way to the bank while the bottom 125 MILLION are wondering where the jobs have gone. Trickle down? Ask the bottom 125 MILLION how the concept of money in rich people's hands have worked out during the worst business cycle in 70 years and lowest tax rate in 60 years . - Reply to this comment
- by Zarrakan, ""This is why education is considered a gateway criterion in order to meet the requirements of applying for a job, but does not actually increase your chances of getting a job.""
You make it sound like poker. pot odds v actual.
IF...
1. You get an education...
2. Are willing to work hard until you glean some experience.
3. Are well adjusted in the work place.
you'll do fine.
IF
1. you are an axhole, *******, punk thug...
2. work at perfecting your victim mentality
3. treat people like ess
you won't do fine
""Any response to unemployment must address the job pyramid in addition to education in order to make true progress. Without that you will end up with lots of Masters level educated people working at low pay/requirement jobs.""
I call BS to the above statement. Pure academia. nonsense.
Masters level job seekers with common sense and a willingness to work will fine gainful employment.
Zarrakan,
you need to understand the difference between "jobs" and "work". "jobs" are an ethereal entity. "work ethic" finds employment. People want "checks"
People want "pay"
People want don't want "work"
"Jobs" are not part of this equation. - Reply to this comment
- With all due respect,I just cannot get over how naive the far left seems to be when they use statistics and stories like this one to demonize business owners. Obviously there are always a few bad apples but these lay offs have nothing to do with greed and everything to do with the impact of this bad economy where consumers have less money to spend and businesses pay the price in the form of less income. That's all. There is no conspiracy and there is no doubt that someday those companies will be hiring new people if not bringing their laid off employees back.
And just for the record, THIS story is a perfect clue as to why Conservatives are opposed to "taxing the rich" to death because we realize many companies appear as being a single person to the IRS and hence, "taxing the rich" winds up taking money out of many companies' coffers which they could otherwise use to pay employees and/or expand their business to grow which often means they need more employees. This is also why providing businesses with tax breaks is advantageous and before you start yelling about the debt and deficits, please remember that even though a company might use loopholes to avoid paying tax, they are still an important source of revenue because their employees are paying taxes. - Reply to this comment
- more layoffs, mean more money for the CEO's....
- Reply to this comment
- Jobs jobs schmobs and globs.
We want pay. not jobs.
I wanna git m' money up!
Where's my check?
Do you take EBT?
I'll take some smokes and a fifth of anything with my EBT.
Job? I ain't gunna flip no burger foo! I ain'tchyo N*****.
Where's my CHECK mutha effa?
Get it Zarrakan???????
Quit with the academic psychobabble. Look at the coastal urban population and their attitudes. Face tattoos and pants down low and sayin' the man wont gimmie no job no how...
I see it all day.
"where's my check?" - Reply to this comment
- Zarrakan,
You hate on the rich. do you want to be rich. Do your kids want to be rich. If so, your teaching your kids to hate themselves if they achieve their goals.
The rich are not the problem. The corrupt wanna be's are the problem. - Reply to this comment
- Both left AND right slanted radio talk shows continue to state, "If you think THIS is bad ......wait until next year!"
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