Is anyone else sick of the MSM calling rich people "job creators"???

[Major Nikon]

I've even heard some at MSNBC and NPR using the term and the ignorance of it is astounding. The term was invented by wingnuts to drum up sympathy for the rich so everyone buys into our highly regressive tax structure. Calling rich people job creators is just an endorsement of supply-side economic 'theory' which has been fully debunked over and over. The only thing that creates jobs is demand, and rich people don't create demand. The truly sad part is the one place where I have seen this fallacious notion seriously challenged is on Bloomberg. I'm sure it's been challenged elsewhere, but most of the time it just gets a free pass and supposedly serious journalists use the term as if it actually had merit. Has America really been dumbed down that much?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-07/raise-taxes-on-rich-to-reward-true-job-creators-nick-hanauer.html

[Warpy]

1. I was sick of it the first time I heard it

and quickly realized my habit of keeping televised news OFF was a very good one.

Any "journalist" who doesn't break in and say "Job creator? Prove it" should be fired on the spot.

Fortunately, I think it's backfiring. You have to be a rare sort of stupid to think these men who are grabbing everything in sight have created one single job here and not in China.

[Major Nikon]

2. Stupid, yes. Rare, I'm not so sure

It seems most Republicans buy into this nonsense, and many Democrats don't seem to challenge the idea much. The truly sad part is a huge part of public policy is built on a lie. That's why there's no serious challege to recalling the Bush tax cuts and most legislation that actually has a shot at helping the economy must be accompanied by a heaping helping of more tax cuts for the rich. I do see some of this backfiring like you say, but until more people and especially those in the media start standing up and calling bullshit I don't see much change in how this affects policy makers.

[ArcticFox]

3. Yes

[fasttense]

4. Calling the uber wealthy "job creators" is like calling garbage collectors "trash creators". n/t

[HillWilliam]

5. Butbutbutbutbutbut... They ARE job creators

except the jobs are in China, India, Malaysia, Guatemala...

[jody]

6. Yes but I do support acknowledging that people who create jobs often become rich. What they do with

their wealth does interest me since I assume they either spend it or invest it. Either way wealth flows back into the economy but not necessarily in ways that I approve.

[Quantess]

7. Yes, and yes.

Is how I answer your two questions.

[stillwaiting]

8. Did Frank Luntz create that terminology?

It sounds like something he would come up with.

People are so easy to manipulate with the right sounding words. Especially right wingers.

[alc]

9. I'm sick of both sides generalizing

When it comes to existing products, demand creates jobs (usually overseas manufacturing).

When it comes to service industry (restaurant, hotel, etc) and entertainment, demand (and disposable income) creates jobs.

When it comes to new products and services, jobs are usually created with the help of the rich. Zuckerberg and Apple both took an existing product (social network & smartphone) and turned them into HUGE businesses and created A LOT of jobs doing it, not just directly but in all sorts of peripheral businesses. They needed investment from "the rich" to accomplish this. And it wasn't because millions of people were screaming "I want a social network but myspace sucks" or "I want a smartphone but RIM sucks". They created demand.

Not all of the rich invest in opportunities like these. It's stupid to give tax breaks to everyone based on what a small percentage do. But it's also stupid to say that jobs don't depend on investment from the rich. Manufacturing and service jobs won't be growing in the US at the pace we need. Turning startups into businesses that drive 10s or 100s of thousands of jobs more often than not involves rich people investing both in those companies or products that succeed and a lot of others that fail.

[Yavin4]

10. The Rich Do Not Create Jobs. Demand Does.

The term "job-creator" is not only inaccurate, but it's insulting. It connotes that rich people create jobs out of the goodness of their own hearts, when that's not the case.

[Snotcicles]

11. Job Creator/Wealth Extractor

Economies are suppose to be a self perpetuating engine. They don't run long when you siphon out all of the fuel.

[Nye Bevan]

12. Many job creators are not rich.

At least, at first. I'm thinking about people who have a great idea and start a company by borrowing on their credit cards.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. I'm sick of that one and all the other lies they repeat daily.

[MineralMan]

14. Sure. But that won't change the practice.