CHART: when taxes go up on rich, unemployment goes down

[yurbud]

LARRY BEINHART FOR BUZZFLASH

It's quite simple really: Tax cuts usually lead to higher unemployment. Tax increases usually lead to lower unemployment.

Since 1950 we have had five tax increases on the rich. Four out of five times unemployment went down.

Since 1950 we have ten cuts to the top marginal rate. Six out of ten times unemployment has gone up.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12037">Chart here

[maryf]

1. K&Rnt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. The Republicans are obtuse bastards.

[dkf]

3. So it's just a temporary connection then?

Because those numbers in general look remarkably uncorrelated to me. Besides marginal tax rates don't mean much if there are a lot of exemptions.

[yurbud]

4. tenuous might be better. at the very least, this undercuts the GOP point that tax cuts on the rich

will magically boost our economy.

[txlibdem]

12. Yup. And it's strange how they can never explain why

Those same tax rates for the past 10 years haven't created jobs yet. When does the *MAGIC* kick in???

[yurbud]

19. it kicks in IMMEDIATELY

for the rich who get the tax cuts.

[txlibdem]

21. I meant the "job creating" magic. How many more decades till THAT kicks in???

eom

[yurbud]

24. if you're willing to be their Jeff Gannon, there's probably an opening right now.

[txlibdem]

26. They might need another Glenn Beck pretty soon

As soon as Colonel Murdock tires of having so few sponsors for his show... He does make $33 Million a year (so I could stop giving a sh*t about the poor myself, just like our multi-millionaire President has).

[guruoo]

30. They say be patient, it's still trickling down

[txlibdem]

33. M.C. Escher applied to Repuke economic theory. Genius!

+1000 on this one

It's rofl good.

[dallasmerlin]

37. Taxes up !

When taxes go up the people go down !
national loans

[veganlush]

5. Thom Hartmann has been making a

similar point for years. When the rates were higher on top earners, the economy was more stable. Since Reagan, the economy has been subject to much more instability.

[yurbud]

11. I could see less incentive to cannibalize functional businesses for short term profit

and it could be that they do this when the regulatory and tax window is open because they expect us to eventually figure it out and close the window.

[liberal N proud]

6. The Republicans or the rich do not care about unemployment

They want it all and they want it now.

[guruoo]

31. Oh no, they care all right....

because they know high unemployment makes the warm bodies more willing to accept any job,
under any conditions, at any pay. Many employers love to turn the screws during times
of high unemployment.

[The Wielding Truth]

7. OMG!Free Enterprise Bush Republicans really screwed us!

[yodermon]

8. incentive to leave capital in the company instead of profit-taking

in the form of exorbitant salaries & bonuses.
"leave capital in the company" == hiring.

"tax breaks for hiring" == the carrot.
"tax increases if you take out profits for yachts" == the stick.
It's been all carrot, no stick for 30 years.
Plus gotta close the loopholes

[txlibdem]

15. leave capital in the company

May I add "capital investments, expansion, innovation, research and development, new products, etc."

[guruoo]

17. Modern day robber barrons would say you must be a Communist. nt

[txlibdem]

18. To quote a great American

To quote a great American, FDR, "Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."

Another nice FDR quote from the same speech, "We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob."

http://www.dailykos.com/tv/w/000499/

[guruoo]

20. One more...

"Since a hundred million dollars in New York and twenty-two fish-hooks on the border of the Arctic Circle
represent the same financial supremacy, a man in straitened circumstances is a fool to stay in New York
when he can buy ten cents' worth of fish-hooks and emigrate."
-Mark Twain, "The Esquimaux Maiden's Romance"

[txlibdem]

22. Are you saying "America, love it or leave it?"

Or am I totally misreading the meaning and purpose for your quote?

[guruoo]

28. No....

Funny though, I had a spontaneous worry about that while I was away,
going through checkout at the store.

Now that you mention it though, I wouldn't mind if the robbber barron types
that are outsourcing so many jobs, and moving operations overseas just
went ahead and 'outsourced' themselves in the process!

[txlibdem]

34. Now THAT would be an idea. Deport the thieves and con men!

Strip them of their ill gotten gains first, however!

[yodermon]

29. yep! all the stuff that builds their business, stimulates the economy, and creates jobs

within and without the company.
Taxes should be a lever to affect the economy just like interest rates.

Instead, we have "taxes are evil and must be cut in good economies, bad economies, war time, peace time, and miller time" :crazy:

[Kablooie]

9. And you probably think Global warming is real too. Don't confuse the issue with facts!

[guruoo]

10. Oddly enough, higher taxes may be encouraging big business to make up the differance,

through expansion. And of course, for a business to expand, it must first recruit more warm bodies to man the machines.

[yurbud]

13. I tend to buy the argument that demand drives expansion and not much else

if you aren't moving product, there isn't much point in expanding.

[guruoo]

16. 'When times are good shoot for volume, when times are bad, go for market share'

-An old business axiom I first heard of 30 years ago from an SBA business school instructor named Les Beavers.

Actually, when I posted that first one I was thinking more on the lines of how desperate fat cats can get
when it comes to maintaining their current lifestyle.

[yurbud]

23. is it lifestyle or perception of not keeping up with their prep school homies?

If you had tens of millions in the bank and were netting a million a year, it's hard to see how you're lifestyle could be affected. Maybe you would have to rent a house instead of buy one in Vail to go skiing once a year, but even that wouldn't be a problem for people netting a little more than that.

[guruoo]

32. It must be a matter more of perception than reality, on their part

After the first few mil wealthy people I've known more or less seem to begin playing it as a game that is independent of
their real needs. At that point, their perception of self worth seems to become completely dependant upon the rise and fall of what
amounts to be no more than some abstract numbers on a page.

[yurbud]

36. I read a psychologist's take on this once: whatever we have, we want at least 20% more

which is a very useful impulse when you are a hunter/gatherer caveman, but not so much once you've accumulated enough so that no one in your family has to work for the next ten generations.

[Fearless]

14. I don't think correlation equates to causation...

There are a lot of things at play that determine unemployment, most assuredly economic confidence to start. I think saying that tax cuts cause unemployment or that tax hikes cause jobs to be created is ignoring the fact that the economy is not that simple

It would be NICE to have this as a political talking point, but I don't think you can find an economist who would say that it is a 100% causal comparison. A simpler explanation of this phenomenon is that taxes are only successfully raised during better economic times or that tax cuts are made because of bad economies. Either COULD be true, but of course just saying it doesn't make it so.

[bhikkhu]

25. I wonder if the repugs worry about the accuracy of their talking points?

Or whether their policies actually achieve their stated goals...

[Fearless]

27. While that may or may not be true at large

We need to keep our own talking points accurate as well.

[yurbud]

35. the point is it at least there isn't causation in the way the GOP claims

[shawn703]

38. But it takes years for the tax cuts to affect the economy

This is what I'm told when I've brought this up to the righties I know.

Reducing the tax rate from 91 to 77 in 1963 led to a 3.5% unemployment rate in 1969. Bumping them up in 1968-1969 led to 9.7% unemployment in 1982. The Reagan tax cuts between 1981-1988 led to the 4.0% unemployment in 2000, and the Clinton tax hikes led to the 9.8% unemployment we have now. Unemployment will fall anytime now because the Bush tax cuts will finally start to have an effect.

As long as people keep falling for it, the Republicans will keep selling it.