The Green Gap

In the Cold War, we feared a Missile Gap was a strategic weakness. Nowadays, we must awaken to the fact that the Green Gap is true strategic weakness: the nations whose economies will thrive in the coming years will not be those with the biggest factories, but those with the most sustainable, efficient, and ecological markets. What we require is a Strategic "Green Reserve" of ecological design to weather the coming changes that both climate and resource scarcity will force on the international economy.

Thursday 2 February 2012

The Wise Prime Minister and the Neo Conservative

"Perhaps I can be of help." said the Neo Conservative.

"What is your plan for increasing the amount of jobs in our nation?" asked the wise Prime Minister.

Taking the floor, the Neo Conservative said, "Certainly, Ms. Prime Minister, a degree of protectionism is required in order to protect local industries, but free trade is a good thing if we have companies that can profit by it. Even if companies are not always creating jobs, protecting our own corporations against foreign companies is better than the alternative. But my concern isn't efficiency. I believe that job creation requires job creators, and we must make policies that allow them to profit above all others."

"Go on." said the wise Prime Minister.

"Well, the rich entrepreneurial class are your job creators," continued the Neo Conservative, "they are the ones who need tax cuts so they can go on creating jobs. You can't tax them to death and then expect them to have money left over for job creation. Let them use their hard-earned money as they see fit. They are the visionaries, after all."

"So what you're saying is that we should allow the rich to keep more of their profit because they will create jobs with that profit?" asked the wise Prime Minister.

"Yes," replied the Neo Conservative, "they will have more money to create new ventures, and the new ventures will hire many new workers!"

"You are thinking about things like a bureaucrat and not a businessperson," said the wise Prime Minister, "because if I'm rich, I can write off business expenses to lower my tax rate, correct?"

"Of course." said the Neo Conservative.

The wise Prime Minister continued, "If I am rich and paying lots of tax, I am willing to give more to the economy to get more protection from taxes. If my taxes are low, there is no need to get a tax break, and no need to add money to the economy. I will save it for a rainy day when taxes are higher. Lower taxes means the cost of money is low. If the cost of money is low, I will hold on to it. If the cost of money is high, I will spend it so that I can protect myself from that expense. If you think that it is the entrepreneurial class that creates jobs, then clearly what we need to do is tax them more, not less."

1 comment:

  1. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/business-is-not-economics/

    To quote Obama:
    "... if you’re a head of a large private equity firm or hedge fund, your job is to make money. It’s not to create jobs. It’s not even to create a successful business – it’s to make sure that you’re maximizing returns for your investor."

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