Are the wealthy job creators?

[kingjust627]

This guy is a tool... well, anyone that disagrees with him.

[Jack]

An interesting update on this video:

it is disappointing, if not terribly surprising, to hear that TED organizers originally chose not to share online what sounds like an important talk on income inequality, after initially expressing enthusiasm for the talk. The National Journal had the story:

TED organizers invited a multimillionaire Seattle venture capitalist named Nick Hanauer – the first nonfamily investor in Amazon.com – to give a speech on March 1 at their TED University conference. Inequality was the topic – specifically, Hanauer’s contention that the middle class, and not wealthy innovators like himself, are America’s true “job creators”….

TED officials told Hanauer initially they were eager to distribute it. “I want to put this talk out into the world!” one of them wrote him in an e-mail in late April.

TED curator Chris Anderson initially called the piece “one of the most politically controversial talks we’ve ever run” and said “we need to be really careful” when it gets posted online, but he made it sound as if it was still a matter of when, not if. But soon, TED’s tune had changed:

In early May Anderson followed up with Hanauer to inform him he’d decided not to post his talk.

National Journal e-mailed Anderson to request an interview about what made a talk on inequality more politically controversial than, for example, contraception or climate change. Anderson, who is traveling abroad, responded with an e-mail statement that appeared to swipe at the popularity of Hanauer’s speech.

“Many of the talks given at the conference or at TED-U are not released,” Anderson wrote. “We only release one a day on TED.com and there’s a backlog of amazing talks from all over the world. We do not comment publicly on reasons to release or not release [a] talk. It’s unfair on the speakers concerned. But we have a general policy to avoid talks that are overtly partisan, and to avoid talks that have received mediocre audience ratings.”

As the Journal points out, Anderson’s argument that the talk is too “controversial” or “political” seems pretty bunk, given that TED has promoted plenty of controversial and political talks in the past. And if there was ever a time to promote a talk about income inequality, it seems like it would be now, what with the recent surge in conversations about the 1 percent vs. the 99 percent. Anderson’s comments make one wonder if he was more concerned about offending his rich donors than anything else.

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/18/ted_...an_we_thought/

[NoJingoLingo]

SSSSSHHHHHHHH, don't let the cat out of the bag!!

[Jack]

I think it's become glaringly obvious to all but the dishonest politicians and right-wing kool-aid drinkers that providing financial incentives to the wealthy in this country does nothing to increase the number of jobs. All the continuing talk about the "job creators" is bullshit, an effort to make fantasy a reality.

Major US companies are packing away record profits even as the economy falters, unemployment remains high and the debt-ceiling crisis has shaken confidence in the country, analysts said.

In July, corporate giants such as 3M, Caterpillar, Goodyear, Microsoft and Apple reported all-time high revenues in the second quarter of 2011, though the stock market still slumped amid fears of an economic slowdown and a possible government default.

Of the companies in the S&P 500 list of large-cap firms which have reported their quarterly earnings to date, 72 percent have beaten analysts’ forecasts, according to Standard & Poor’s analyst Howard Silverblatt.

Moreover, if the current trend keeps up, the S&P 500 companies are poised to have their most profitable quarter ever, he said.

“Earnings are basically the only thing holding up the market at this point,” Silverblatt said. “They’re amazing numbers.”

The prosperity of large corporations may seem surprising at a time when many indicators show profound weakness in the world’s largest economy.

The US unemployment rate stands at 9.2 percent, and the government last week said growth in the second quarter was a feeble 1.3 percent, far below economists’ expectations.

But analysts say US corporations are doing well in part because they slashed costs during the recession, laying off workers and reining in spending on plants and equipment, which boosted profit margins.

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1daTL)

They're increasing their profits by laying off workers, not creating more jobs.

[Ender]

The kind of people who believe this aren't just right wing idiots though, and that's what makes this so insidious. Try to imagine yourself as a working parent whose been laid off, or a student struggling to find a job. The Tea Party Republicans, who have taken control of that party almost completely, prey on your fear that you will not be able to provide for yourself or your family. And they offer an easy answer. Just lower taxes and take away all the regulations on big corporations. The same corporations that used to have a vested interest in America's success, but with globalization now have far less stake in their country of origin. The other side is offering the truth, when they aren't busy defending themselves against smear campaigns funded by millionaires. This alternative is that America is in for a very slow recovery, and we need to reign in a financial industry that has gone from investing in ideas to gambling at what amounts to a black jack table. That idea sounds awful.

It's strange for me to think that even two years ago I was voting Republican as often as Democrat. Traditional Republican ideas, which no longer exist, might provide a few legitimate alternatives. But instead we have this Ayn Rand-like vision that has co-opted the party combined with unlimited funding to lie as much as they can and if that fails confuse people, and if that fails call Obama a socialist secular Muslim extremist and see what sticks.

I could go on, but I'm already hopeless enough.

[NoJingoLingo]

Except that the financial industry owns the blackjack table and only lose when they get caught cheating.

[Ender]

I said I already felt hopeless enough!