An Offpoint Rant

This blog was set up to discuss issues at ACHD most especially to get my point of view across but also because the media doesn't bother to cover ACHD to any great effect. I will admit that sometimes it's hard to find a topic that one, interests me and two, would also interest a reader. A lot of what ACHD does is stupifyingly dull.

But today I'm going to digress.

There has been a lot of talk in the greater land about jobs - where are the jobs, how do we create them, who creates them, etc. Mostly it's coming from the area of our country with huge geothermal, wind and natural gas reserves - Washington DC. Unfortunately, the people there create their own hot air through being windy gasbags and have never done any real energy exploration or created any real jobs in their lives.

You see - we need jobs that are created by the private sector and that produce something. We don't need jobs that are "created" by government. Those jobs just rob money from the private sector because government jobs don't create anything. I'm not saying some aren't needed. We have government to provide the things for the common good that individuals either couldn't do themselves or couldn't do economically. For example, road building (see it does have a relevant ACHD angle) or the common defense or even police and fire protection.

But government also overreaches. And I think with the AIG fiasco, the GM and Chrysler takeovers, the command and controlish central economy to which we seem to be getting closer, we've more than exceeded that overreach point. When entities like ACHD chase money from the Feds like 24 replacement vans in order to not "leave money on the table" instead of having the ability to spend it on real infrastructure, we are jumping to DC's tune and not to the needs of our community first.

So what should be done to create jobs? I actually have created jobs in the private sector. My husband and I created, nurtured, grew, operated and sold our own business. It wasn't easy and it was risky but the most irritating thing was when we sold it, even after having created jobs and paid the FICA, the Medicare, the FUTA, the income tax, the unemployment tax, the worker's comp and oh yes, health insurance, the feds and the State swoop in and say, you've made all this money and 15% (thank goodness for the Bush capital gain tax cut) is ours.

So again, how to create a job? All I know is someone has to have an idea for a niche in the marketplace. They have to have access to capital, either through their own savings or borrowing because there will be operating expenses before revenue. There needs to be a tax structure that doesn't take a good share of profit so that someone who might have been willing to take a risk says why should I if I don't get to keep the fruits of my labor?

What I don't think a lot of people in this administration or Congress get is, even if a business owner doesn't hire anyone else right off the bat, they have still created a job - their own. And if they are going to hire someone else one thing is very clear. That person must make the owner of the business money. Not just break even, but make a profit and certainly, definitely never have to subsidize that position.

That's what's laughable about the proposed $2500 tax credit for businesses which hire a new employee making more than $35,000 per year and with health insurance. That $35,000 is really more like $38,500 or more with additional government mandated taxation plus whatever the health insurance portion is that the employer would pick up so a pathetic $2500 tax credit doesn't even offset the tax portion of the wage. If the total salary package is $40,000 that means that the employer needs to have at least $60,000 in revenue to cover the overhead of the employee plus make a little profit.

I think the way to create an environment so that people will take risks on starting businesses or expanding businesses is to take a lot of the uncertainty out of the system. And that starts in Washington DC. Stop the blather about cap and trade which will just add costs to everything anyone does. Stop this stupid healthcare redo and concentrate on health system reform which means only incorporate items which either reduce costs and/or increase efficiencies. Stop spending so much on trying to create winners and losers by "targeted" tax cuts or subsidies or whatever and just lower tax costs on everyone. Stop "stimulating" our children's and grandchildren's future debt load.

Perhaps this is the answer. Let's just pay Congress to go home and campaign for the next 9 months - no legislating allowed. Let's let Obama take Air Force One wherever he wants to go but no more speeches or proposals for spending allowed. We can have the certainty that nothing will happen to screw things up anymore for the next 9 months. Maybe that will be the catalyst for growth and optimism in our economic system.