Want to know a secret? The political message this season that the wealthy in America are “Job Creators” who deserve big tax breaks is a big lie! You may not read about it in The New York Times or on Fox News. No, the clarion voices of reason today are coming from the actual members of America’s oligarchy, wealthy capitalists like Warren Buffet of Omaha and Nick Hanauer of Seattle. These are men of conscience and consciousness, who in spite of their sizable capital gains, refuse to mislead their fellow Americans about the redistribution of wealth in Amerca. Most of all, they undertstand that without a thriving middle class, our American economy will spiral into failure.
Hanauer, the Seattle-based serial entrepreneur who founded and served as CEO of aQuantive, Inc (originally Avenue A Media) and a short time later founded Gear.com, co-founded Second Avenue Partners in 2000, and he currently serves as a board member and advisor to MarketLeader.com and Qliance Medical Group and is vice chairman of Marchex. Nick has been especially articulate in debunking the “big lie,” of the last two presidential campaigns, namely that the rich are the “Job creators” and that they deserve tax breaks to generate job growth for the benefit of most Americans.
Originally, Nick’s TED talk was deemed so controversial in an election year to even be posted online.
A multimillionaire who has helped start dozens of companies, including Amazon.com., Hanauer’s message is simple: “I have started or helped start, dozens of businesses and initially hired lots of people. But if no one could have afforded to buy what we had to sell, my businesses would all have failed and all those jobs would have evaporated.
“That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is a “circle of life” like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.”
Rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses large or small. Jobs are a consequence of a ‘circle of life’ feedback loop between customers and businesses. Only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring.”
“In this sense,” says Hanauer, “an ordinary consumer is more of a job creator than a capitalist like me. When business leaders take credit for crating jobs, it’s a little but like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. It’s actually the other way around.”
“Since 1980, the share of income for the top 1% of Americans has more than tripled while our effective tax rates have gone down by 59%. If it was true that lower taxes for the rich, and more wealth for the wealthy lead to job creation, today we would be drowning in jobs.”
“Anyone who’s ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last resort, something we do only when increasing customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling ourselves job creators isn’t just inaccurate, it’s disingenuous.”
Shame on TED Talk curator Chris Anderson for deciding this reasoning wasn’t worth sharing with the wider world, when he efused to post it on TED’s website.
You can read more of Hanauer’s prescriptives for American justice in economics in the new book“The Gardens of Democrcay: A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy and the Role of Government,” which Nick co-authored with Eric Liu.
Like its predecessor “The True Patriot,” the new book is hugely thought-provoking. Quoting from the first chapter:
“If you can hold these paired thoughts in your head, we wrote this book for you:
– The federal government spends too much money. The wealthy should pay more taxes.
– Every American should have access to high-quality health care. We spend far too much on health care.
– We need to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels. We need to ensure that our economy continues to grow.
– Unions are a crucially important part of our economy and society. Unions have become overly protectionist and are in need of enormous amounts of reform.
– We need strong government. We need strong citizens.”
Liu and Hanauer advocate “Big What, Small How” government, in contrast to the “small/small” of the right and the “big/big” of the left.
“Even if you don’t agree with everything the authors propose, you will find ‘The Gardens of Democracy’ to be spirited and thought provoking.” [24×7]
