America works best when Americans work.

[jfkraus]

By it's very nature, capitalism rewards owners and investors in businesses that provide goods and services. If a company can provide better goods and services at a lower price, then there will be more demand for their products. More demand leads to more jobs for American workers. More American workers means there are more people who can afford to buy the goods and services and the cycle continues. In this economic cycle, everyone benefits and our economy grows. It's the cycle that is critical, not the individual elements.

Trickle down economics is a myth. The idea that giving more money to already wealthy people will somehow benefit ordinary folks is misguided. As we have seen recently, giving large tax breaks and government handouts to corporations only enriches the owners and investors who give themselves big bonuses rather than reinvesting in their businesses and creating jobs. They do this because there is not an increase in demand for their goods and services. Fair enough, but for ordinary people to benefit, we need jobs.

Wise company managers and owners do not create jobs for the sake of creating jobs, no matter how much money they have. They will only create jobs if there is sufficient demand for their goods and services to warrant it. Short-circuiting the economic cycle by giving large tax breaks and handouts to the wealthy owners and investors does not create demand for the goods and services and therefore does not create jobs-- which leads to fewer people who can buy goods and services (less demand) and the economic cycle collapses.

Owners and investors earn their wealth by running companies that offer better goods and services at better prices in a competitive market place. But they need people who can afford to buy their products. This is why economic stimulation has to come, not in the form of monetary handouts, but in the government spending money to invest in our infrastructure. This puts people to work so they can earn their money creating shared resources (roads, bridges, sewage plants, etc...) that result in an infrastructure enabling both individual and corporate success. Our tax dollars get put back into the economy, people get jobs and earn money, people buy things with the money they've earned (not just handed to them), and corporations make profits (again, not just handed to them) by providing goods and services -- it's a beautiful thing, and everyone benefits. And we have a working and sustainable infrastructure to show for our tax dollars, resulting in a higher standard of living for everyone.