Is my logic wrong here?

[rurallib]

Last night I was thinking about the huge pile of money that corporate America - about $1.5 Trillion. That is about 10% of the GNP which is somewhere @$15 T/year.
The national unemployment is @10%. Perhaps if the 10% of GNP that corporate America is sitting on were put to some good use it would create jobs which would boost the economy which would create jobs ......

And while I am at it, if the money corporations are spending to buy government this year were put to some good use imagine the jobs it would create.

[TheKentuckian]

1. It's a hostage situation to some degree but the root is lack of demand

[LiberalEsto]

2. There would be demand IF

people had money to spend.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. "That's some catch, that catch-22." "It's the best there is."

[rurallib]

4. which came first - the demand or the job?

[TheKentuckian]

8. Certainly but the economy is not a perpetual motion machine.

The money they are holding is the fruit of offshoring, increased productivity, and cutting to the bone. Without a source of demand, the path to profits is what we see now.

The supply side philosophy is a bust.

[alc]

5. yes, lack of demand

No company I've worked for (5 people to 10,000s) has held back money to make a point. They define "good use" of money as a way to make more money. Find that use and I guarantee you will have access to a lot of that $1.5 trillion.

Government spreadsheets can have calculations like
companies hire X people -> X people have $Y extra to purchase ->
$Y of good purchased -> companies profit

CFOs/CEOs only want a calculation like
invest $X -> earn between $Y and $Z profit
They'll do it if $Y is bigger than they can make holding the money AND if it's unlikely that a better $Z is coming soon.

[2008 was great]

6. Yes, your logic is wrong

It's none of my business or anyone else's business how others spend their money.
I won't tell you how to spend your money and don't tell me how to spend mine. O.K.? :)

[Deep13]

9. That's not an objection to the OP's logic.

That's a value judgment about what is a proper topic of discussion. Perhaps you are content to allow this country to be taken over by a permanent aristocracy--the kind the Revolution was supposed to abolish--but I am not.

Anyway, it is only "their" money because we say it is. Frankly, we are way beyond such quaint, simplistic arguments. Governmental authority creates corporations by issuing charters and allows their owners and officers to shield themselves from being personally responsible for their own actions. Public authority also sets the value of that money, defines ownership, taxes that money (at least theoretically) and regulates how a business is conducted. I also don't think it is fair to compare the assets of a multinational, publicly traded corporation to that of a private person. Contrary to what Scalia seems to think, corporations are not people and do not have the rights that people have.

So yes, if companies stopped hoarding assets, it would improve the economy. One legally available option is to tax those assets (since no one is using them anyway) and put them to public use or to reducing the buget deficit that folks are so worried about. Frankly, one of the best ways to stimulate the economy is by extending unemployment benefits. It would also encourage companies to spend that money rather than sitting on it. Also, using the taxing power to penalize the exporting of jobs and increasing the minimum wage would increase that incentive.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[2008 was great]

11. I'm dumbfounded that my reply was deleted??

I'm 60 years old have been a democrat all my life.
Some repubs call themselves "Reagan Republicans".
I have always thought of myself as a "Kennedy"' Democrat". (i.e. - John F. Kennedy)
I came to this forum to share my opinions and ideas but the more
I read and see, I am disillusioned as to what is really going on here.

Traditional democrat beliefs seemed to be frowned upon but
Socialist / Marxist beliefs seem to be pervasive. :crazy:
That's fine. I don't run the forum and don't have any right to tell
anyone else how to run it. That said, using the name of "Democratic Underground"
seems very disingenuous. Obviously, this forum would be better described
as "Socialist / Marxist Underground".

Have at it and please delete my account. :shrug:

[KittyWampus]

7. corporations are about power, not just profit. Modifying their behavior due to considerations of the

public would decrease their perception of being powerful.