SB
I worked in Government service for 50 years and know how incompetent the majority of Public Servants really are, Socialist ideas are to my mind lunacy. The bigger the Public Service is - the more incompetent the Government Service becomes.
Take for example regulations relating to starting up of new businesses written by individuals in the public service who have zero experience and knowledge in developing and running of business enterprises. The famous red tape rules make it extremely difficult to start new businesses. Result - there is no small business development or the starting ups are delayed for long periods often entailing major additional costs for a starting entrepreneurs, .
In the 1980's Ronald Reagen increased tax rates and the effect was that the State collected less revenue in total than they did before the increased taxation. That is a worldwide phenomenon . That is why unwise increase in taxation reduce real income from taxation.
Trump did two things that had massive impact on economic growth, He reduced taxation levels for everybody putting more money in the pockets of everybody. That money flows back into the economy by increased consumer spending and creates a bigger market for entrepreneurs, He scrapped thousands of petty red tape regulations making is easier for new businesses to start up/ The result became clear soon. Economic growth rates doubled within in two years and in the process more than 8 million new jobs were created,
That resulted in more money flowing into Government coffers than ever before anyway. The effect of increased taxation are two-fold, namely -
* it remove money boosting economic activity; and
* have a negative impact on the economy and factually decrease job creation and even lead to negative growth in the job market.
What was happening in the Bush, Clinton and Obama years, Real incomes for workers over the last 30 years declined in value and unemployment had a serious negative impact on Government spending to support the unemployed. At this stage the unemployment figures for White workers are the lowest in 50 years since the Vietnam War and unemployment rates for Blacks and Hispanics are the lowest it ever was in the history of the USA. Incidentally the Vietnam War was started by the Democrats because of rising unemployment in the USA and the trend was reversed through drafting hunderds of thousand of men into the army and related services and upping military and related employment in factories,
Government spending is normally a non-contributor to economic growth. Minimum wage determination has the same negative impact. It actually leads to job losses on a major scale - since it results in the reduction of funds available for employment purposes.
Fewer workers may to some extent benefit from a minimum salary determination while it does not have a real basis for anybody - since the wages at present are higher than the determined minimum wages laid down by the government. .
Unless Government expenditure is on development of infrastructure the impact on the economy is negative. Towards the end of the 1990's the Municipality of Dolphin Coast on my initiative decided to privatize the loss-making water and sewerage services. In the process the Development Bank of SA sent various senior officials and engineering experts to the United States on a factfinding mission. When they returned they told the Municipality they were shocked by the fact that in those services in the USA developed in the 1950's were maintained - but never updated to cater for modernization. There were cities in the USA where deficient purification lead to illnesses - eg Flint in Michigan leading to a scandal in the 2000's and th situation has not really been resolved.
Where does money in fact go in the Public Service. Too much of it went into salaries which benefit a minority of workers and a lot of it is absorbed in red tape and incompetence.
I will give you another practical example. In 1998 Council approved the laying out of a new commercial area in Ballito - the infrastructure to be provided by the developer. The infrastructure went in but no business development took place. I then suggested that the municipal rates on the properties for two years be suspended and to implement a scale of rates over a five year period starting off with 20% in the third year. The CFO wanted to have a fit because of decrease in potential revenue in the first two years, but I won the argument. Development took off massively and whereas the Municipality got a loss in rates to the value of R2 million per year in the two years when no rates were charged, by the fifth year the Municipality collected R350 million in rates and service income from the same properties. That is an example of what taxation impact in fact represents.
There is no way that incompetence in Government service is eliminated by regulation. You made the following statement:-
"However, there does need to be some legislation to prevent companies like Amazon turning everyone into their slaves. So the right set of legislation can actually help capitalism."
I am, not aware of what happened that cause that statement to be made - so I would like to have some clarification please. How are people turned into slaves by Amazon?
I do know that Amazon wanted to open a new business facility in New York that would have created 25 000 jobs - but in their wisdom the Democratic run New York City Council turned down the application. New York also implemented laws banning the use of steel and glass in putting up new buildings in the city since steel and glass production add to global warming, That is to the extent to which the Democrats have gone in their silly drive to socialism and the New Green Deal. No wonder the residents start to flee from that city to other parts of the country,
My own experience over a period of more than 50 years taught me that socialism is an abomination and the ideas attached to it destroy economies. But then Socialist-leaning political parties never learn and can't understand why things go wrong in the economy when they take over.
The fact is that the 70 to 90% taxation proposed by DP candidates will cause departure from the USA of the billionaires and they will get zilch income from them in future, Beside that one thing is certain. If a Project is foreseeing a cost estimate of $1 trillion the reals cost is likely to be $3 trillion.
You are welcome to support the lunatic notions of what the DP preaches in their campaign - but the outcome will be an economic catastrophe, Have you never wondered why countries like Russia and China under communism became dictatorships. The answer is that the catastrophe they caused will never allow them to retain power in democratic elections. Look at Cuba and Venezuela as present practical examples.
The last democratic election in the USA will be held when the DP take power again in future . Thereafter they will crook elections to retain power. The illegal and major scandal involving the DP in the 2016 election to prevent the Republicans from winning is slowly becoming clearer. They lied about the Russian Hoax and that is becoming clear only now. What will happen in future will even be 10 times worse. They already use drivers licenses to register illegal migrants as voters and that will become a flood in future, They want to bring in 10 million of potential voters and by devious means register them as voters when they set foot in the USA,
They do not want citizenship indicated in census forms because when compared with the voters roll - the illegal registrations will be exposed - especially in California where voter registration fraud is the norm and not the exception.