Nick Hanauer, Jobs, and Taxes

Nick Hanauer did an interesting TED talk this year. It sticks out mostly from the rest due to the fact it wasn’t released online by the TED folks. Of course, since the news of that got out, it was released. I’d get into the politics now, but it was a dumb decision to avoid “controversy” coming from challenging the orthodoxy of the popular Wall Street view of economics.

A controversy. When we deal with conservatives these days, even science is a controversy.

It is such an interesting and useful talk; I thought I’d link to it here, for those interested. The video covers the question of just how taxes affect economic success, and just who are the “job creators.” Enjoy.

Of course, the claim about the automatic negative to all taxes has long been seen to be flawed.

Think Progress points to this good chart, showing how job #’s can improve under tax increases.

Taxation has an important role. It is no end all, be all, but it has a function in our society. We can debate what the rates should be, but to allow assumptions that taxes are an evil is to hold the day is folly.