Jobs, Jobs, Jobs…

Yesterday, a large multination corporation here in Connecticut announced a layoff of 200 employees. Did they just do away with the jobs… no, they moved them to Singapore and Poland. Half of all the jobs that US companies created last year were overseas.

Here is something to think about, with the export of middle income jobs overseas. What will be left here in the United States? Also how can we compete with countries that pays their workers pennies a day, have no health insurance or retirement benefits. No environmental or workers protections. As the World Trade Organization pushes to remove trade protections, what will happen to us?

McDonald's Hiring Thousands of New Employees

Connecticut McDonald's Hiring 1,300

Hundreds in R.I. apply for jobs at McDonald’s hiring day event

McDonald’s Hiring Day in Marietta

Large crowd attends McDonald's hiring day event in Reno

Minimum wage jobs will not help us get out of this recession. We need to protect the manufacturing jobs.

Meanwhile, we need to look at raising to start taxing those who make over a million dollars. During the Bush administration, the Republican cut the taxes on the millionaires saying that it would stimulate the economy. During Bush administration we went from a surplus to one of the worst recession ever. Look at this graph from zFacts.com The Republicans are driving us in to becoming a debtor nation. It is time to start taxing the millionaires and billionaires.

This morning’s Hartford Courant has an editorial about raising the taxes on the millionaires verses cutting government spending…

Tax Hikes Less Of A Drain Than Spending Cuts
By Jim Stodder
The Hartford Courant
April 20, 2011

"Don't raise taxes during a recession — that's the worst thing you could do."

That's the common wisdom given to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. But the common wisdom is wrong. There is something worse — spending cuts do more harm.
[…]
But not all cuts are created equal. Low- to moderate-income people have less to spend when programs are cut. The wealthy, however, can pay taxes out of reduced savings, and leave their spending relatively stable.

A conservative estimate from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis puts the effect of Connecticut's multiplier at 1.4 for spending, and 0.4 for taxes. Now we can compare: a $1 billion cut in spending reduces total income in the state by $1.4 billion; a $1 billion rise in taxes reduces total income by just $400 million.

The comparison doesn't stop there. Both cuts and taxes lower state residents' income, and that depresses tax revenues even further. A penny saved (in program cuts) is not the same as a penny earned (in higher taxes). That penny saved winds up costing more in second-round tax losses, because it causes bigger drops in income.
[…]
Near the beginning of the current recession, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz wrote a letter to then New York Gov. David Patterson. Referring to such analysis, Stiglitz noted, "Economic theory and historical experience give a clear and unambiguous answer: It is economically preferable to raise taxes on those with high incomes than to cut state expenditures." This letter was signed by more than 100 leading New York economists.
[…]
Conservatives see an opportunity, and are pushing for spending cuts on state and national levels. Curiously, they did not call for lower federal deficits in the previous (and much milder) recession of 2001. Congressional Republicans argued then that we needed deficit spending to boost the U.S. economy, and most Democrats agreed.

Here is my prediction, I hope I’m wrong, I see that if we continue with tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires, cuts in government spending, and no curbs in the loss of jobs overseas, then we are going into a double dip recession and the deficit will continue to increase even with the deep budget cuts that the Republicans want.