Peter posted a very good Labor Day statement concerning The Wealth Gap and here is another transect through that same frightening territory.
The current administration is proposing a $100 Billion tax break for Enterprise R&D.
There are four BIG problems here:
First: The obvious one that Jim Bacon will focus on: It drives the federal deficit even higher. Boomergeddon sooner!
Second: It puts more big and mid-sized firms on the dole and generates more political contributions for the existing political Clans.
Third: It will not provide jobs that the folks who Accurate correctly points out are not contributing their fair share of effort and are the ones who NEED jobs.
Fourth: R&D, if it is ‘successful,’ will drive Mass OverConsumption, not REAL conservatism – aka, conservation.
The Enterprises that are large enough to qualify to have an R&D program and have cash flow large enough that make tax breaks attractive are NOT the Enterprises needed to get Main Street to work. Picking up on TMT’s point, getting the tax break will justify even higher CEO compensation.
The US does not need Garmeen Foundation-scale micro loans but it does need Community Supported Enterprise loans. Bacon has done a nice job of pointing out that banks are using the past rounds of ‘incentives’ to improve their bottom line, not make loans.
Get citizens involved. Investments should be in activities and Enterprises that investors can see and understand, not in Gambling Venues.
There are a plethora of ideas that we have uncovered while preparing a series of talks on the application of Regional Metrics to Community prosperity. One is that the CSA idea is spreading from Agriculture to Enterprises. But that news is drowned in the Labor Day ads about discounts on goods made in China.
Time is short and getting out useful information is critical. The Administration is also proposing $50 Billion in new ‘infrastructure’ programs. There is a better way to spend some of that money:
Take the infrastructure money that would otherwise go to subsidize dysfunctional human settlement patterns – most of it outside the logical locations of The Clear Edges – and provide it to qualifying Community Colleges for education and information on Community support ideas and programs like CSE.
What is needed are investments in start-up Neighborhood, Village and Community scale Enterprises.
Want to support a sustainable economy in your Community, your SubRegion, your Region and by extension in the US?
Stop reading INC., The Wall Street Journal and The Earth is Flat. Start reading YES, and The Small Mart Revolution.
Start a study circle in your Cluster around Cheap, The High Cost of Discount Culture and The Story of Stuff. Read The Great Reset but focus on how to make Florida’s view of change benefit, not pillage, your Village and your Community.
Small is beautiful.
Happy Labor Day.
EMR