You've probably heard the Republicans say they don't want to raise taxes on the rich in a recession, because the rich are job-creators. You may even have caught Stephen Colbert showing the cover of a comic book: "Job Creatorie Job Creator, the Poor Little Job Creator Boy."
But what you probably haven't done (and why should you, when you've got me) is go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and see how these guys are doing. Are we getting our money's worth?
If you follow the link, you'll notice that job growth turned negative in 2008, so to be fair, let's just look at job creation before things really went to hell, from 2001 to 2007. And for reference, let's compare it to the period from 1961 to 1967.
1961-1967 2001-2007
Top marginal tax rate (here): 91%-70% 38.6%-35%
Growth in private employment: 20% 4%
The conclusion seems inescapable: job-creators have turned into a bunch of entitled slackers. Perhaps they need a crack of the whip to get them to pay attention.
Good post. Thanks for the research.
ReplyDeleteNatalie