Thomas Frank: The Job Creators Strike Out

[marmar]

from Harper's:



The Job Creators Strike Out
By Thomas Frank


On September 15, House Speaker John Boehner announced that the nation’s “job creators” — a flattering euphemism for “business owners” — were on strike. This was the proximate cause of the nation’s unemployment woes, Boehner maintained. Until those business owners received the low-tax, deregulated world they wanted, they would continue to keep their wallets in their pockets.

Boehner is not the first to imagine a strike by society’s well-to-do, but he is certainly the first conservative political leader to make a formal statement on the matter. In times past, a “capital strike” was a thing to deplore, not something to be announced proudly with the obvious expectation that the world would promptly surrender to capital’s demands. But times have changed.

Herewith, a brief history of the capital strike.

There were two distinct “capital strikes” during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. The first, which is still referenced on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s historical society, consisted of a decline in new stock and bond issues in the first years of the New Deal. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/11/hbc-90008323

[Angry Dragon]

1. Sounds like these job creators are un-American

[snot]

2. Good article; thanks!

[CatholicEdHead]

3. Most "Job Creators" cannot get loans from a bank to get going

as they are the real small businesses, not the huge ones hiding under legal loopholes. Many startups need capital, which is being hoarded for the next round of ideas to hit the populous.

[PSPS]

5. The only real "job creator" is an employee making a living wage that they can spend on things.

[unblock]

4. when was the last time these "job creators" actually created jobs?

seems to me they've been on strike for quite some time now.

oh wait, they're not job creators, they're job killing profit creators.


my bad.