Audacious Visions!

We recently covered a great 6 minute speech by Nick Hanauer on how to revive our ailing economy.  The fixes are out there, easy to do, and usually only stopped because they do not align with republican donors or might actually give success to President Obama.  Now Dr. Tyson gives us another helpful fix to our economy.   

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson delivers an impassioned plea to the U.S. Congress to hoist America from its economic lethargy by boldly reinvesting in a robust space program. Spread the word: #Penny4NASA

6 Minutes of Reality!

Amidst all of the noise that the republicans led by Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers are filling our airwaves with, comes Billionaire venture capitalist Nick Hanauer.  Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.) should put down Atlas Shrugged for a few minutes and watch this video. It would be life changing for him.

"It is astounding how significantly one idea can shape a society and it's policies." Nick Hanauer

Quotable, Doubly So

In a must read* piece, Nick Hanauer wrote the following in an editorial for Bloomberg:

When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it is like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it’s the other way around.

It is unquestionably true that without entrepreneurs and investors, you can’t have a dynamic and growing capitalist economy. But it’s equally true that without consumers, you can’t have entrepreneurs and investors. And the more we have happy customers with lots of disposable income, the better our businesses will do.

That’s why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion’s share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.

And later in the same article:

Consider, for example, that a puny 3 percent surtax on incomes above $1 million would be enough to maintain and expand the current payroll tax cut beyond December, preventing a $1,000 increase on the average worker’s taxes at the worst possible time for the economy. With a few more pennies on the dollar, we could invest in rebuilding schools and infrastructure. And even if we imposed a millionaires’ surtax and rolled back the Bush- era tax cuts for those at the top, the taxes on the richest Americans would still be historically low, and their incomes would still be astronomically high.

We’ve had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs. Middle-class consumers do, and when they thrive, U.S. businesses grow and profit. That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all is a great deal for both the middle class and the rich.

So let’s give a break to the true job creators. Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth by putting purchasing power back in the hands of the middle class. And let’s remember that capitalists without customers are out of business.

*Someone must read this to Scott Walker, since his reading comprehension is pretty poor. His reading comprehension becomes even more problematic when it comes to Walker reading the constitution.