[Rhodes22-list] politics- why should small business owners vote forKerry ?

[stan]

Phyllis (and Steve and his followers)

Sorry, outgoing mail down yesterday - hope this helps you with your friend:

Most of us want the same thing.  We just disagree how to get there.  Most 
work for someone else, so have a different vantage point.  From this 
business owners point of view, taxes are just one of the many reasons your 
friend should consider Kerry:  (If you read Steve's view on taxes you can 
see how mixed up people are on who should be paying for the cost of running 
our country.)

We all agree that we need at least enough government to conduct wars.  We 
know wars costs money and have to be paid for.  So the citizens must chip in 
and pay the bill, or use credit.  If we choose the latter, even fiscal 
conservatives know that someday the country has to pay the bill or go 
bankrupt.
We start to disagree when it comes to how the money is raised to pay the 
bill.

Politicians find them themselves so focused on re-elections, we wind up with 
an inefficient hodgepodge of anti productive money raising taxes.  Our 
friends like Steve are for our spending lots of money on defense while 
latching on to the "It is your money so the government should give your 
taxes back to you"  Of course it is also your debt so somehow you have to 
pay for it.  If not by income taxes, the anti-income tax side will come up 
with another tax.  Guess what it will be.

"Value added".  That spin means "national sales tax".  So here is one reason 
you can give your small business friend in guiding his voting.  Putting 
aside the left vs. right confrontation as to whether the burden should be 
applied in an unprogressive manner such as a flat income tax or sales taxes, 
contrasted to an ability to pay progressive income tax, let me give you an 
example of why the sales tax backfires for small business.

We work hard to make a sale.  The buyer wants the product and works hard to 
pay for it.  After financial sweating on both sides, cumulating in the sale, 
the discovery of an additional cost, the sales tax, can kill the sale. If 
you want to slow small business, the addition of taxes at this level, is the 
right way to go.  Not only does the sales tax solution slow small business, 
it is inefficient.  But I want to be positive and productive so let me tell 
you the real answer that I have come to from my behind the scenes dealings 
with the state of California and NY sales tax departments and as a 
management consultant for the NY Thruway where the tax burden is spread out 
in still another inefficient form of tolls.

Not only does the sales tax solution slow small business sales but it places 
another charge on small business in that small business has to be an 
uncompensated agent to collect, keep records and forward sales tax monies. 
That is quite an unproductive expense.

In addition, the cost of raising additional money to run the government via 
sales taxes, tolls and endless other misc. taxes, results in tremendous 
multiple  government agencies that are so costly to operate and enforce that 
what is leftover, makes them inefficient ways to raise money.  A single 
government agency to pay for those government expenses that everyone agrees 
on, such as war, would be much more efficient than many agencies all trying 
to do the same thing.

The tax solution is obvious.  Kill the gas tax, sales taxes, tolls and 
almost all other tax collections that require separate tax agencies. 
Substitute one progressively fair, fully enforced, income tax, big enough to 
make up for the shortfalls from all the other inefficient tax collecting 
agencies.  The resulting efficiency will result in the total tax that the 
peoples pay, being much lower.    While in this instance, Kerry is more 
likely to lean in this direction, historically it has not been an exclusive 
democrat leaning.  Republican president Eisenhower fought for the 
progressive income tax as the way to pay for government and the people were 
not politically at each others throats and the economy was more comfortable 
than it is today.  .

There are more reasons to give your friend such as; if you really want to 
cut taxes to stimulate the economy, cut payroll taxes (which are more 
uncompensated, unproductive assignments for small business and unfair high % 
taking away of weekly take home pay from low end wage earners) instead of 
doing away with the tax on billionaires being able to pass on wealth (which 
will lead to the country being even more divided than you are witnessing 
today).

I agree with Brad, if we do not get rid of the terrorists, everything else 
will be academic.  We just do not agree on who the real terrorists are.

stan/gbi

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "P&M Beals" <beals at rci.rutgers.edu>
To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 11:19 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] politics- why should small business owners vote 
forKerry ?


> Stan,  You are a smart guy & a business owner. I have my arguments about
> voting for Kerry because of the last 4 years of lost jobs, denying 
> overtime
> to workers, the failure of tax cuts to spur the economy, record budget
> deficits, record trade deficits but....
> but when I am making a pitch to my friend whose husband is a small 
> business
> owner, I want the best pitch I can make for Kerry.
> Will you give me a succinct argument for a business owner friend who may 
> be
> persuadable?
>