Wilson’s correct comment in 1952 was
“WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE COUNTRY IS GOOD FOR GM”
The statement is mis-quoted very often.

The top 1% of earners in this country pay 40% of income taxes. The bottom half of earners pay 3% of income taxes, and something like 40% of Americans pay NO income tax at all. Having money is good for people. No one will argue with that. However, taking it away from someone who earned it to give it to someone who didn’t is not only bad, but it has failed miserably in many different countries, during many different time periods.

It sounds like whoever was sitting at that table should spend a little more time informing themselves about what the candidates’ policies really entail.

The fact that power is alternate here in the US is what makes this country what it is. Power alternates between Republicans and Democrats, with this, each one of them moves their cause a little bit creating an overall balance, unfortunately for the Republicans, it is time for the Democrats now, they will screw up in, say another 8 ys (that is history, not me) and power will go to the Republicans, and so on and on and on. That is the beauty of the USA

When Ronalad Regan was napping in office, my business thrived. When Clinton was cavorting with interns and cigars, my business thrived. When George the Elder and George the Bumbler ran things, it was all I could do to stay afloat. Give me anyone, just don’t give me any more Bush!

No, they don’t need a solvent American populace these days, as long as they have a solvent Chinese, Pakistani, or Indian populace that will work for a third of the salary…

Obama Baby!

Raj is right, sort of. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Mr. Wilson of GM and his famous and often mis-quoted quote:

At one point GM had become the largest corporation registered in the United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP. In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation “because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa”. Later this statement was often misquoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.” At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world – only Soviet state industries employed more people…”

Now GM’s market cap is lower than that of Bed Bath & Beyond. Amazing.

Rich or Not So Rich we all have a stake in this (and every)election. It seems that we are fortunate to have two decent candidates that will almost certainly do a better job than President Bush. He got my vote both times but it’s not just about business now. We have been embarassed on the world stage by a leader who comes across like a bumbling fool. It did not surprise me that your bunch of really rich dudes are looking closely at the candidate who projects a celebrity image.

This Article is great

higher taxes means less jobs. true, clinton raised taxes, but only a little. he pales in comparisons to obama’s plans. go read the editorial page in today’s WSJ for a full discussion of all his tax increases. if you are making $40,000 and you vote for obama, you are actively voting for a regime that is going to make it harder for you to stay employed. the “rich” – ha! people like me who make $250,000 after taking all the risk on $130,000 of education debt, which i’m still paying off without any tax credits or deductions – will survive. their jobs won’t go away. but they will lose $10,000 or $15000 a year. that means the rich guy mows his own lawn, cleans his own house, postpones buying a new car, postpones home renovation work, postpones buying new applicances, takes shorter and cheaper vacations, etc. you may say, “oh boo hoo”, but that means that less money is getting spent at home depot, sears, the supermarket and local small businesses like contractors, electricians, landscapers, etc. and all those businesses that now are making less money and are being taxed more to boot, what do you think they’ll do? will the business owners just say, “hey, i’ll just take less money home even though i’m working just as hard. the patriotic thing for me to do is to keep taking risk, pay higher taxes, keep everyone employed and take less money home.” no, they lay people off. of course, no one ever actually gets called back to work, do they? so, really, they’re fired, downsized, rightsized, let go. and some of those businesses will fail completely and then everyone’s out of a job. it is no secret what obama wants to do with taxes. he is shouting it from the rooftops. if the american public is too wrapped up in ignorance and envy to see how this “spread the wealth around” bullsh*t is going to hamstring growth and result in less jobs, then everyone gets what they deserves. the “rich” will be ok, but joe sixpack will be the one getting royally trickle-down screwed. and he’ll deserve it.

You note: “Don’t rich people feel the negative impact of a collapse in the financial or real estate sectors?”

I suspect “feel” is exactly the right word, alas. As the Titanic lowers it is the poorer folks in steerage who ‘feel’ it first. The richer folks on the upper decks ‘feel’ it too, but only later
when it’s howlingly too late.

I checked out your reference and, amazingly, looks like a few camels actually succeed. No mention of raptors though.

With all due respect to the fearsome power of the empire in question, the last place I would look for fair and balanced analysis of the candidates and their positions is on the Editorial Page of the Wall Street Journal.

As I sit back and ponder one of your more profound blogs, I ask myself, am I better off now because Rich Guy benefited from (A) greedy mortgage lenders and (B) no government oversight of credit default swaps? I suppose in some tangential way I benefited because the fixed rate on my mortgage is really low and my husband and I, at the moment, still have jobs which maybe somehow were created by Rich Guy. But, all in all, collectively, as a people I’d say, no, we are not better off because of Rich Guy. In fact, I think we’re in BIG, BIG trouble because of Rich Guy. And the entire world is having to take drastic measures to undo the mess that initially benefited Rich Guy. Yet, Rich Guy will continue to own his many homes, while poor guy gets booted out of his one.

So, maybe it’s time just for kicks to give this trickle down thing a rest. Let’s mix it up and throw poor guy a bone and see what happens. Surely, it can’t be much worse than what we’re dealing with now.

The top 1% of this country owns 38% of the wealth. So paying ~40% of the taxes is proportional to their wealth.

The entire bottom 40% owns less than 1% of the countries wealth – why should they be paying taxes?

The problem is, no one wants to take the time to help their fellow man anymore. So, your money gets taken instead. By myself, I make 200% of the average income of dual-earner families in my area, and I’m not complaining about the taxes I pay.

Perhaps Rich Guy feels the pain of the market debacle just enough to stop any trickling down. That being said, centralized wealth redistribution hasn’t ever worked out quite the way as advertised for anyone. I see no reason we’d be different.

Perhaps if we instigate some corporal punishment for the goons that abused CDSs we’d see better ethics performance from those folks? You know, something like what the Ancient Aztecs used. If Rich Guy is in danger of losing his hands because he’s taking massive bonuses instead of giving his subordinates and shareholders more money for good performance, things would be better (or at least more bearable).

I initially I wasn’t going to comment on this particular thread -it’s fascinating to read and many of the comments are insightful.

But…

There are more things to consider than just business in this election year (and yes, I realize this is first and foremost a business blog). I cannot say that I relish the thought of a “Dove” in office. Obama and almost every other democrat are doves. We are fighting a war on two fronts and have potential threats in at least four other “hot” spots. Historically Democrats dismantle the military and associated spending to pay for their social agendas (think Carter). The rich and the poor are equally affected by terrorism, let’s see how business and the market fair if we are attacked again and if we are attached again I would like to have a military in place to deal with it and a hawk in office to lead the effort.

Kind of a CS way to endorse Obama. If you want him elected just come out and say so.

Okay. I mean, I think I already have. Repeatedly. But, okay. I do. The idea of offering a formal endorsement would imply that anybody truly cares. But if the son of William F. Buckley, Jr. can announce his endorsement of Obama, perhaps I should too.

We have tried every thing under the sun to stop the skid into recession and fear of depression.

Going back to square one with big George Bush’s voo doo econmics.

We should all get our rattle snake rattlers, chicken bones, and beaver teeth to inspire the ledgerdemains of the world markets back into reality econmics.

Surreal is great for movies. For real life pundits may promise a lot, but deliver only the emptiness of the impossible dream!!

Time to get real? Let’s think about it, O.K.?

Bing for Obama! I like it

Bing,

For the record, Clinton did NOT have a budget surplus at any point during his 8 years in office. He used some very shady accounting tricks to paper over the deficit by claiming the surplus income of the Social Security Administration as general revenue for the Government.

If you go to the website of the Office of the Public Debt, you can see the total Federal Debt, to the penney. Guess what? Every single year since the Vietnam war the debt has increased, even in times that politicians were lying and claiming they had a “surplus”.

The US Federal Government is the single largest credit addict on this planet, and the politicians that run it have no intention of paying off the over $10 Trillion they’ve run up in our name. For them to do so would require massive tax increases and a reduction (or at elast a very long freeze) in benefits to everyone from retirees on Social Security and Medicare to Welfare. Since these measures would not be popular with the voters, there’s no chance of getting a majority of the 535 liars in the House and Senate to back them.

But you’ll find many who will be very happy to make any claim under the sun that they think will make the voters happy, especially if the media is willing to parrot misleading claims like Clinton’s non-existant “Budget Surplus”.

Neither candidate will do good for me, though BHO will do more harm and probably real harm. I’ll give the edge to Mac concerning business.

But Sarah IS easy on the eyes and can speak WITHOUT a teleprompter.

I can do four years of that!

Would that the ’senior raptors’ go the way of the saurian raptors. May their rapacious, and totally self-focused greed be finally recognized for what it is; a cancerous tumor in the body of society.

It takes 6 months for monetary policies to have any effect, and several years for fiscal policies to have an impact. Clinton’s reduction in budget deficits was due to Reagan’s deep tax cuts that stimulated the economy followed by Bush Sr’s tax increases to reap some rewards from the growing economy and pay down Reagan’s debt.
Bush didn’t deregulate the banking industry allowing commercial banks to act like investment banks – Clinton signed that bill.

The economy was so good for so long, that Main Street got greedy, and Wall Street was only to happy to accomodate them, but we’ve been living on borrowed time. Americans personally took on too much debt/risk through credit cards and equity loans from too big houses. The government and the banks did likewise. Increasing the number of people in 401(k)s and the market in general created a pyramid scheme which could not be sustained. The same with Fannie Mae increasing homeownership by lending to people with no income. That created this bubble. Bush and Greenspan’s reactions have been all short-sighted. The economy dipped after 9/11/01. Instead of allowing it to run the course, Greenspan lowered the interest rates. This allowed us to get deeper in debt and fueled more speculation and the housing bubble. As the market started hitting the skids again, the Democratic congress passed out stimulus checks. Again, postponing and deepening the eventual crash. Yes, the jobless rate is the lowest ever, but it is from borrowing against the future. The ill-conceived bailout bill, got even more larded up by the Democrats.
So, who’s better for business or me? Conservative Republicans are better for all. The problem is Bush has been acting too much like a Democrat – adding more entitlements like Prescription Drugs. Reagan’s trickle down theory worked. Obama wants to increase corporate taxes. What will that do? Force more companies out of business or overseas losing jobs or pass on price increases to customers, which will hurt the poor disproportionately. Corporations do not pay taxes. They pass on the costs of doing business or go under. $10 trillion is out of control spending by politicians pleasing their constituencies to get re-elected. Good for the short-term, bad for the future.

Obama sounds like “ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL” and I guess that sounds like a modern day Robin Hood. Uuggghhh

Just a little reminder to all the big guns out there — Most Chief Executive Officers earn as much as they do by virtue of the daily efforts of the little men and women who shuffle in every morning and get the job done. The problem is when you don’t feed the cow, you can no longer milk it. Our current batch seem to have forgotten that age old wisdom. Not only have they killed the cow, they are looking to skin it and use it for a rug in one of their houses.

I’ve cut every corner I can think of. I’ve pulled all the rabbits out of my hat. Unfortunately, last week, I had to cook the last rabbit. Next summer we will be starting to go vegetarian. At a rather old age I will be putting in a garden to help feed my family and share with my neighbors. And by the way, I spent six years in college as did my husband. I am also coming out of semi-retirement and going back to work to save the rather modest homestead we were forced to downsize to after the last financial crisis which forced our youngest out of college. I am not amused by the current set of affairs. Some of my neighbors are putting in 60 hour work weeks in oder to make ends meet and hold on to their house of twenty years. I don’t think it is a case of robbing from to rich to “give” the poor. I think it is rather stopping the rich from robbing the poor and sitting in front of Congress justifying ridiculous salaries for their expertise.

I have to agree with the person who said we should have real punishment for the Rich Guy… probably a good place to start is Anderson Cooper’s Top Ten Most Wanted List…. Gee, when this country was started, they put people in stocks in the village square, or tarred and feathered them and ran them out of town… but I also like the Aztec idea too…. hmmmmm

Your last paragraph nailed it- too many decisions are made based on short term gain, with no consideration of long term consequences.
To the election at hand, I believe that Mr. Obama is a much more stable candidate, more willing to look at the long term. Mr. McCain on the other hand, has recently been rather erratic, proposing one very short term policy after another (such as the repeal of the gas tax). His campaign seems to be trying a scattershot tactic- throw enough “stuff” around and maybe something will stick.

I have been in the USA for 10 years now and cannot vote because I cannot become a citizen for another 4 years. My wife and I are upper middle class but below the 250,000 level (by a lot). We both think there should be a “special tax’ for the debt where we all contribute proportionate to our ability to pay. If you believe in this country, then something needs to be done to eliminate the debt. We are all part of the problem; and we need to “fess up” and not leave this mess to our children. I don’t know who will be voted in; but if they make the right decisions for the country; they will be gone in four!

What the McCain/Palin ticket represents to me are the following:
1. Lazy six pack beer drinker
2. Blue collar workers
3. Religious Christian zelot
4. My way or the highway attitude

I’m sorry, but I don’t see America as that way and those aren’t goals to strive for. Whether you’re blue collar or white collar worker, American’s work hard! We’re the most productive nation in the world. Another thing that America is not are religous zelots! Our founding fathers took pain to separate church and state because they saw what it leeds to.
We’re suppose to be a country where we tolerate the differences, not persicute them!

If you look to either candidate for the solution to your problem you will forever want. The problem is government. I am amazed by those who think they are so charitable that they suggest it okay that 1% pay 40% of all taxes? They think that it is okay that many who do not pay any taxes at all receive “stimulus” checks? Where has our self-sufficiency gone? Why do we look to government for answers to personal problems? Conversely, why are we printing up business welfare? Why is it suddenly okay for government ownership of free enterprise?

Historically, the government does almost nothing well. Why do we set ourselves up for certain and absolute disappointment?

Answer… Because everyone believes they are going to get something for nothing.

News is folks.. The 1% is going to go away. Bye, Bye!

Re: Robert – Bethesda, MD
“But you’ll find many who will be very happy to make any claim under the sun that they think will make the voters happy, especially if the media is willing to parrot misleading claims like Clinton’s non-existant “Budget Surplus”.”
Posted By Robert – Bethesda, MD : October 22, 2008 6:23 pm

Lets go to the “presumed genius” Alan Greenspan. “But Greenspan said government estimates project more than enough surplus funds to pay off the debt and reduce taxes too.”

“What he (Greenspan) did change is his views on the timing of the issue,” “He made it very clear that the changes that have occurred over the past year have made it much more likely that we would pay off the national debt much sooner.” Douglas Lee, president of Economics from Washington, an economics consulting firm.
http://money.cnn.com/2001/01/25/economy/greenspan/

Obviously Greenspan believed not only was there a surplus but also enough of a probable surplus that a $1.6 TRILLION tax cut was justified.

We know what all of that Rhetoric just provided cover as we have raced to economic self-destruction. Check the “U.S. National Debt Reality.” To wit:
01/24/2001 $ 5,732,255,355,204.69
09/28/2007 $ 9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2008 $10,024,724,896,912.49
10/23/2008 $10,524,112,985,802.87
Yes, that is $1 Trillion in fiscal year 2007-2008. And $.5 Trillion in 23 days. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

For the reality of the debt vis-a-vis the GDP see http://zfacts.com/p/461.html

Let’s use historical data (facts) to guide a discussion that might provide for less than the hard landing looming in the near future.

We don’t give a shit anymore…we want their frickin heads.
Five, ten, twenty, fifty years, a hundred years…it doesn’t matter- they’re marked and they did it to themselves. Their republicanism has shown itself for what it is in the hands of American Business and The Western Business World in general…mid-evil mentallities attempting to run an evolving world. Like the dinosauer, they’ll become near extinct eventually and resurrect as Commies for Christ. That aught to be interesting.
Read, RUSSIA AFTER KRUSCHEV for a glimps at that shit. Good luck posterity…they fucked it up good for ya so they could be ’sumthin.’

Who’s our third choice?

Obama will definitely stress the small business industry with his tax policies and health insurance requirements placed on small business owners. Over 60% of Americans are employed by small businesses. They are the backbone of our country. Placing additional tax burdens on them will force more layoffs and eventually more small business failures.

What’s more is that Americans don’t see it. Obama is basically creating the SUCCESS TAX! He wants people to get educated, promotes small business and entrepeneurs, but be prepared… if you make too much, you’ll pay for it. What kind of message does that send? It’s like his support for the “windfall profit tax”. Now that oil has dropped to $72 pb the profits will not be as big, but Obama still wants to assess excessive taxes on them. The essence of capitalism is that everyone has the opportunity to start a business and make millions. The problem is that too many people sit back and take advantage of the entitlement programs available to them. Where is their motivation? Its not that I don’t care about helping fellow Americans, but when did it become my responsibility to pay in excess of 40% of every dollar I make to ensure non-tax paying citizens are taken care of?

In the end, it’s not Bush, it’s not Republican’s or Democrat’s. Obama nor McCain will be able to change things. Its the “system” thats screwed up. We should start by limiting Congressmen to 10yrs in office. Then put an age cap for Senators and Reps. Really, what does a 78 yr old, 25 yr career Senator know about the life of a 35 yr old? Nothing! If things continue on this path, we as Americans are obligated to overthrow our Government and start fresh. Lets get back to basics.

I’m only concerned about who will get elected President because I can fairly well guess who’s going to end up controlling Congress.

I’ve never been much for Republcans or Democrats; their only use is to keep an eye on each other.

Republican president, Democratic Congress. Democrat in the White House, better get the Republicans in charge of Congress.

My big fear is that we’ll have a Democrat in the White House, and a Democratic majority in Congress too. I’d feel the same if it were all Republicans.

There’s been plenty of shenanigans in government already, but there’s sure to be a lot more coming.

We’re screwed.

All this is big puppet show, we are the puppets, guess who is controlling us? Big pharma, big insurance, big arms dealers, big energy and petroleum, etc,etc,,,,the so called future has already been decided

Recently you evoked the image of a camel attempting to fit through the eye of a needle, and now that of a house built on sand.

Do you think it might be safe also to evoke the image of the blind leading the blind?

Absolutely. Particularly in this day and age. We are all blind. But only some of us purport to be leaders.

Go on and vote the Mavrick and the Assistant Mavrick in with her lipstick campaign song, ….
“I’m a red neck women, I an’t no high class brod”. If something happens to Mac!! Ha, you talking about a messed up Country. Even Republicanights don’t want that terrible experience! Let her try and decide what to do with two wars and an economy that gets worse by the day…
In one of her campaign speeches she said that the two wars are almost won…scary!
Balance the budget by the end of the his/her term my behind!

The primary reason that Clinton was a success for the business community was a Republican Congress. I have become a firm believer that the same party should not control both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. When this happens we have disaster regardless of whether they are Democrats or Republicans. Our nation is becoming more and more polarized to the left and right. Regretfully those of us in the middle ground are losing our rights, jobs, retirements and our chindren’s future. I want to live in a democratic and free U.S. and not live under the rules sponsored by the UN. I have lived and worked in many other countries and do not want to live like that. Regretfully we appear to be headed in this direction.