Actually, that was an LBJ ad that was intended to frighten voters into believing that Goldwater would lead us into nuclear war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization

Economies everywhere are kind of gummed up as it is. One way or another, on a global basis, we have to do better at ensuring a basic standard of living for the creators of everything we buy- across economies- or the price of human life can go below zero….

Trading with virtual slave states and pretending that those are free market transactions (because there are short term profits) eventually causes problems at home in lots of ways…is that a suprise ?

State JCTC (job creation tax credit) programs have generally been found to draw jobs from other states and non-effective without being refundable to zero or low-liability taxpayers in the 26 or so states that offer them. A federal program would likely not be effective unless it drew job creation investment from international markets.

Now a global minimum wage and environmental/socal spending index tied to international trade rules could in fact help America out of this jam, since we are among the hardest working and most productive workers in the world…..

Level the playing field globally and we could be looking pretty good….

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/01/smart_stimulus.html

Martin, the idea here is a cut to the payroll tax, you know, that 7.65% or so that all of us employers get to pay on our gross payroll. It’s not like WOTC or some other feel-good program that would only affect a few percent of companies.

If the gov’t said “no payroll tax this year,” it would put cash back in every employer’s pocket, (importantly) including those who are losing money and paying no corporate income tax.

Another thing about this approach that is great is that it pushes the money out into the system nearly instantly. The point of stimulus, if it has any point at all, is to offset the drop in spending that is happening today. But the current stimulus bill spend most of its money in 2011 and 2012, because it all goes to projects that can take years to bring online. Of course, the way things are going, we may still need stimulus then, so maybe our leaders will tell us it was their brilliant plan all along.

On the min wage- the findings are that the number of wage earners at that wage is not high, that the market for those type of workers is relativly inelastic, and that the overall economic impact is not material. The Card and Krueger study is usually the one most often debated in this instance, but even the most anti-minimum wage economists now agree the impact is not massive either way.

On the tax credit, it would be OK if the actual tax rate paid by corporations were not so far from the nominal tax rates they would pay without corporate welfare or a million exemptions. If they dont pay much tax now, it does no good to credit them for hires, and the cost of a very few hires will easily meet the entire tax liability in many cases, since wages in even professional roles don’t often exceed 60% of operating costs, in many cases being far lower (automakers pay around 12% of gross sales in wages).

No, the only way to drive job growth is to drive the underlying economic activity AND to make sure to the extent possible that rewards are in line with production- when they become uncoupled (as they seem to be right now) you have a very wide gap between well-off and everyone else, and you have imbalances in areas of the economy.

My suggestion would be to kill the deduction on interest expense and add one for interest income (to encourage savings and careful use of debt), to return to high marginal rates for very high income earners (eases the deficit, does not impact job creation very much, and is not as unfair as it sounds because nobody makes a gazillion dollars without a lot of public spending going on somewhere to create the conditions to make that scratch)

Beyond all that, we need a moral re-center about pissing money away on stupid shit (to use appropriate language) from McMansions to overpaid sports and media stars, to stuff up and down the spectrum.

A return to a more egalitarian society is the only way to keep a free-market system from running all the money to one corner of the table. Maybe a military draft would help….. in any case, thats where the core problems really are…..moral, cultural, political….