Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The DNC, Part II

Here's another phrase we've been hearing for a while:

Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

Pray tell, what exactly are these "tax breaks to send jobs overseas," and how can I apply for one? Turns out they don't really exist, unless you consider the entire international corporate tax system a loophole. This is much like those horrible tax credits for oil companies, which apparently consist of credits for those "alternative fuels" I keep hearing so much about.

Strange that Obama should bring up McCain into this, since this point is actually one of more sensible parts of McCain's platform (the other is offshore drilling). Corporate taxes make little sense--they don't hit any particular person, but rather manifest in the form of higher prices, lower investment, lower wages, and lower capital returns. Even if you're a liberal, these are not good things. It's fine if you want higher taxes for the rich; just tax the money as much as you want once it reaches an actual person.

Naturally, since this tax makes little sense, the US has one of the highest rates in the world. McCain would lower that rate. Now if only somebody would do something about my ~15.3% payroll tax and 10% sales tax. And I'm in the lowest tax bracket!

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