Elegant Simplicity: Achieving Many Goals with one Policy

Karen Campbell / June 08, 2009

Question: How do we create jobs, increase economic growth, rebuild the nest egg of households, strengthen the competitiveness of the U.S. economy and increase tax revenues?

• A. Borrow trillions of dollars and hire workers and specify that these workers must be from the United States.
• B. Create a new industry by making carbon emissions a scarce good so that new “green” jobs can displace jobs in polluting industries. Create a complicated trading system and allowance allocation to create “administrative” jobs, jobs for lobbyists and jobs for lawyers.
• C. Raise taxes on individuals that make over $250,000 while instituting pay caps that limit the amount individuals can earn. Redistribute the tax revenue to middle class earners through various credits to create jobs for tax professionals.
• D. Eliminate the corporate income tax.
• E. None of the above.
• F. All of the above. (more…)