Economics for Idiots

I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Jon Huntsman; America is screwed. I'm going to explain some basic economic principles to a group of people that obviously doesn't understand them. These guys are not liberal democrats, Occupy protesters, college professors, or middle school students. Sadly, they're the Republican presidential candidates. As I said, America is screwed! First of all, businesses do not exist to create jobs. The sole purpose of business is to make money. No one ever says to himself "Hey, my lazy ass neighbor doesn't have anything to do, I think I'll risk everything I have so he doesn't have to sit at home, eating Cheetos and watching "The View" everyday." People risk it all because they want to make more money; job creation is a side effect of that desire. Business owners lease office space because they need a place to work; not because they feel sorry for the landlord with the vacant property. They hire people to do things that, they don't have time to do, can't do efficiently, or don't want to do. They need that task done more than they need the money they have to pay to get it done. If they find that the money they're paying has become worth more than the task being done, they either eliminate the task or find someone to do it for less. Pretty simple, right? So, Mitt Romney ran a company that used investor's money to fund new businesses and buy and sell existing ones. The idea behind investing money is to get back more money than you put in; evidently, Mitt was pretty good at making that happen, so the investors paid him well. So, in some cases, they bought businesses that were either losing money, or weren't making as much as they should. Some of these businesses were poorly managed and had employees that weren't needed, weren't productive, or were being paid too much. Some of these workers got laid off or fired. Mitt could have just let the companies keep losing his investor's money, but he didn't have any investors that were interested in that. He could also have chosen not buy the companies, then they would have been broke and ALL of the workers would have lost their jobs. Rick Perry says Mitt made his money "on the backs of working people". Really? Perry has been a public employee for over 25 years. Whose back is he making his money off of, the Cash Fairy's? Evidently, Perry would have just kept paying people to be unproductive. If we want a president that thinks that way, we don't need to have an election. Newt Gingrich doesn't have a problem with Mitt making money, he just thinks he made too much. How much is too much? I guess that's for Newt to decide. What if I think Newt made too much for writing all his books, or for consulting with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Oh, I forgot, Newt decides what's too much. Rick Santorum thinks this attack on capitalism is a bunch of crap. If he's elected, he would lower corporate income tax from 35% to 17.5% for all industries except manufacturing, which would pay NO corporate income tax. What about construction companies, grocery stores, and software developers? Screw You, that's what! Santorum has decided that manufacturing should get preferential treatment over other industries. He would also triple the child tax credit. That's awesome... if you have kids. What about young working people who don't and seniors? Tough Shit! Santorum thinks everyone should have kids and, if he has to coerce them with the tax code, then he will. What about Romney? Well, he defended himself against the ant-capitalists by comparing what he did to Obama's management of GM and Chrysler. Yeah, that's exactly the same; except Obama took our money, by force, and invested it, and he doesn't give a rats ass if we lose every last nickel. Mitt, defending your record as a Capitalist by comparing yourself to a socialist is kind of stupid. As for Huntsman; why isn't he running against Obama for the Democrat nomination? What about Ron Paul? Well, he wants to cut $1 trillion from the budget in the first year, cut all foreign aid, repeal the income tax and install a fair tax or flat tax, eliminate govt. subsidies of private business, eliminate 4 cabinet level agencies, stop the federal reserve from inflating the currency, stop paying for the military defense of the rest of the world, and balance the federal budget. What a lunatic!