Even among well-off people one hears talk of the bad economy. Yes, there are too many people without jobs or too many people that are earning far less than they would like. This is not good. But not all people are without jobs and not all people are earning less than they would like. These are not only the one percent.
As I read about manufacturing increasing, about companies not finding enough skilled employees, about all the new brew pubs being opened, seeing so many apps for iPhones being produced, and so, so many people with cell phones, lap tops, and tablets, the economy can't be that bad.
Of course it's bad if you've been kicked out of your house and lost all your equity. But there are many others still in their houses.
Daniel Gross wrote "Good News for Jobs: Rising Demand", Yahoo Finance, 2012-03-28, giving numbers for increased housing starts, increased remodeling permits, and increased sit-down restaurant business.
As more people are working, more people are spending money, which puts more people to work.
Did Bush's or Obama's stimulus packages lead to this improvement? Probably not. Well, stabilization of a bad situation helped, and once things are stable they can improve. Did high taxes hinder this improvement or low taxes encourage this improvement? Probably not. Many economic ups and downs happen independently of the tax situation.
I've often said that the government shouldn't be providing tax breaks for certain industries or subsidizing others. These often have limited impact and often backfire. What it should do is increase and target its buying. Replace vehicles and computers more frequently. Want higher gas mileage nationally, increase the fuel economy requirement for government cars. Want to promote alternative energy; put alternative energy sources on government property, even if they are only supplements. Alternative energy was set way back when Reagan took Carter's solar panels from the White House.
I think the problem is that we expect Presidents to micro-manage, not govern. That is, favor this group or that group instead of providing a broad, stable framework for people to make decisions.
