Obama's Tips - UPDATED
Obama campaigned on building the economy from the bottom up.... "as we've alway's done it".
I must have missed that economics class, and I sure as hell have missed seeing it anecdotally in my 60+ year life. I can't figure out how anyone could even think that. In every downturn economy that I've witnessed, the fact that the "Have's" have less, always meant that the "Don't Have's" had even less.
Tax luxury yachts.....they don't get sold, and people who make them lose jobs; downturn on Wall St., the waiters , busboys, food wholesalers all get less income....or no income; McMansion's not being built, no carpenters, plumbers, day laborers have income; "Fat Cat's" from AIG don't hold their U.S. Distributor's sales conference in a high-end resort, no waiters, airlines, car-rental companies, 401K's, IRA's and Union pension plans all lose out.
The Class Warfare that the Democrats have engaged in has not only poisoned the political debate in the country, it has created a degree of economic ignorance that's hard to believe, and has seemingly doomed us to a fate of being a third-world country.
The Democrats have railed against "Trickle-Down" Economics, but I've yet to see a case made for Obama's "trickle-up" theory.
When 911 happened, my wife and I owned a specialty food distribution business that supplied products to the resort areas of North-East Florida, and South-East Georgia. As soon as the flights carrying business executives to meeting at the seaside resorts stopped, our business dropped 75%. The resorts laid off 50% or more of their staff, and the trickle down theory made itself abundantly clear. The stores that those workers shopped in, either laid people off, or closed down; the trucker's that hauled my products down from NYC lost revenue; I laid off our driver. This is simple stuff, and Obama understands it. That means he lied in order to demagogue the issue....shame on him.
In today's news from NYC, we're seeing the clear example of "Trickle Down" at work, or at least the absence of it:
The economic downturn is trickling down to servers’ tips. “I think people are being a little more exacting in terms of their money,” says Erica Harrison, co-owner of 88 Orchard, a Lower East Side cafĂ©. It’s hitting restaurants, coffee shops, even bars. “If someone orders a thirteen-dollar cocktail at the bar, normally they’d leave a two-dollar tip, but now they’re taking that extra dollar back,” says Peter Kane, owner of Stanton Social. Last month Tim and Nina Zagat wrote that customers are skipping appetizers, and New York restaurant workers agree. “They’re just going straight to the main course,” says Mehdi Jamil, general manager of Pound & Pence, a restaurant in the financial district. "If you buy less, you tip less." Some restaurateurs complain that the foreign customers propping up New York's economy are taking advantage of the weak dollar without compensating the waitstaff. “Our regulars are tipping about the same,” says Harold Wedick, manager of the Corner Bistro. “But it’s skewed by the influx of Europeans, who think that 50 cents is a big tip and pretend not to know the customs of the country.”UPDATE....
It seems that in addition to normal business practice, the drubbing that the "Big Three" Auto Exec's received yesterday regarding their flights to D.C. on corporate airplanes, has caused them to cancel some of their leases . There go the salaries of the mechanics who maintained them, the hangar fees where they were berthed, the taxes that they paid for their declared compensation for flying on them for personal use (CEO Mulally's compensation included $752,203 in 2007 for personal use of company aircraft- let's say he was at 30% tax base that makes $225K in taxes the Fed's won't get now), the insurance that's now canceled, and all the commissions that won't be paid , and the dancing lessons that those commissions would have payed for......getting the picture?
In addition, it just so happens that all those CEO's are required by their employment contracts to fly on corporate jets for security reasons. But, it's difficult for a Congressman to avoid a cheap shot and a chance to practice their demagoguery.