Robert Watson, Ph.D. American Studies Lynn University

September 27, 2011

Robert Watson, Ph.D.
American Studies
Lynn University
3601 N. University Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431

RE: Addenda? Si. Errata? no – on your “10 Lessons” column in the Sun-Sentinel

My dear Professor,

Just to show you that I am a multi-cultural guy – Kipling is my favorite 3rd World bard – I believe that “only Allah can weave a perfect rug”. I used to say “Homer nods” but too many people thought I was referring to Simpson of Springfield.

In my letter to you dated 9/25/11 I quoted Admiral Halsey in connection with your Lesson #2 – “Fear is a powerful emotion”. He called the Japs “lousy yellow rat monkey bastards”. I put an asterisk after it to indicate a footnote. Alas, I did not complete it. The quote is to be found on Page 38 of “The Battle of Leyte Gulf” by Thomas J. Cutler. The book was published by Harper Collins in 1994. I called him “another proud son of New Jersey”. New Jersey, the land of the Sopranos and Snooki, paid Halsey its highest honor when it named a Turnpike toll booth – Exit 13 – after him. Vince Lombardi has a truck stop named after him.

Like herpes, a gift that keeps on giving, a second glance at your article reveals yet another egregiously erroneous modern American Liberal shibboleth.

You say that the “nation’s richest corporations” should pay more taxes. It is an article of faith for people who believe that an increase in the minimum wage is a good thing for poor people that corporations should pay more taxes. Whatever their “fair share” is it isn’t enough. It is “settled science” that no corporation ever pays enough in taxes. If General Electric would only pay its “fair share” the Feds could issue loan guarantees to 6 more Solyndras. Maybe it’s time for “Electric Windmills” to make a comeback.

The reason for this real life lesson is going to shock and amaze you.

Corporations don’t pay taxes. They never have and they never will. Anyone who has ever signed both sides of a paycheck knows this from empirical observation. Taxes are an expense item. It is just like paying the insurance bill, the 3 martini lunch tab, the Super Bowl tickets, the retainers for the lawyers, the special interest lobbying fees, the private jet charges, the cost of raw material, and the wages of the blue collar workers all of whom are overworked, underpaid, and exposed to unknown toxic predators.

Taxes become part of the cost of whatever it is that you are selling. It makes no difference if your product is metaphysical or epistemological. If your customers buy your product they pay your taxes. If high taxes price your product out of the marketplace the rate is irrelevant. If you can’t sell your product and you go out of business to whose benefit does that redound?

You probably will shocked, shocked to learn that, as is said in Milan, “If no profit is possible the risk is obvious”.

Try to follow this bouncing ball. It is rooted in Logic. Logic to a modern American Liberal is like holy water to a vampire. Try anyway.

When was the last time a poor person hired anybody?

Rich people hire poor people for two reasons: #1 – They want to stay rich and #2 – They want to get richer.

Poor people work for rich people for two reasons: #1 – They want to get rich and #2 – They want to live better.

There is no record anytime, anywhere of a public policy predicated on making rich people poorer resulted in making poor people richer.

The great Lord Keynes, a man more quoted than read, would have been as strong as advocate for cutting taxes today as any of the first term Republican/Tea Party Congressmen. Further, he spoke of “animal spirits” as one way to get the dog to hunt.

Here’s a plan to think about. Shut down the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. They both are as useful as teats on a bull. Think of all the money, 43% of which is borrowed from the Chinese, we will save. Use that money, not to fund the next Solyndra, but rather to enable the “animal spirits” of the American enterprise system, the greatest economic engine yet seen, to come roaring out of their hibernation. The thought of someone becoming as rich as Croesus may be anathema to you but it sure beats the Hell out of “shovel ready jobs” and the Waiting for Godot “summer of recovery”.





Kevin Smith