Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Another Idea for a Governor: Tax credit for Employing people

I think we are on the cusp of some really large layoffs. We've got employment numbers I consider fake. Things haven't been good for a while, and there's enough automation out there to know it is going to get worse.

From a business perspective, your biggest cost is labor. Your biggest headache is labor. And the government has been making this worse.

Meanwhile, all governments have been behaving badly, borrowing money, but they are either facing or are going to face a contract in their tax revenue.

What they are mostly likely to do is try and further squeeze the citizenry that they've already been mistreating.

What they should do is not only improve the regulatory landscape so that more people open up companies in their state, they should also do as much as they can to reduce or eliminate the burdens the federal government puts on employers.

1.) Create a good reason for people to choose to incorporate in your state versus others. Make it cheaper, and perhaps more protective of assets.
2.) Create a good reason for business owners to have a physical place of business. Brick and mortar stores and/or production facilities- now, I am not talking about these stupid deals governors make with big corporations, but mostly a deregulation.
3.) Especially if you are in a state where there is an income tax, the creation of another full time position means more income tax. So do the math. Give the employers a break, and you make back your money on the employees.

The key is to make the numbers work. I think there is a lot of space to make the numbers work. The machines are just functional. They are not better than good employees, but they are cheaper because they don't require all the benefits. Additionally, the businesses don't have to struggle through hiring and firing substandard employees in order to find the good ones. They don't have to worry about people trying to sue them over some imagined discrimination.

But, from your perspective as a governor in a failed state, likely about to be drowned in debt, you need a sudden influx of small business men trying to make money, and discriminating as much and as often as humanly possible. This is because they aren't discriminating against, they are discriminating for- they are trying to find the good employees, the profitable activities, etc...

And this is what you need to save your ass. You not only need your own people trying out their own wacky ideas, you need people coming in from out of state with whatever savings they have to try their wacky idea, because they can do so more easily in your state than anywhere else.

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