In this post I hope to point out a complexity that maybe you have not considered. Most of the workers in the US work for small companies. Many economist and politicians acknowledge that our struggling economy will heal through our small businesses. What is not often connected is that the potential for higher taxes on business owners will cause very cautious behavior. Certainly many small businesses are owned by those making less than the top 3%, but the uncertainty is still paralyzing.
The point is? Small businesses are not hiring. They can't. Already there is new health care requirements with uncertainty of what that will really cost. There are tax credits to offset some of those expenses, maybe, but if you add employees you begin to disqualify yourself for the tax credits. And then maybe taxes will increase?
Business owners are faced with the dilemma that adding employees could lead to unrepairable damage to the finances of the business. It is a real possibility that such hiring could contribute to failure of the business. Then all the employees and the owner become unemployed.
Thus taxing the "wealthy" prevents, or at least limits, potential job growth. Uncertainty is just as bad. Or worse. My own opinion is that employment numbers will not improve significantly any time soon. We have too much "retooling" or retraining of the workforce before they can be employed in areas that we still need. Too many of the old jobs will never come back. But our tax situation is not helping. This will be a long road.
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