Why Business Owners Need to Think Beyond Taxes in the Voting Booth

Voter Registration Day is September 29, and there’s much more to politics for entrepreneurs than taxes. Yet, so many people seem to vote solely on the basis of who’s going to lower their rate by a point or two. That’s a myopic lens to view the world through, even for business owners.

Trickle-down/supply-side economics doesn’t work

The data’s in. Back in the 1980s, supply-side economics was a hypothesis written on a napkin. And in theory, it made some sense. Cut taxes on the wealthy, so they have more money to employ workers in their businesses. Plus, they know better than the government how to spend their money.

Well, America has run this experiment. We have definitively found that if you cut taxes on the rich, only rich people benefit. There’s no trickle-down effect to the poor and middle-class. There are only so many products and services that rich people can consume, so most of their money ends up being invested for their sole benefit.?

Corporations don’t invest in their people when they don’t pay taxes either. When they get cash from the government, they use it to buy back stock or to add to the cash they already have sitting on the sidelines.??

Some companies (such as Amazon) with the highest market values pay almost nothing in taxes, and neither do their billionaire owners. Want to complain about tax cheats? Go ahead, but don’t blame poor people on meager SNAP benefits. It’s the top 0.01% and corporations, including fossil fuel companies that get significant tax breaks that you should be angry about.?

There’s no practical argument that moving tax brackets up or down by 2% has any effect on businesses either. Very few people change anything that they do based on small tax movements. Or even large ones.?

The radio DJs this morning were complaining about how high California gas prices are compared to Texas. California added those taxes in an effort to make fuel-efficient cars and driving fewer miles more attractive. Well, judging from the number of large pickup trucks that aren’t used for any kind of work, nobody paid attention. And there are still huge numbers of cars on the roads.

Why it’s a problem to vote on the basis of a discredited economic theory

There does seem to be a pretty wide empathy gap in people today. Some of you reading this might wonder why it even matters that poor and middle-class people are currently being screwed. As long as that’s not you, who cares, right? Well, there’s actually a business reason why you should care.

There are only so many cars and houses that wealthy people can buy. They make investments, rather than purchases. It’s the poor and middle class who are the consumers in this economy.?

They’re the ones who go out to neighborhood restaurants, buy at neighborhood shops - the ones who support small businesses. But they can’t consume your products and services when they don’t make enough. And they don’t make enough when all the wealth is concentrated at the top of the chain and nothing’s trickling down to them.?

So besides taxes, what else should business owners consider when they’re voting?

What kinds of policies are your local politicians bringing to their campaigns? Maybe it seems like all they’re doing is complaining about who’s currently in office, or trying to “own” a different segment of the population.?

You may sympathize with that, but those politicians are certainly not going to help you when you have a business problem. They don’t care about the effects of their rhetoric, even if it makes where you live far less attractive to high-quality workers.?

Do you want smart people in your company? Do you want them to be engaged in the community? Do you want workers who are capable of working without supervision? Would you rather hire an employee whose hand you have to hold every day to get them to do their work, or a self-starter?

Smart, capable, engaged workers don’t want to live somewhere there’s a lot of angry rhetoric and hate against others. They don’t want to live in a place where they can be hauled into court on suspicion of having agency over their own bodies. They want to live where the schools teach kids to think critically,? which includes learning about the entire history of the USA, including the ugly parts like slavery and segregation.?

That’s why it’s important to pay attention even to smaller elections, like school board elections or mayoral races. Local government has a huge part to play when it comes to making your city or town attractive to the workforce you want.

What else do the local candidates discuss? How supportive are they of the schools in your district? Do they foster openness and communication with the community, or do they do their business in closed rooms?

Are their actions (mostly) in tune with what they say, or do their speeches not match up with their votes? If someone claims to be religious, are they really following the teachings of their holy book or are they hypocrites??

There’s a lot more to voting than taxes and presidential elections. When you want to vote for the candidate who’s best for small businesses, that does not necessarily mean that you should vote for the one who promises to lower your taxes. Because they might be making your city a hellhole where no high-quality worker wants to be.

Looking to make your team more productive so you can reach that next level of profit and success? Contact us to see if Productivity Injection is the right program for you.?