Only the 99 Percent Create Jobs

Maine Senator Susan Collins suggests taxing rich people who do not hire, thus setting up a false dichotomy between rich people who are job creators and rich people who are not.

This sounds good and misses the point completely. Here is an actual billionaire who does hire people explaining why that does not make him - or any other rich person or corporation - a job creator:

Digby:

Earlier, I published a post about Frank Luntz's rebranding of capitalism and one of his big points was to replace the word "entrepreneur" with "job creator."

Here's another view:

I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc.

Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

Read the whole piece. The funny thing is that it used to be conventional wisdom.

This is a person who really doesn't want to kill the golden goose of capitalism but would like to save it. It doesn't speak well for the future of capitalism that there are so few entrepreneurs like him.

Do you spend a significant portion of your income on regular expenses: food, gas, clothing, utilities, rent? Congratulations: you're a job creator.