economicmultipliers_45

Economic Multipliers (45)

Do you know what these are?

They help CREATE wealth in systems.

Knowing you can make a difference is an economic multiplier.

¤¤¤¤¤

What would you spend the last few days of your life doing if you were 94 years old and had trained as a lawyer? Would you spend that time filing the paperwork necessary so the state that you lived in could try to recover $300 million that taxpayers had paid in (on their utility bills) for TAXES that a corporation thought they had the right to retain (because some government bodies … with the help of lobbyists … changed laws so money could be ‘redirected’)?

If $300 million dollars was ‘redirected’ toward you, do you think you’d be able to look very charitable in your community (and a lot of others) and ‘buy’ a lot of lobbyists and lawyers to help you look like you’re ‘helping’ the economy?

In this case, because the taxes were energy taxes that even the most impoverished people in communities need to pay, that state (MN) had less money for maintaining infrastructure, social services, energy assistance programs, educational programs and every other program that the state might run.

I’ll bet that when you pay taxes that are clearly delineated on a receipt or bill, you expect them to go into government coffers to help provide a better standard of living for you and your children and their children …

That’s not always true.

If you were 94 years old and Myer Shark (now passed on), you’d think that you could and should do something about it.

I know quite a bit about positive economic multipliers.

David Cay Johnston, who wrote Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill), is teaching me even more about the negative ones.