The Republicans are nothing if not predictable. And they are once again trotting out their fall-back lie that the wealthy are our only path to economic salvation since they are "the job creators."
Paul Ryan repeated that term about 100 times in his segment on "Morning Joe" today (he really gets going with it around the 12:20 mark).
We're all getting on board with the concept of "Repeat, Repeat, Repeat" making memes become "true," even when they're lies, right?
Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators, by Nick Hanauer for Bloomberg Businessweek
It is a tenet of American economic beliefs, and an article of faith for Republicans that is seldom contested by Democrats: If taxes are raised on the rich, job creation will stop.
Trouble is, sometimes the things that we know to be true are dead wrong. For the larger part of human history, for example, people were sure that the sun circles the Earth and that we are at the center of the universe. It doesn’t, and we aren’t. The conventional wisdom that the rich and businesses are our nation’s “job creators” is every bit as false.
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. 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.
And we've also all learned the lesson about not swiftly and severely counter-attacking those memes before they do maximum damage ("Death Panels" anyone?), right?
So from now on, every time you get a chance and every time you see or hear that lie ...
Don't try to debunk by saying, "the wealthy are not job creators"! This just reinforces the meme when people hear the words "wealthy" and "job creators" together at the same time. Never, ever utter the word "wealthy" when debunking this lie!
Instead say, "Middle Class job creators ...".
How are the Middle Class job creators? Because they drive demand!
Examples for use:
Middle Class job creators are the backbone of our economy, driving demand when they have real disposable income.
Middle Class job creators need tax incentives to put more money in their pockets to create greater demand, thereby driving the need for more jobs.
Middle Class job creators should get preferential treatment in our tax code since they are the ones who create the overwhelming predominance of demand in this country (even if every one of the top 1% bought two new cars every year, their purchases wouldn't even put a dent in overall car purchases by the Middle Class).
Middle Class job creators drive job creation with their demand for new products or services.
When Middle Class Job Creators can afford to buy that new Pontiac or take that family vacation to Disneyland, more people are needed on the assembly lines, working concessions, keeping the park clean, running the front and back offices, etc.
Word Cloud for this post:
This post is part of a series on framing with Democratic moral language for the 2012 elections. See also: