Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Cure to Our Economic Problems

...by Marc Cuban (Blog Maverick)

I have yet to publicly admit that I follow investing/economy blogs (now you know!), but I think it's so good to stay up with this stuff. As we await a tremendous decision for our country's future, I thought this recent soundbyte from investment master Marc Cuban was a great reminder to my perspective. He writes...

"I would hate to be the winning Presidential candidate. Both candidates are delusional in thinking their economic policies will drag us out of a recession or even improve the economy. The reality is that the solutions offered by both are the equivalent of shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. They are meaningless.

You can cut taxes for 95pct of Americans and raise taxes for the rest. You can cut taxes for businesses and retain the Bush Tax Cuts. You can increase or decrease the capital gains tax 5 or 10pct either way. Under both programs the deficit for the country will increase, we will borrow and print more money. 5 or 10pct variance either way, given the big hole our economy is in wont matter.

The cure for what ails is us the Entrepreneurial Spirit of this country. We are a nation of people who encourage , support and invest in those of any and all age, race and gender who will use their ingenuity and come up with a new idea.

Its always the new idea that re energizes this country. Industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, digital communications, etc, each changed how we lived and ignited our economy and standard of living. Tax policy has never done that. The American People have.

Entrepreneurs who create something out of nothing don’t care what tax rates are. Bill Gates didn’t monitor the marginal tax rate when he dropped out of Harvard and started MicroSoft (btw, it was a ton higher than it is today). Michael Dell didn’t wonder what the capital gains tax was when he started PC’s Limited, and then grew it into Dell Computer. I doubt that any great business or invention started with a discussion or even a consideration of what the current or projected income or capital gains tax was or would be...

Entrepreneurs live to be entrepreneurs. I have never had a discussion with anyone about starting a business that included tax rates. Ever. If anyone that wanted an investment from me made a point of discussing tax rates as an impact on their business, I wouldn't invest in them. Ever.

Entrepreneurs live for the juice of making their dreams come true. Of having a vision and fighting to see it come true. The joy of mission accomplished and the scoreboard of the financial rewards.

We are in an economic mess right now. It doesn’t matter who caused it. It’s here. It doesn’t matter what our Presidential candidates and their economic advisors come up with. Its meaningless.

The cure to our economic problems is the Entrepreneurial Spirit of All Americans."

4 comments:

TeachKidsArt said...

Wow -- that was inspiring! Thanks for the pep talk.... just what I needed! (I love the light bulb pic, too!) xoxo

Adam Trowbridge said...

Thats a great article Allie. I really agree with it. I have felt the same way as him since the beginning of of this election. I would hate to be the winning candidate. As much as either of them claim to have the answer to the war, the economy, or the many other problems facing our country, they will undoubtedly fall short of peoples expectations.

It is interesting to note that 80% of the Nations leading economists choose Obama's economic plan over McCains. Here is the link to the article and the data:

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342127

The research isn't entirely scientific, its just the economists that they could get a hold of. It is none the less an interesting article though.

Love you Allie!

Adam Trowbridge said...

And not to ignore the main idea of the article, I completely agree. Entrepreneurship is crucial to our economy and will prevail.

|| davidjay || said...

So true baby!