A lot of really dumb things have been written and a lot of really dumb things have been said recently about the so called 9 9 9 tax plan being pushed by Herman Cain. I have seen a really large number of very highly paid media talking heads say things in front of millions of people that are based on a very deep and profound ignorance. I am aware that these people are reading words that have been written by the network’s professional producers and writers. That just makes it worse.

The reason Cain’s plan is actually so easy to understand is that it deals with the economy in very large pieces: income, consumption, and investment. With one very large difference the nation’s checkbook works just like the average person’s; you take in some amount of money, that’s your income; you spend a certain amount of money on food, shelter and clothing, that’s your consumption; and if there’s anything left you save or invest it.

What Cain is promoting is that taxes be raised on consumption and lowered on income and investment. If human nature still works the way it has for the last 10,000 years then lower taxes on income and investment means we’ll get more of them. More income and investment means more economic growth and more jobs. BTW…that one very large difference in the government’s checkbook and the average person’s is that they can write bad checks and the average person can’t. And that’s why we’re in so much trouble right now.

David Price

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