Losing the Keys to Prosperity
Here is a simple story any news media type could manage or a candidate like Governor Romney should be able to tell.
I just came back from travels in
Flagler did it all with his own money. Unlike President Obama’s investments in bankrupt “green energy” companies, Flagler did not put billions of dollars from the government at risk.
But Flagler invested at a time when there was no federal income tax or tax on profits, so he could easily afford great risk and very patient capital investment. He not only built
Today, everything Flagler did would be impossible due to hundreds of bureaucratic agencies’ thousands of laws, rules, regulations, licenses, interminable delays. It would be infinitely safer and more attractive for a man like Flagler to merely hoard his wealth and enjoy long years of leisurely retirement or to invest his capital outside the
In
If today’s government and tax system had existed in Flagler’s day,
If Obama had been there then and had his way, Henry Flagler would have been denied the right to build his railroad, slowed to a crawl in his development in
Is this the kind of environment we want? One so discouraging to private investment and enterprise that virtually every “U.S. company” of size is pouring far more of its resources into building plants, opening stores, even building theme parks, and creating jobs abroad than here? (Some honest, competent journalist might do a great story on that: review of the entire Fortune 1000’s investment here vs. investment abroad, company by company by company.) One so discouraging to people considering starting a business and sacrificing for years to finally get rich – yes, I said that! – that huge numbers back away.
My book of clients includes a large number with sufficient capital and expertise who have almost pulled the trigger on business expansion or start-up, then stepped back and said, “Gee, with Obamacare micro-managing and mandating my employee benefit decisions and burying me in costs. There’s a regulatory explosion in my industry. Obama’s threatening to raise my income taxes and my capital gains taxes, and put a target on my back. I think I’ll just leave my money on the sidelines and play a little golf.”
Each time that happens, space isn’t leased or offices and plants aren’t built. Jobs aren’t created, vendors aren’t fed. Does this serve anybody’s best interests?
The majority of Americans favored the Keystone pipeline, killed by the president. A Rasmussen poll this week has 54 percent favoring a flat tax, with everybody paying the same percentage of income, regardless of amount of income – something the President would light himself afire to oppose.
Maybe the American public is smarter and more sensible than politicians and the liberal media. Maybe the public would welcome a Henry Flagler and a Walt Disney. Maybe the public would like such men encouraged to invest in
