Word: taxing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That may sound promising, but the truth is, drumming up new jobs on short notice isn't exactly in the government's wheelhouse. In the long term, what the government does and doesn't do is incredibly important to the health of the labor market. Trade policy, corporate tax rates, the structure of health care - these things all have a real impact on economic growth. But Washington's tool kit doesn't work nearly as well in the short run. Right now companies aren't hiring for a very specific reason: there's not as much demand for their products...
...Companies to Hire People If we want firms to go out and hire, why not give them an economic incentive to do so? This could be done by flat-out paying companies to hire, or by reducing their share of payroll taxes (the money that gets withheld from workers' paychecks to pay for Social Security and Medicare). Either way, adding a new worker becomes cheaper. We last tried this in the 1970s - the mechanism was a tax credit for hiring - and the results weren't particularly remarkable, though part of that could have had something to do with the structure...
...Tax Burden Reading Joe Klein's article "In the Arena" I was initially insulted by the idea of what seemed to me an advocation of huge tax increases during or immediately after a recession [Nov. 9]. But as I read on I realized that Klein's ideas were not only rational and sound, they accurately described the problem with government employees' massive advantage in health insurance, and how the powerful unions will negate any attempt to tax their "gold-plated health care plans." The article even brought me to shame when he stated that we're nowhere close...
Some of that talk is being matched by action. In his new government, Zuma began by promoting the good and sacking the bad. The well-regarded former tax commissioner, Pravin Gordhan, became Finance Minister. Barbara Hogan - who as Health Minister ended years of South Africa's attachment to what the U.N. called the "lunatic fringe" of the AIDS world - took Public Enterprise. Zuma fired Hogan's predecessor at health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who recommended beetroot, garlic, lemon juice and potatoes to treat HIV and AIDS, and former police chief Jackie Selebi, who is charged with corruption...
...even if Zuma were to keep surprising, circumstances are against him. He came to power just as South Africa entered its first recession since the end of apartheid in 1994, cutting tax revenues and spending plans. But his supporters in the labor unions are in no mood to cut Zuma any slack. His first months in power have seen a wave of strikes and riots over pay and poor government. In October, Zuma fired the entire ANC-run authority of the northern township of Sakhile after weeks of violent protests over poor service delivery...