Reports that stocks, indicators of the expectation of business value, are on the verge of 4-year highs. Yet the average person on the street complains about a disappointing economy, low wages and fear for their jobs. Even the people on Wall Street, now who seem to be doing well, are putting most of their political money towards kicking out the president they seem to be doing well under (and who saved their industry from ruin-yet somehow hates them). This disparity, seems to me, illustrates how there are two economies that are less and less tied to each other for growth and survival. Or at least it this all makes me want to ask the following questions:

1. If there are so many repressive regulations holding back the free market, why doesn’t it seem to be hindering companies’ ability to make healthy profits and grow- or show results that seem to impress Wall Street?

2. If business is doing well as if has been for a couple of years now, doesn’t supply side economic say that the people below should start feeling the benefits? If not. Why not?
3. If the answer to that is taxes need to be lower. Are you saying that will all the profit being made, reported hording of corporate cash, increased productivity that cutting capital gains (on investments) income) or the corporate rate is the only thing that keeps this economy back?

That argument reminds me of an article I read a few days ago on why you need to tip waitstaff in cash rather than credit cards. Apparently when you tip in credit card, many times that extra money added doesn’t go to the wait staff. The employer who gets it first will keep a lot of it and use it to pay off-the-book employees, or plain pocket it, while forcing the wait staff to pay for the credit card transaction fee for the whole purchase by taking that out of what they finally get back in tip money. Business taking away money from people who get paid less than minimum wage already to support their business.

That to me seems like what some of the proposed tax cuts would do. The tip that doesn’t get to the person working on the line. That most of that money would find a way to flow and be kept by companies rather than being used to investment or staff growth anywhere near the same ratio as the cash reclaimed.