Small business are not suffering because of taxes.

glennmagusharvey

They're going out of business because their customers are disappearing.

See, when I can barely pay for basic transportation, food, and shelter, why would I...
* pay for a meal at a local restaurant instead of dining in?
* patronize the nearby secondhand DVDs/videos/games store?
* go out to see a movie?
* attend a non-free concert?

Well, that's why there's a now-abandoned building that used to house a Chinese restaurant a few minutes down the road from our neighborhood.  That's why the old games store in the center of town isn't there anymore.  That's why the cinema complex in the next town over has been shuttered for years now.  And that's why the orchestra in the area where I used to live disbanded.

See, capitalism is a demand-based economic system.  You can do everything to enable and aid supply, but if you don't have demand, it doesn't work.

And that's why trashing the middle class, and telling them to suck it up and deal with it, is a bad idea.  Yes, people can barely get by by doing nothing but working, eating, sleeping, paying for utilities and transportation and other basic needs.  But when that happens, everything else grinds to a halt.

The_Edge

I'm trying to keep the economy afloat. Honest engine! But there's only so much one writer working as a office temp can do.

Shichibukai

Funnily enough...

 

Have you ever visited Dead Malls? An online testament to economic instability.

 

glennmagusharvey

Oh, do you remember hearing politicians talking about how there are a lot of small businesses that pay taxes at top-bracket personal income tax rates, and thus you shouldn't raise top-bracket personal income tax rates?

I'm not sure if they're stupid or willfully ignorant, but I see a glaringly obvious solution.

Differentiate between small business taxpaying and personal taxpaying.  Duh.