Jarvis DeBerry Thinks Letting You Keep What You Earn Equals ‘A Free Lunch’
It’s nice when major newspapers employ economic illiterates as columnists. We all profit from the wisdom such a practice produces.
An example of that wisdom shows up in today’s piece by Jarvis DeBerry, who serves as the Eugene Robinson of the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s editorial roster. Usually De Berry busies himself by bandying accusations of racism about or dredging up Bush-blew-the-levee dog whistles, but today he’s delving into a more universal subject – that of taxation, and the battles at the Louisiana legislature over the 4-cent cigarette tax renewal and the possible repeal of the state’s income tax.
And the upshot of his logic can be found here…
Jindal envisions a day, he said, when Louisiana follows the lead of nearby Texas and Florida and our residents don’t have to pay an income tax at all. We Louisianians would come close to living in a paradise: no taxes on what we make and — because of our sacrosanct homestead exemption — possibly no taxes on what we own.
At that point we could surely find a state lawmaker to write a bill establishing our official state meal: the free lunch.
Most of the piece is a scattershot defense of the current size and scope of state government, which virtually no one else in Louisiana is satisfied with. But the dripping sarcasm about low-tax paradises belies how bereft of economic understanding DeBerry really is – and illuminates the left-wing mindset that lack of understanding typically produces.
First of all, low taxes do make for prosperous economies. Texas has benefited substantially from not having a state income tax – and when we say substantially, we mean it. Over the past decade, in fact, the Lone Star State has created nearly three quarters of a million jobs. This at a time when the national economy has been soft at best and atrocious at worst. In fact, no other state is even in six figures when it comes to job creation (low-tax Arizona and Utah are second and third with about 90,000 each). Only 20 of the 50 states have even created a positive number of jobs on net in the past 10 years. And Louisiana, which the study says has gained some 25,000 jobs in the past year (a dubious figure given that the state’s unemployment rate has jumped two full points in the same time frame) is still down 5,700 jobs in that time frame.
DeBerry should answer why the concept of Louisiana’s seeking to create the same income tax environment as Texas, which has become the nation’s economic engine, is deserving of his mockery. His column merely offers this…
So should the idea of a well-functioning government. And to function well, that government must be funded adequately with taxes. Just because nobody likes paying them doesn’t mean we can survive if nobody does.
Which brings us to a second observation. More a line of questions, actually. Is DeBerry suggesting Louisiana has a well-functioning government? If not, is he suggesting that a state government with significantly more employees than the southern average lacks the resources to function well? And if that’s the case, does he believe that things have been improving over the last 15 years or so when the state’s budget has tripled in size?
But beyond that, DeBerry’s idea that low taxes equates to a “free lunch” is offensive. It indicates that people who earn money in the private sector – which is all but impossible without giving value to an employer, client or customer in exchange for those earnings – are somehow freeloading off the public fisc if they aren’t drained of what they make to support the public sector. This is the philosophy of the Left, and, like many of those who subscribe to it, it doesn’t work. It hasn’t in Louisiana, and it absolutely hasn’t worked in DeBerry’s New Orleans.
But DeBerry is blissfully ignorant of those lessons, as his column makes clear.
Once you again you flail away and miss the target. The point is quite simple, we need to pay for what we get. Louisiana has enjoyed and continues to enjoy living off of the federal government teat for many many years, just look at this year’s budget which is dependent upon approximately 75% FEDERAL FUNDING, yet you flail away that if we only paid less…life would be oh so much sweeter. Attacking Mr. DeBerry with contrived facts is all the more offensive. If you think there is a linear correlation between no “income” taxes and job creation, then please let’s see it. Certainly Texas has no income taxes; however, it does have the THIRD HIGHEST property taxes in the country at 1.81% of property value PER YEAR. Meanwhile, Louisiana has THE LOWEST property taxes in the country. BTW, Texas also taxes the heck out of tobacco products!
“We need to pay for what we get,” in the context of that comment, amounts to
an endorsement of Louisiana’s current state government as a bargain, as well
as a manifestation of the left-wing conceit that the government’s needs come
first. We’ll be charitable and say this is a minority position among voters
in this state.
Pumping some $300-500 million back into Louisiana’s economy by cutting
income taxes so those funds aren’t wasted on the Purple Circle Social Club,
some of the worst public schools in the country – which on average cost more
per student than all but the most expensive and exclusive private schools in
the state, and a bloated state government with some 10,000 employees more
than the Southern average on a per-capita basis, would do a great deal of
good for job creation and quality of life in Louisiana. And the people of
the state know this well, which is why every time an income tax cut is
proposed it gains immediate grass-roots support and backing from legislators
on both sides of the aisle – and will, in the not-so-distant future,
eventually pass.
It’s my turn to be charitable. Lessee – worst public schools/too many employees so let’s not address those issues. Instead lets take the ez way out. Ignore the issues and defund.
Yep sure that method works. Hole in the roof but don’t like the quote? Just ignore it, it will go away.
It’s bright ideas like that, that have us where we are.
No, those of us remaining with half a brain want good roads, healthcare, and a future for our children and ourselves. Those who falsely claim they speak for the majority, obfuscate the issues and proclaim victory by touting that it’s govt versus the people.
The reality, as evidenced by every state that has outpaced us is hard work, creativity, and funding. Nothing has ever been accomplished through unpredictable funding and disingenuous leadership. Keep cutting funding and refusing to acknowledge that some aspects of govt do work and it works damned well. (you’d realize that if you did any research) and we’ll continue to spiral down the drain.
You don’t want good roads, healthcare and schools. If you did, you’d be demanding systemic innovation, or at least more bang for the buck, and you’d at least know that Louisiana’s spending in those areas isn’t deficient – it’s the results Louisiana gets which is. We rank in the top 10 in percentage of state revenues spent on both public higher education and healthcare and in the bottom ten in outcomes. And our public school teachers rank 22nd in the country in average salaries, but we’re nowhere near 22nd in
any measure of K-12 school performance.
Seems to me what you really want is to drain working Louisianans of their hard-earned cash, in the pigheaded belief that the same class of people responsible for the current state of affairs could do better with that wealth than the productive class who created it in the first place can.
And yes, I would agree with your characterization of your side in this argument as having half a brain – at least in spirit. I would estimate a fraction a bit smaller than half were I to be more accurate. It’s that level of mental utility which has characterized Louisiana’s political class since Huey Long as they’ve bought votes from rubes like you after stealing from an ever-dwindling business community.
AllinContext……….Duh……….you reckon the fedarales got money from taxpayers????? Surely not. This is just a freebie that they give us.
I think they might have gotten a little of it from offshore oil royalties
they didn’t have to pay to Louisiana thanks to noted Democrat luminaries
Earl K. Long and Leander Perez.
Next thing we’ll here is that bthe New York Slimes(Sp?) has hired him. He’d do real well with that “rag”.
I want to know who hired this leftest sheeple you goTtimes Picayune waaaaaaaaahahahaha.