Democrats call for ban on corporate profits

By Tom Quiner

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07fTsF5BiSM&feature=share]

Economist Peter Schiff is at the Democratic National Convention. He asked random delegates if they would favor either a ban on corporate profits or government limitation on profits, as they have done on health insurance companies via Obamacare.

Mr. Schiff found no shortage of Democrats enthusiastic for such a destructive and ignorant policy. Watch the video above for a glimpse into the uninformed mind of liberals.

Profits are not bad, they are wonderful.

Do you know what pays for the dividend income so many retirees depend on? Profits.

Without profits, no dividends.

Without dividends, more impoverished seniors.

You may think that only the reviled “rich” enjoy income from dividends, and you would be wrong. In fact somewhere between 54% to 67% of Americans have held investments in corporations at any one time over the past decade.

The middle class relies on these investments, which are fueled by corporate profits. The more corporate profits, the more income for middle America.

Half of Democrats own stocks, often held in their IRAs and 401ks. Perhaps Mr. Schiff should have asked if they’re willing to give up their dividend checks and capital gains and give them to the government. After all, “we all belong to government” is Democrat’s newest slogan.

Presented in that light, I suspect that more than a few Democratic delegates would demur.

This data comes to us from a Gallup survey.

I remember a news conference back in April in 2011 when Apple’s Steve Jobs proudly announced a 95% increase in net corporate profits, from $3 billion to $6 billion.

Everyone cheered.

On the other hand, the cheering mob turns into a jeering mob if it is oil companies or insurance companies showing those types of profits.

I know, I know, Mr. Jobs was a Democrat, so maybe the Left gave Apple a pass.

It doesn’t matter, though, what type of business is making money, profits are wonderful. They not only pay dividends and produce capital gains, they fuel innovation and are a source of taxes for the government.

Peter Schiff’s interviews with Democrats reveals a glaring deficiency in their economic and financial education. This type of ignorance is dangerous, because it breeds bad public policy that is destructive to the very people it tries to help.

6 Comments

  1. TaterSalad on September 6, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    Democrats are really delusional aren’t they? Without some type of profit, how to corporations invest either in the future, in machinery, in growth of the company when deprecations are 3, 5 and 10 years on the tax returns. They can’t be this dumb can they?



    • quinersdiner on September 6, 2012 at 5:32 pm

      I was disturbed by the number this misinformed on basic economics.



  2. Shawn Pavlik on September 7, 2012 at 8:19 am

    Yeah, not sure when profits became a bad thing in American economics. The profit motive drives people to work harder and smarter. Take away the profit motive, and you will see the American worker emulate the workers in the old Soviet Union, doing the minimum required. Take away the profit motive from health care, and you will see our best and brightest go into careers of engineering and business, rather than spend 10 years in EXPENSIVE medical school to get a meager income. Doctors SHOULD be compensated well for what they do. They are highly trained, and that training can cost upwards of a quarter to a half million in education fees. The average doctor in Europe makes a salary around $60-80K. If our doctors made that, we will soon have many fewer doctors, and likely less qualified ones at that. Thank you, Obamacare, for destroying the best health care system in the world.



  3. lburleso on September 7, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    I find this video outright depressing. It sucks the hope out of me.



    • quinersdiner on September 7, 2012 at 1:01 pm

      Don’t get too down … they’re responding out of ignorance. When they are informed on the consequence of such a policy and how it will affect them personally, many would rethink their position. I hope.