
Originally Posted by
Melonie
^^^ with China as the 'poster child' example. That country is investing heavily in infrastructure, but at the same time ( and despite official hype for international consumption ) they are making their economic / regulatory climate as 'business friendly' as it gets !!! Thus their gov't's infrastructure investment indeed has a POSITIVE and above 1:1 multiplier effect. However, reflecting on my most recent post, another country that does not have an equally 'business friendly' economic / regulatory climate could spend equally on infrastructure with a sub-unity or even NEGATIVE multiplier effect. If you're looking for a real world example to prove this point, you can start with the 'Big Dig' !!!
And again trying to circle back to the basic point of this thread, imposing higher taxes on 'rich' American individuals and businesses WILL cause those 'rich' American individuals and businesses to react. Spending those additional tax revenue dollars on infrastructure improvements is arguably a better situation than spending those additional tax revenue dollars on expanded medicaid benefits or extended unemployment benefits or expanded food stamp benefits in regard to overall effect on the economy, but not taxing away as many tax revenue dollars in the first place may have been even less damaging / even more economically stimulating.
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