Banned TED Talk from Seattle native Nick Hanauer on the Truth about Job Creation

Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g

Via Business Insider: "As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs. The position is controversial — so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. National Journal reports today that TED officials decided not to put Hanauer's March 1 speech up online after deeming his remarks "too politically controversial" for the site..."

Now here is a talk that in a short five or so minutes brings up a very important point about jobs that should be taken into consideration in order to support business the way it should be, and the way it needs to be, in order to keep our economy stable and allow it to flourish. What we have happening currently, is the opposite, where more and more businesses struggle to get by, and more and more fail altogether, pushed out by larger corporations dominating the market which leads to less jobs, and the jobs that are created are lower paying, with the employees being understaffed and overworked.

The result of this is that more and more of the general population who are the bulk of consumers in our nation, are being paid less, and thus have much less to spend into our businesses. And if we as consumers are spending less, businesses are selling less, which means they’re making less profit, and less and less able to stay afloat.

Is this any way to treat our businesses, which are what keep the wheels of our economy turning, and providing us with the necessities of life? Because where will this cycle end? We’re at the point where small businesses just can’t compete with the larger corporations, and even corporations have to constantly compete amongst one another for the cheapest prices, because individuals can afford less and less. And if the company makes less and less profit, they’re going to want to pay their employees less and less. The employees who are our consumers will then be able to afford less and less. How far can this vicious cycle go?

Shouldn’t we take better care of the businesses we depend on? Take for example grocery stores, one of the lowest paying jobs you can get. What would you do without a grocery store? The next time you are on your way to the store with your list of foods and items you are going to purchase just imagine what you would do if the store wasn’t there. Business is important and we must realize that that means that we have to effectively support ourselves as consumers (with proper incomes) so that we can in turn support our businesses, creating a self-sustaining cycle that supports life.

This means we need to embrace the fact that all the parts of what makes a business successful are equally important; that without consumers to purchase goods and services, there is no business. So, as Nick Hanauer pointed out in his talk, there really is no such thing as one person creating jobs, because in an economy ‘no man is an island’, and there is certainly no business, and thus no jobs, without consumers.