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Health & Fitness

Obamacare Layoffs and Hiring Freezes Begin

Obamacare Layoffs and Hiring Freezes Begin People on the Left are selectively blind to the effect of economic incentives and disincentives.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you 

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“Obamacare opponents warned that forcing companies employing 50 or more full-time workers to buy healthcare would prompt employers to slash jobs and worker hours. And that’s exactly what’s happening, says one of President Barack Obama’s favorite economists, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics.” 

“The looming Obamacare layoffs and hiring freezes come as a Labor Department report announced today that the unemployment rate remains at 7.8% (revised up from the originally reported 7.7%).  Presently, 22.6 million Americans are either unemployed, underemployed, or marginally attached to the work force.” 

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People on the Left are selectively blind to the effect of economic incentives and disincentives.  

They raise cigarette taxes in part to disincentivize smoking.  They want “cap and trade” to raise the price of energy so people will use less.  

Yet they pass Obamacare that incentivizes businesses to have part time employees and hold their number of full time employees to less than 50.  Even for businesses with more than 50 employees, Obamacare incentivizes dropping employer provided health insurance because the penalties/taxes are less than the cost of health insurance. 

Lefties are similarly blind to the effect of higher tax rates that disincentivize work, savings and investment and lower tax rates incentive work, savings and investment.  In CA, they assume having the highest state income tax rates in the country will have no effect on where successful people live, work and invest.  

On a personal level, the Lefties understand the effect of higher tax rates.  Witness Al “Gorjeera” rushing to sell his cable network before the higher capital gains tax rates take effect. 

Other factors being equal, where would you invest your money in a country with a zero capital gains tax rate like China, Singapore or the Netherlands, or in a state like California with the new Federal rate (including the Obamacare tax) of 23.8% plus California’s 13% tax on top? 

Lefties are similarly blind to the effect of the welfare state that disincentivizes work and encourages having children outside of marriage. 

News flash to the Left: People, organizations and systems respond to economic incentives and disincentives.  It is not just “smart” liberals who can figure out the effect of economic incentives and disincentives including higher and lower tax rates and adjust their behavior accordingly.  

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