Corporate tax cut won’t create jobs

The New York Times

“I am what certain politicians call a ‘job creator,’” said Marcus Ryu. As the co-founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley software firm, I employ more than 2,000 people in “high-skilled, high-paying jobs.” President Trump has claimed that reducing the corporate tax rate will encourage entrepreneurs like me to start new firms, which will in turn turbocharge job growth. That’s simply not the case. People launch companies for all sorts of reasons: a smart idea, a chance to strike it rich, a desire to be your own boss. “I have never heard someone say, ‘I would have started a company, but tax rates were too high.’” I can imagine a tax regime that would actually discourage

entrepreneurship, but that’s not what we have in the U.S. Our tax rates on capital gains—which is how most startup founders make money—“are already far lower than rates on ordinary income.” In fact, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon were all launched at a time of higher tax rates. If Washington is truly serious about encouraging economic growth and job creation, it should “look elsewhere besides the tax code for answers.” We could invest in our schools or our crumbling infrastructure, or make the internet and power grid safer and more resilient. My team is eager to grow our business. But “lowering the corporate tax rate isn’t going to make us create jobs any faster.”