He doesn't seem to get that Americans are already working some of the longest hours among the world's advanced economies. In Europe most governments mandate four to six weeks of vacation a year, plus numerous official holidays, plus sick leave, plus paid family leave, and so on. Most full-time American workers get a maximum of two weeks of vacation, plus whatever sick leave and family leave policy your company deigns to give you.
If you have a part-time McJob you get a lousy salary and nothing else. These workers want to work more hours, but they can't because their employers don't want to give them full-time employees benefits. Clearly, Jeb! cannot be talking about these people.
He must therefore be talking about exempt employees, the full-time employees who are office workers, managers, engineers, programmers, accountants, etc. Exempt means exempt from overtime. Which means if they work more hours they get absolutely nothing for it.
Since 2000 average Americans are working 25% harder for no more money.
So the question is, what incentive do Americans have to work even harder? From 2000 to 2012 the wages of real working Americans did not go up, while productivity (the thing Jeb! wants us to crank up), increased from a relative base of 100 in 2000 to 124.9 in 2012.All the extra effort of American employees have put in over the decade and a half isn't showing up in their paychecks. But it's showing up on their employer's bottom line. And their employers aren't sharing. So why should the average working stiff work harder?
Something similar is true at the other end of the economic spectrum. The tax rate tables show why:
| Tax rate ordinary income | Single | Tax rate on capital gains | |
| over | to | ||
| 10.00% | $0.00 | $9,225.00 | 0.00% |
| 15.00% | $9,225.00 | $37,450.00 | 0.00% |
| 25.00% | $37,450.00 | $90,750.00 | 15.00% |
| 28.00% | $90,750.00 | $189,300.00 | 15.00% |
| 33.00% | $189,300.00 | $411,500.00 | 15.00% |
| 35.00% | $411,500.00 | $413,200.00 | 15.00% |
| 39.60% | $413,200.00 | 20.00% | |
| Married filing jointly / Qualifying widow or widower |
|||
| over | to | ||
| 10.00% | $0.00 | $18,450.00 | 0.00% |
| 15.00% | $18,450.00 | $74,900.00 | 0.00% |
| 25.00% | $74,900.00 | $151,200.00 | 15.00% |
| 28.00% | $151,200.00 | $230,450.00 | 15.00% |
| 33.00% | $230,450.00 | $411,500.00 | 15.00% |
| 35.00% | $411,500.00 | $464,850.00 | 15.00% |
| 39.60% | $464,850.00 | 20.00% | |
I've highlighted the tax bracket of the average American family. If you're doing real work, you pay taxes at 15% rate. If you get your income from tax-free bonds, long-term capital gains and qualified dividends (i.e., you've got a big pile of money) you pay zero federal tax.
The tax cuts passed during the Bush administration were made to benefit the idle rich. The system screws people who do actual work for the benefit of trust fund babies, hedge fund managers, stock market jockeys and layabouts.
These preferential tax rates can have a huge affect on how much people work.
By age 45 or 50, intelligent, married professionals in the medical, legal, engineering and management fields can quit the salary rate race and have sufficient investment income to live comfortably without paying any federal taxes.
These people are usually considered our most productive citizens, and the tax system provides every incentive for them to quit their jobs outright.
Our tax system penalizes labor, giving preferential treatment to capital. If Jeb! wants middle class Americans to work harder, they should get a bigger piece of the pie for their efforts.
As it stands, all the income gains over the last 15 years have gone to the top 1%, and Republicans have cut their taxes in half, by using various scams to convert their salaries to long-term capital gains (e.g., getting paid in stock instead of a salary).
So why should regular Americans knock themselves out to make the rich even richer?
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