Jackie Boberg: I’m Not a Job Creator

Last year, Republicans unilaterally passed tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthy and corporations. By giving tax cuts to wealthy Americans, particularly investors, Republicans claimed their tax bill would lead to substantial job and wage growth. Unsurprisingly, this has not happened. As an investor myself, I can tell you why: it’s because I’m not a job creator.

For decades, conservatives have credited the investor class with job growth, but the truth is that they’ve done so simply to justify giving the wealthy a tax cut. The truth is that even though I am an investor, I’m no more a job creator than any other consumer. Our economy is 70 percent consumer driven, meaning that the vast majority of American jobs only exist because regular people go out and spend their money on things that they want and need, not because rich investors like me put our money in the stock market. When, as a consumer, I get in line to buy my iPhone I am as much a job creator as the person in front of me, regardless of the many millions I may have invested in Apple stock.