[bb88]

> I wish every small business could be paid to create jobs.

I always thought tax credits for businesses were more related to numbers rackets than to actual economic gain.

Here's a thought experiment:

I take one person from my company, fire him, and split the job into two people. Both get paid less than half of the original guy I fired. Yet one of the keeps the old title. Did I create a job? Yes. Did I grow the economy? Doubtful.

While splitting one job into two seems far fetched, it's not that far fetched to split 8 jobs into 10, say.

[lr4444lr]

Actually, you arguably shrank it if the new lower salaries both render the receivers eligible for a greater share of public benefits while subjecting them to lower marginal tax rates.

[bb88]

Yeah that's a good point, but that also means there's more rent being paid, more food being bought. So it's probably at best a wash.

[coolaliasbro]

> I always thought tax credits for businesses were more related to numbers rackets than to actual economic gain.

Agreed. And when the businesses receiving these credits are primarily "creating" low-paying service sector positions, the picture is even more bleak.

[masklinn]

> Did I create a job? Yes. Did I grow the economy? Doubtful.

Probably depends on the salary range(s) involved and how deep into "mostly discretionary income" the original employee was (and, I guess, how much they spent v stashed that discretionary income).