Ballmer : Government Needs to Invest, But No New Taxes (On My Company)

The perspective of Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, best sums up the disorganized state of the U.S. ruling class today.

From his remarks before Congress on February 7th:

We need to pursue breakthroughs over the coming years in green technology, alternative energy, bioengineering, parallel computing, quantum computing. Without greater government investment in the basic research, there is a danger that important advances will happen in other countries. This is truly I think not only an issue of competitiveness, but also in a sense of national security. Companies like ours and others can do our fair share in terms of funding of basic research, but government needs to take the lead.

For the government to take the lead, it needs money, which takes revenue. Taxes.

But when there is an actual proposal to raise revenue, through taxes, Ballmer leads the protest:

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

This type of greed, and dichotomy of thought in the sphere of private wealth, has led to a vast expansion in public sector borrowing over the last generation. Without the ability to necessarily tax wealth, the government must borrow.