End the tax on employers for hiring people

The federal government claims to be concerned about job creation, and yet, they tax employers for hiring people.  This seems to be a little counterproductive to me.  If the government wants someone to do something, that last thing the government wants to do, at least in my opinion, is to tax it.

Of course, this means the government would need to take the politically unpopular action of eliminating Social Security and Medicare.  But, really, that system is already broken, and should be eliminated.  Perhaps if we just started to phase Social Security out, we might find that there are better alternatives than depending on our government to actually keep our money to fund our retirements (which isn’t really happening anyway).  At the very least, we should make Social Security and Medicare benefits “needs based,” whereas now, the benefits are received whether they are needed or not.  I doubt there are many millionaires that legitimately need an extra $2,500 or so every month.

In short, I don’t want the government to continue pretending to be looking out for my future, when in fact they are just making my life harder now.  If the government really wants to help us, they should be giving tax credits for job creation rather than taxing employers for creating jobs.

Eliminate the federal minimum wage

Minimum wage laws do not guarantee that anyone will make any certain, minimal amount.  Instead, those laws reduce jobs by making jobs that would ordinarily pay less than minimum wage illegal.  This also reduces any incentive for employers to offer on-the-job training, since the employer may not be able to afford to pay an employee the minimum wage while paying someone else to train that employee.  So, the employer looks for someone with experience, while inexperienced people are not considered.  And the result for the employer may be that they didn't hire the best person for the job, simply because the best person didn't have any experience.

I, for one, recognize the value of the experience I might get from working at an apprenticeship type job, and might be willing to accept a smaller paycheck, or in some cases none, in exchange for that experience.  The federal government, though, wants to “protect” me from those predatory employers that might offer those opportunities by making them illegal.  Do us all a favor, Uncle Sam, and stop protecting the citizens of this country right into long-term unemployment.