Here’s a message we can use to discourage rich and super-rich Americans from supporting Republican candidates this fall. The message is inspired by a Fram oil filter television commercial some years ago where an auto mechanic nonchalantly advises the viewer - "You can pay me now, or pay me later." The message in that TV ad is that car owners can either pay a trivial amount now for a new oil filter, or pay later for the cost of a new engine that has seized due to the abrasive effects of poorly filtered oil.
Our message to rich and super-rich funders is that they can either support Democratic efforts to create jobs, address climate change, reform immigration, etc., now, or they can support Republican candidates who will obstruct this legislation, and a few years down the line they will end up paying MUCH MORE through higher taxes and a weaker economy because these problems will become more destructive and more expensive each year that passes.
There are many specific ways this case can be made. For example, economists estimate that every year we delay addressing climate change adds another $500 billion to the price of the required remedies -
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/...
The world is facing a bill of $500 billion (£300 billion) for every year that it delays in reaching a global deal on climate change, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.
Fatih Birol, chief economist with the IEA, told The Times that the annual cost of inaction — roughly equivalent to the annual GDP of Switzerland — would result from a steady build-up of additional concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as the burning of fossil fuels accelerates.
"We need to make a major transition," he said, speaking at the launch of the IEA’s 2009 World Energy Outlook in London. "But this will only happen if we get a global agreement as soon as possible."
(Note: if the link doesn't work, just copy and paste some of the text into the Google search box, and it should take you to the article by the Sunday Times)
An equally compelling case can be made for the additional cost of not creating jobs and addressing other economic challenges quickly enough.
The first part of this message to the rich and the super-rich is that the proposed Democratic reforms and other actions WILL happen because they MUST in order to avoid much greater pain and costs in the future. The second part of this message is that because the middle-class and the poor simply do not have the money to pay for these actions, and because our youth are already saddled with mountainous debt, THERE IS NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVE to the rich paying for these actions, either now or at much higher cost in the future.
If you think this message will prevent many donors from supporting Republican candidates this fall, please refer the idea to our Democratic candidates so they can put it into action.