Commentary: Common sense ways to create jobs

As a serial entrepreneur who has created hundreds and hundreds of jobs over my career, I’m going to share with you a fact that might prove a bit shocking to some.

Entrepreneurs don’t start companies to create jobs. Rather, they start companies to make money. And gain a measure of freedom. And have some fun not usually afforded those who toil endlessly for “the man.” And if they are successful, job creation results. It is nothing but a byproduct. And the greater an entrepreneur’s success, the more jobs are created.

That’s why it’s so amusing to watch the back-and-forth between President Obama, a man who has never so much as operated a lemonade stand, and candidate Mitt Romney, whose business successes have fostered the creation of literally tens of thousands of jobs.

One of these days those we put in charge of things in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, for that matter, will come to realize that the only jobs government creates are government jobs. Unless you want to count Solyndra, Bright Source, Evergreen Solar, Ener 1, Beacon Power, Sun Power, Fisker, etc. Or then again, maybe you don’t.

So, what’s the right way to go about this job creation thing? Simple.

1.) America has the highest corporate income taxes in the world. Lower and simplify the tax rates and watch the climate for new business formation and job creation improve dramatically. It would also result in the almost immediate repatriation of about $2 trillion of corporate profits tucked away overseas, where it was earned. Just imagine how many jobs would result from that much new money being sprinkled around the private sector.

2.) Minimize or eliminate altogether the unnecessary and stifling, politically motivated rules and regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy. They create uncertainty, and uncertainty is the bane of the entrepreneur.

3.) Sign the Keystone XL Pipeline into effect (20,000 new union jobs). Authorize environmentally responsible oil drilling in ANWAR, the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico, and selectively off both coasts. Also allow oil shale and oil sands “fracking” on the 97% of public lands where it is not currently permitted. This new and environmentally safe form of exploration and recovery has resulted in a real boom in North Dakota (less than 2% unemployment).

Supply-and-demand economics works everywhere, it seems, except inside D.C.’s Beltway. Increased energy supply means decreased prices, fueling massive savings for the American people and starving billions of dollars from those in the Middle East who want to kill us. What’s not to like?

And 4.) Freeze the current income, capital gains and death tax rates to provide all-important predictability for the economy and the entrepreneurs who drive it.

And stop the class warfare. Demonizing the “makers” to win votes from the “takers” is fear-mongering, classless, counterproductive and just plain dumb. Will these common sense things happen? I’ll let you know Nov. 8.

CHUCK CASSITY is a Costa Mesa resident.