Many people ask me about ways to use information about the economy to inspire prospects and clients to take action.
As you know from reading these columns, I do not tell my clients anything. After all, I do not really know anything. If the people creating fiscal and monetary policy, printing money and writing tax law are not sure what is going to happen, then it would be somewhat arrogant for me to pretend that I do.
Furthermore, if I have an opinion about the economy and my client has a different opinion, my client's opinion is the only one that matters!
So instead of telling them things, I try to show them. In an organized way, I ask them their opinions about the economy. This helps them to develop a clear understanding of what issues they are worried about, what steps they should take to prevent being hurt by whatever happens, and how they can actually take advantage of negative events.
In this first installment of a two part column, I would like to share how you can make a presentation that will motivate your prospects and clients.
First, I ask my prospects and clients whether they think taxes will be higher in the future. Most of the time, they say yes.
But what if they say no? Using multiple sources, including www.usdebtclock.org, I show them that our country has a GDP of $17 trillion.
I show them we collect $3.2 trillion of taxes at the federal level, including income tax, Social Security, Medicare, corporate and estate taxes. I show them we collect $2.8 trillion of taxes at the state and local level, including income, property, and sales taxes. I then divide the combined $6 trillion in tax revenue by the $17 trillion of GDP and you arrive at 35 percent.
From that, it becomes obvious that taxes cannot be raised much further without destroying our economy. Therefore, we will not increase tax rates. Instead, we will come up with ways to TRANSFER wealth. Americans with money will face the greatest transfer of wealth in history.
