Anything Goes : Ben Affleck And The Movie Industry Finally Admit That The Laffer Curve Is Very Real by Andrew Heard

Personal Vs. Corporate tax. The actual truth of the matter I personally do not know, however, this argument is comparing apples and oranges so proves nothing. Just more rhetoric, imho. It's a shame both sides use the same tactic of spinning instead of just trying to be truthful and come up with a realistic, viable solution.

Quoting Affleck as if he was the mouthpiece for the business side of Hollywood is like quoting a barista for the business side of Starbucks. He's an employee, if a well paid one, and yeah, Hollywood business is susceptible to tax breaks and incentives. It's business, like anything else, and I'm sure that if they could get away with it, they'd use CG model actors and scab workers and make successful movies on shoestring budgets IF they could succeed at it. But good movies take talent, talent costs money, and unions keep wages up (unless you're writers on strike. Then they just make the worst reality television ever and watch every show on television turn to crap rather than break). It doesn't change that well paid employees of the Hollywood industry think that the rich should be taxed more. Just pro-business propaganda versus a straw man.

Later is right, very real. As a small business owner, producer director for 30 + years, taxes and regulations hurt small business, incentives help. The big unions, big corporations and big government don't like competition. Independents who turn out better stories, box office winners, are competition. Independents are also the breeding ground for up and coming actors (stars & character roles) directors, writers and producers. Competition drive creativity, competition forces smarter production, better product on screen, and bigger audiences in order to succeed. The right balance is essential to success of all.

Laffer is right.. Auto correct spelling drives me crazy sometimes

The headline is in no way supported by the content. The Laffer curve supposedly shows the correlation between taxation level and the total tax revenue. “Incentives” are one off giveaways not lower taxation. Runaway production is not based on Laffer curve tax rates but “producer payola”. Producers, directors, and actors are not fleeing Los Angeles in large numbers, but their productions are being done in whatever place will gratify their greed. Whether the location fits the story or there is a support infrastructure for a production is irrelevant as long as they are being bribed well enough to shoot there that is where the production will be. Quality be damned, we’re talking personal greed first and foremost. I wonder what will happen when these wonderful folks realize that Gordon Gecko was not a hero. It would be so nice to go back to the not so long ago I remember, when the initial meetings about projects were all based on how to make a better picture. Ever wonder why so much producer payola is paid by places that detest “Hollywood”? This sub plot is important. In those places that give transferable tax credits to productions, who ends up actually using the tax credit to lower their taxes? Generally the producers do not live in these places, nor do the actors nor directors so this huge tax credit means nothing if they have no tax liability. The tax credits are sold off to large corporations and wealthy individuals often at a 15% discount of the face value. This means that the people who buy the tax credit immediately have a 15% return, for doing no work and creating nothing. I wonder if there is any overlap between the people and companies getting this instant saving from the coffers of the citizenry and the companies and people who invest heavily in buying politicians? This is politicians paying back their owners with public funds. Those places that suddenly are “industry players" only stay players as long as the payola flows, when it stops there is a stampede out of town to drain the next trough of public funds. The Laffer Curve has nothing to do with this graft, bribery, payola or corporate welfare. His theory became the centre of what was accurately called “voodoo economics” by a rather interesting source. The problem with the Laffer Curve theory is plotting the curve based on actual facts instead of political agenda. The Laffer Curve and its “implementation” has been so completely debunked that it is viewed as the joke it’s name suggests. What actually did Affleck say? This is a link to the LA Times article quoted. Affleck said absolutely nothing about the Laffer Curve, that was fiction from the dutiful Forbes employee. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-hollywood-...