This headline explains a lot.

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to Acquire Scholastic Ed-Tech Businesses for $575M
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So what does that mean.

  • It means with consolidation that many (almost half) high paying jobs will be lost.
  • It means that whereas two independent entities were previously competing on innovative educational techniques, now there will be only one, meaning less innovation.
  • It means that $545 million  (5 Delaware Race To The Top Grants) will not now be spent on education because it was just spent on this.
  • And it means that from society’s overall point of view, that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was overpaid $575 million. We could have gotten our goods cheaper….

But whenever a larger company buys up a smaller company, all of society loses.  Any efficiency you gain, is sucked up right out of daily economic activity.  it goes straight into a vault of the profiteers, never to be used in active economic activity again. And educational companies like everything else have simply gotten too big….

You can regulate companies, but that is a nightmare of arguing and documentation…  There is an easier way… Tax them Tax away the money they are wasting on petty purchases… Tax them fairly, and thoroughly. IF HMH’s money had been taxed fairly and thoroughly prior to this company’s purchase, or if much of that had been put toward research, capital investment, or raising employees salaries just to avoid taxes, all would be better off…

As it is now, there was no benefit to anyone other then those purchasing.  If we were talking about quarters for gumball gum, we could probably live with it… But we are not… We are talking about 5 Delaware Race To The Top Grants, now completely wasted for 99.999999999% of the population…..

This big money is why you are never heard…  If you want your country back, you have better vote on those who promise to raise tax rates on the top 1%….   In truth, we really don’t need more taxes. We need more real investment and every chart the US Treasury and Federal Reserve can procure, show that real investment was a lot higher when any money leftover was taxed before going to the shareholders. I hope you too can through this one example exactly how the Bush Tax Cuts have changed our country from the land of bustling opportunity we had up to 2000…. to today….

The object lesson is that we should have no deficit by always paying our bills and those with most of the money, should be the ones paying them….