The language of science is math. Math is the immutable language of reality and truth, and therein lies its beauty. Physics, the most basic science, is written in the language of math and the other scientific disciplines are emergent frameworks based on the underlying physics of nature. You can think of math as the binary code in your laptop, physics as the operating system and biology, chemistry, geology as apps. Economics is also written in the language of math, and though more abstract than the hard sciences, it is a higher level emergent science and depends on the frameworks of the other applied sciences and the immutable properties of math.

Biden and most Democrats have redefined science as a popular belief that ignores math. “let’s look at the science” is the common statement from these politicians, many of whom do not understand or know what science is. They believe it is based on public opinion and common sense. The most obvious clue to the fact that few of these leaders understand science, and even fewer the underlying math, is their desire to tax our way out of debt.  This cannot be defended by any known math. To pay off your debt you have to have some money left from your income after you pay off all your bills. In an economy income is created by capital investment. If you want to generate income selling pizzas you have to invest in a store. The investment if successful will begin to generate wealth. If you can generate wealth faster than you spend it on costs and taxes you can invest in another pizza shop, and the cycle repeats. Capital creates wealth. If costs or taxes are too high you will never be able to generate enough capital to open another store. You will stagnate of decline. If you borrowed money to open your first store you will not be able to pay if off.

Small businesses are now being hit with a double whammy from Biden. Higher minimum wages and higher taxes. This means less available capital and less investment in any math new or old that you use. The rate of growth in the economy is opposite to that of the rate of taxation. Of course some tax is necessary, but at a low enough level new capital will be generated at a rate such that the tax base actually increases. The Democrats are missing one critical point. Investment is from free cash available after expenses and taxes, and this lies mostly in high income sectors – the sectors they wish to tax the most. A tax on capital gains is no different than fining people for making successful investments.  This discourages new investments and job growth and eventually results in a lower tax base overall. The math is immutable. Opinions about fairness and wealth distribution are not science and not based in any math that shows it can lead to the desired outcome. Examples abound, just look a Russia with an economy smaller than that of Texas and the failure of Venezuaela with some of the greatest natural wealth in the world lying under their feet.

Taxing businesses cannot be explained by any math or science. Any extra cost or tax will be passed down to the final end user, the consumer. Raising taxes on oil will mean higher prices for gas and hurt minimum wage workers the most. Claiming that you are “only raising taxes on the wealthy” as Biden claims is disingenuous. He knows that the cost will be passed down to those earning the least. Worse still, the percent of their income spent on these hidden taxes is much higher for average workers than the percent spent by higher income individuals, for example the executive who lives in a desirable neighborhood close by the office and uses less gas to get to work, or can afford an electric vehicle. The lower income worker who can only afford a house in a neighborhood with an hour commute actually pays the most towards this tax and suffers the most.

As with most of the decisions the Democrats create new science and ignore math unless it agrees with their opinions. They are right on global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels, however, without understanding the economic science and ignoring the math they are making harmful decisions. Like raising taxes on business, some of these decisions will have the opposite outcome and act to worsen the problem.  Ending fracking makes oil more expensive, this allows capped wells to reopen and dirty fuel more desirable. Changing the supply, or the supplier, does nothing to mitigate the situation without changing the demand.