Tax Breaks and Job Creation: Helping Businesses Be More Successful...or Just Making it Look Like They're More Successful?

Some people believe the way to create more jobs is by giving tax breaks to businesses. But is that really the best option? Does it really lead to a more successful business that will hire more employees? Let's think about it for a sec...

I believe the general thought process is:

1) Tax breaks = more capital for businesses
2) More capital = money to hire new employees, innovate, be more successful, etc.

Does that make sense to you? It kind of does for me, at least in certain situations- but I have some questions first before I can say for sure. Like...

What if a business is unsuccessful, and no one wants their product or service? 

For example: If tax breaks are given to a company that is losing money on a consistent basis, what is that extra money going to be used for? If no one's buying their goods, why would they hire more employees? What they NEED TO DO is fix the problems they currently have that are preventing them from making profits. If they don't, they will just continue to bleed off money, and the tax breaks would've just kept them alive a little longer, but not save their ship from sinking.

What if the business is already successful, but was just hit with a cashflow problem?

This seems like the ideal situation where tax breaks would help. If a company has quality products, but sales have been down due to economic conditions, this little break could be a lifesaver. I would support tax breaks in this situation, it would definitely keep the company alive...but would they hire more employees? Probably not, at least not until their sales picked up...and even then, there's no guarantee that they would. 

What if a business is already successful, and doesn't have a cashflow problem?

So this is for all of those big businesses, and some small businesses as well, that are doing just fine and don't need any tax breaks to survive. Sales are good, profits are high, everything's fine and dandy. So what would they do with the extra money from tax breaks? They might hire new employees, but can anyone say Bonus $$$? 

" Tax-Break Bonuses Baby! Free money for doing the same exact job"

So let's recap: 

In every one of theses cases, tax breaks are just making their bottom line better:

-If the company sucks, they just don't suck as hard- but no jobs will be created.
-If the company is good but in need of cash, it may actually help- but most likely, no jobs will be created.
-If the company is good and nothings wrong, they don't even need the tax breaks- jobs may be created...or they could just line their pockets with some bonus money.

After getting bailed out with more than $170 BILLION taxpayer dollars, they planned to payout ~$165 MILLION in bonuses. When there was a public outcry, they returned only about $50 million...but still paid out over $100 MILLION.

If the idea is to make these businesses more successful, I don't believe blindly throwing more money in the form of tax breaks will get the job done. That doesn't make them do better jobs, that just makes their bottom line look better with the flip of a switch. It also doesn't lead to the job growth that Republicans believe in. I am all for tax breaks for companies that need it, not because I believe it will create new jobs, but because it will help successful companies survive.

Now if you really wanted to create new jobs, why not offer tax breaks to companies that actually hire new employees? Make it a requirement that companies must hire new employees BEFORE receiving tax breaks...I would support that, who wouldn't?

So do tax breaks actually make businesses better and create more jobs, or just make it look like they're doing better?

Anyone got a clue?