KEVIN O’LEARY: My essential financial advice before you vote – and which candidate will make you richer

Come November 6, I won’t care who won the election. I’ll be too busy getting to work.

As a businessman, I will adapt to the economic policies of our new president, whoever that may be.

It’s certainly no time for getting bothered by questions of personality. What I’m concerned about is policy.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a clear preference when it comes to the economic policies of each candidate — and here’s how I evaluate them.

PICKING ‘WINNERS AND LOSERS’

Vice President Kamala Harris has been somewhat silent when it comes to discussing the detail of her plans.

Though one thing we know for sure is that she thinks federal government is better at making decisions on where money is spent than either local government or individuals.

We also know she wants to allocate more money to support certain industrial sectors. I call this picking winners and losers.

For example, President Biden and VP Harris have directed more than $200 billion in taxpayer money to the CHIPS and Science Act since it was signed in 2022.

This statute is specifically designed to supercharge the high-tech chip-making industry in the US.

We are yet to know whether it’s a good idea or a bad one, but by allocating such a large amount of capital to one area, Harris and Biden have tried to place an enormous bet.

And that, historically, has not worked out too well for governments. It’s more akin to the centrally controlled economies of socialist countries, in fact.

Trump, in contrast, believes it’s better to allow individuals and corporations to keep more of the money they earn and spend it as they see fit — a market-based approach.

Trump’s plan is to keep tax rates around 20 percent and maintain a level playing field for funding across all sectors. He will not be picking winners and losers.

Another important factor to think about is how Trump plans to impose tariffs – against China, in particular.

THE TARIFF TIFF

Trump has proposed a huge 60 percent import tariff on all goods from China and 20 percent on everything else that the US brings in from abroad.

Normally, I would favor for a reciprocal bill of tariffs – in other words, a tit-for-tat deal.

If Germany wants to put a 10 percent tariff on cars, we’ll do the same thing. And so on.

But when it comes to China, it has never been a level playing field because their supreme leader — Xi Jinping — does not play by the rules.

I do business in China and know that their regime-controlled businesses routinely steal the intellectual property of US competitors. And if you want to sue in Chinese court — good luck. You won’t get past the courthouse steps.

If the U.S. imposes high tariffs on China, the Chinese will lose access to the US market and their supreme leader will be forced to show up to the negotiating table and China will be forced to behave in a more reasonable way.

That’s how you should use tariffs – selectively and painfully.

Harris has not outlined her policies on tariffs or much else, frankly. Her proxies are doing the talking for her – and that’s causing chaos.

SAVING THE AMERICAN DREAM

My Shark Tank co-star, Mark Cuban, is one of Harris’s proxies, saying last month that we should ignore claims Harris would tax wealthy people’s ‘unrealized gains’ (that’s any notional growth in their assets – before those assets are actually sold!).

Yet this radical proposal is part of the tax plan that Harris has actually endorsed.

I am, of course, against it.

If she really does want to implement taxes on unrealized capital gains, that is not the America that anyone knows.

It is not the American Dream. It is a socialist and that’s a pretty scary thing.

While both Mark and I support American entrepreneurship, Mark has campaigned for a candidate and made an endorsement – Harris.

I, on the other hand, do not endorse politicians.

In fact, I think it’s a really dumb thing to do. Half of my CEOs are Democrats – and I do business with all of them. Half are Republicans. I do business with them, too.

My own family dinner table is split between Republicans and Democrats.

Instead of getting tied up in endorsements, I encourage everyone to vote. And when you vote, keep America’s most important export in mind: it’s not energy, or technology.

It’s the American Dream. And the most important job for our new President is to protect it.