I have this odd belief that taxes (raised or lowered) has very little to do with job creation.
People create buisnesses becasue they want to. It takes a certain type of person to one day decide they are going to take the risk to start a buisiness or take the risk to expand the business that they have. They do so for money, yes, but they also do so because they are driven to succeed.
Why does a guy like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett still work? They clearly don't need any more money. Making another 10 million dollars is not going to change their lives.
Why does Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg still make movies? They are worth hundreds of millions and making a movie, especially for a director, is hard work with long hours.
They do it because they are driven to do it. For them the success and the work is the reward. The money is somewhat secondary. Now sure, it is easy to say that about those guys and not some guy who is struggling to keep his small store or restaurant open and while they ultimately might have gotten into owning their own store or restaurant so that they could make some money they also did it because they wanted to be their own boss and do things their way. The Squealer said it best above
" I did that all on my own, at my expense because I wanted to create something I believed in and that I enjoyed doing."
From 1918 until around 1980 with the exception of a few years in and around the depression the marginal tax rate on the wealthy was above 70%. For 11 of those years it was 85% or higher (even reaching 94% for one year). Yet job growth and the growth of this country continued to rise and chugged right along.
I am sure there are some small businesses who might hold off on hiring someone new because of higher taxes, but for every one of those people there are clearly people who will continue to hire and continue to grow.
Raise taxes or lower taxes those who are going strike out on their own are going to do so anyway and marginal tax rate likely is not a big factor.