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| Economy | |
| Tax and Spend, or Face The Consequences | |
| 2009-08-10 | |
| The economic problems of the future will not be about growth but about something more nettlesome: the ineluctable increase in the number of people with no marketable skills, and technology's role not as the antidote to social conflict, but as its instigator. The battle will be over how to get the economy's winners to pay for an increasingly costly poor. In a future with higher taxes, the divide between rich and poor would be the central economic challenge. The last great hope may be to design a more efficient tax system. Much of the present system takes from people with one hand then gives back with the other, after bureaucracy eats its share. Taxes for Social Security, Medicare and roads all show elements of such recycling. A more efficient system would tax only where there is a need for some specific public good or a transfer to the poor. Unfortunately, such measures are only stopgaps. In the end, we may be forced to learn to live in a United States where, by stealth, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" becomes the guiding principle of government -- or else confront growing, unattended poverty. And the Big Zero is just the one to lead us there.
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| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #9 We in the United States are beginning to reap the "rewards" of our union-run, dumbed-down education system. My youngest daughter is dyslexic, and had a miserable time in school. She graduated with a low "C" average. She went back to school, and completed all her degree requirements last month, and will graduate in January. She learned quickly that her high school "education" didn't prepare her for anything but a minimum-wage job. A HUGE problem for this nation is the number of high-school drop-outs. Most are black or Hispanic, most from low-income households, and most end up on the streets sooner or later. They are the most likely to end up in jail for criminal behavior or drug addiction. This moron wants to treat the symptoms of a failed education system without ever trying to change the "root causes". That's a loser's game, and the sooner everyone realizes it, the better off we all will be. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-08-10 16:20 |
| #8 "Tax and Spend, There - fixed. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-08-10 13:59 |
| #7 I hate to sound callous but in my observations poor people are poor because they are too lazy and/or stupid to get up off their butts. Since I stopped working for others and began working for myself I've told an awful lot of people that if they really want to help the less fortunate they should start a business and hire a few of them. It doesn't take long to learn that "less fortunate" is usually a self-imposed state of existence. Nothing like trying to get a few of those folks to help themselves to drain one's remaining sympathy. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2009-08-10 13:21 |
| #6 Basically, the writer is saying can either accept communism or "or else confront growing, unattended poverty". He uses this argument to justify ObamaCare. But then everybody will be poor. I hate to sound callous but in my observations poor people are poor because they are too lazy and/or stupid to get up off their butts. I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-08-10 12:58 |
| #5 Procopius2k nails it perfectly. Our Founders, namely Ben Franklin who was quite industrious preached about handicapping the poor by giving them handouts. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2009-08-10 10:55 |
| #4 ..else confront growing, unattended poverty Five trillion dollars (+) after the War on Poverty was declared by President Johnson. You've lost. You lost because you failed to grasp a basic understanding of human free will. You fail to grasp the proverb 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'. The poor who choose behaviors that keep them poor can not be a justification to covet and steal from others. There are consequence for one's actions or non-actions. Punishing the successful and continually rewarding bad choices is not the basis of any successful civilization. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-08-10 10:19 |
| #3 the ineluctable increase in the number of people with no marketable skills Most of whom are immigrants or their descendants. Note how during times of high employment the mantra was immigrants are needed to do the unskilled jobs the native population won't do. BTW most of Europe is already at the point where higher taxes reduce revenue because high skilled people simply work less or stop working altogether. Significantly higher taxes is economic fantasy. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2009-08-10 10:16 |
| #2 I consider it every time he opens his ass and speaks about more government anything. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-08-10 04:43 |
| #1 It's a cost of government issue, the problems Clark sees are due to the massive size, scope & cost of our many layers of government. Consider a post-tax dollar spent on goods or services: on average 20-30% of the dollar is consumed by embedded tax & tax compliance costs, another 15-30% is consumed by embedded regulatory compliance costs & litigation (another government-imposed cost of doing business), if you live in an area with a sales tax another 5-10% is lost there, every wage earner pays at least half of their FICA taxes which consume another 7.65%. Consider that this breakdown neglects property taxes, vehicle registration, excise taxes, income taxes, capital gains taxes and all other sorts of levies, fees & taxes imposed prior to our hypothetical American having a single post-tax dollar in hand and that in this best of all possible cases our average American loses something on the order of 48-78% of the purchasing power of her post-tax dollar to the cost of government. Consider that in the context of a young family earning & spending $40,000/year and paying no (or minimal) income taxes. These folks would lose $20,000 - 30,000 of that total to the cost of government even though they pay $0 in income taxes. Want to give 'em a dramatic raise? Slash the tax & regulatory burden on businesses. Then we can stop fretting so much about wage stagnation. The employment picture is similar: our net tax & regulatory burden is an enormous anchor dragging down the dynamism of the American economy. Cast that anchor off (or at least off small business) and there'll be so much growth and so massive a demand for employees that the only ones not working will do so purely by choice. Drives me a bit bananas that no one ever stops to consider the real economics of massive government imposed on the middle & lower middle class of America. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2009-08-10 03:34 |