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In 100 years America has gone from a land with no income tax to one where taxes are where more of our income goes than goes for life's necessities. Our forefathers had (good enough roads), schools, hospitals, sewers, indoor plumbing. Most of them anyway. Or their equivalents at least. What do all these taxes buy that we didn't have before? 2 gallon toilets, chlorinated water?
We have a fabulous interstate highway system and military establishment to beat the band. Anything else? Average schools and hospitals I guess.
Washington D.C. has become the richest town in the country while before it was mostly pasture, so they made out. Plus we have all this debt, 99.9% of which we didn't have before we had taxes.
Social Security, Health Care (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP kid Medicaid), and the other safety net programs are more than 50% of all spending. We could spend zero on defense and we still have a budget deficit problem.
Social Security, Health Care (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP kid Medicaid), and the other safety net programs are more than 50% of all spending. We could spend zero on defense and we still have a budget deficit problem.
Wherein lies the rub.
Liberals/democrats love to point out military spending but when you mention the entitlement programs things go quiet.
Fact of the matter is both military and the entitlement spending must be reined in, period. You could cut every single other part of federal spending to the bone and still not make any serious dent unless those two are on the table as well.
Whenever I see articles like that I wonder...if we pay so much in taxes, why don't we have cool stuff like universal health care or tuition-free college? ....
We already have subsidized college tuition for in-state public schools. Often the discount/subsidized tuition is 1/3 the full cost tuition(that's 66% off for students if they attend a public college in their state). So at least we have this big discount for public college tuition. It's not free, but 66% discount is pretty reasonable.
medicare is universal healthcare but you have to be 65 or older or disabled to qualify. Would be nice if it was available for lower ages for a fee.
Social Security, Health Care (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP kid Medicaid), and the other safety net programs are more than 50% of all spending. We could spend zero on defense and we still have a budget deficit problem.
Those are mostly healthcare programs, which the US indeed spends more on than any 'liberal' country offering universal healthcare. That's because the healthcare industry here in general is a mess.
A pair of disposable gloves that costs a few cents normally is billed for $50 in hospitals.
Unfortunately this is not an exaggeration. Here are but a few examples:
And that's just supplies! What about medications? Why do Americans pay so much more for the same drugs than anyone else in the world? Many reasons, most of them unnecessary, especially that Medicare has given away its right to negotiate drug prices.
Allopathic doctors and hospitals in the US are also notorious for very aggressive screening and testing practices. It's good to have diagnostic screening tests, but the tests are ordered excessively at a much higher rate than anywhere else.
Increasing taxes to fund this is like trying to use buckets to scoop out water from a boat that has a hole at the bottom. If there was a laser-like focus on getting rid of all of this inefficiency, waste, and masochistically overinflated prices, we could still have the same (or better) social programs.
Whenever I see articles like that I wonder...if we pay so much in taxes, why don't we have cool stuff like universal health care or tuition-free college? Other countries have that stuff & pay high taxes as a result, but the article says we pay high taxes?
Either we're not paying that much tax or the U.S. government is much more inept & inefficient than those of the rest of the developed world.
Well when we spend 10 times the amount on our Defense budget than the next 10 nations in the world combined on a yearly basis so this is why we can't have Universal Health care or College free tuition.
Ever wonder why we still have thousands of troops in South Korea or Germany and bases all around the world still?
Also the Wars in IRAQ & Afghanistan cost us about $4-5 Trillion dollars that were not put on the yearly budget.
As for taxes we aren't taxed for food here in Florida along with no state Income tax. Perhaps that is why we are the 3rd. largest state now.
But it also generates jobs – good, white-collar secure jobs, which can't be done by foreign nationals and which can't be off-shored. Note that most of those jobs are actually in the private sector.
On the one hand, it does generate jobs, but on the other hand it doesn't really add value to society. Every person who takes one of those silly jobs is someone who could be employed actually doing something useful -- you know, contributing to GDP.
I think the value-add to society of those jobs is akin to the government hiring someone to dig a hole, then fill it back up, then dig it out again, the fill it back up, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Yes, it is a job, but nothing of consequence is generated for the economy at large.
We already have subsidized college tuition for in-state public schools. Often the discount/subsidized tuition is 1/3 the full cost tuition(that's 66% off for students if they attend a public college in their state). So at least we have this big discount for public college tuition. It's not free, but 66% discount is pretty reasonable.
medicare is universal healthcare but you have to be 65 or older or disabled to qualify. Would be nice if it was available for lower ages for a fee.
*Medicaid* is sort of "universal healthcare" if you are indigent, disabled or a few other qualifying factors. Medicare is only open to seniors (and perhaps their spouses) who have paid into the system.
If you've never paid into or earned enough quarters to qualify for Medicare even if you are a senior you won't get it; Medicaid OTOH you may be eligible for depending upon your state and particular circumstances.
Biggest difference is Medicare comes out of payroll taxes and along with SS is supposed to be self funded. Medicaid OTOH comes out of general federal tax revenue plus is fifty/fifty shared with states.
On the one hand, it does generate jobs, but on the other hand it doesn't really add value to society. Every person who takes one of those silly jobs is someone who could be employed actually doing something useful -- you know, contributing to GDP.
I think the value-add to society of those jobs is akin to the government hiring someone to dig a hole, then fill it back up, then dig it out again, the fill it back up, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Yes, it is a job, but nothing of consequence is generated for the economy at large.
I don't dispute the fact that this is an inefficient use of resources, and that there's something revolting and perverse about "self licking ice-cream cone" employment for the sake of employment. However, are the persons employed in these ventures foregoing potential alternative employment with more value to society? Are we saddling intelligent and well-educated people with nugatory and oppressive responsibilities? Or are we giving professional employment to people who otherwise would have been underemployed, or unemployed? Are we keeping sharp (more or less) the technical skills of persons who otherwise would have seen those skills atrophy?
Digging/refilling holes only employs ditch-diggers. What about R&D, design, construction, testing, deployment and ultimately decommissioning and dismantling of aircraft carriers or nuclear warheads? This employs PhD electrical engineers, naval architects, mathematicians and so forth. What would we have them do? Have them do management consulting for McKinsey or Bain? Design new quantitative trading algorithms for Goldman-Sachs? When I was a graduate student in the 1990s, droves of my engineering-colleagues were getting Wall Street offers. Instead of solving the Navier-Stokes equations, they went to work on Black-Scholes or whatever. Remember Long Term Capital Management? How did that work out? Or we could follow the model of the collapse of the USSR… disband the defense industry, and have the brightest scientific talent join computer hacking rings or hire themselves out to design weapons for the world's least savory regimes?
Revolting and perverse misallocations and dislocations are the price for having an advanced modern society. Welfare isn't merely for the indigent and the ignorant. How many of us genuinely add value, as opposed to moving money around, hawking something, hustling something, insinuating ourselves into the transaction, digging/refilling ditches, writing code whose job is to cancel somebody else's code, creating art that nobody wants to buy, mowing lawns that nobody will ever see, and otherwise in myriad ways partaking of high-class welfare?
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