Another lucid presentation from Jeff Miron, this time on the inevitable insolvency that will result from current levels of entitlement spending:
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Most Americans support social safety nets and want to see them strengthened, not cut just so rich people and corporations can continue to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
Most (informed) Americans think it’s appalling that so many of our largest corporations, such as GE, earn billions in profit, yet pay zero in taxes, and it is especially galling that a huge amount of their earnings are the direct result of Federal spending for wasteful wars of aggression.
I’ll take the views of former Reagan administration official, Paul Craig Roberts, any day, over the propaganda from the likes of Mr. Miron.
most americans support social safety nets they either do not pay for at all or pay only a fraction of their fair share of, so, understandably, they want to see them strengthened, not cut. along the way, they enjoy maligning the rich and the corporations who DO pay for this CHARITY, a word most “non-paying” americans do not like to take responsibility for, substituting “safety nets” instead.
most (informed) americans appreciate the role capitalism has played in our national defense through many threats in the last century though this american agrees much has been wasteful and needlessly aggressive—the fault 100% being of government and zero % being the fault of corporations who correctly fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.
i would observe that, not uncommonly, folks who use the “safety net” euphemism sometimes seem slow to articulate that their war complaints should be directed to our government = us.
Such a caring soul. You should run for public office. Or do you already know how foreign your views are compared to the concerns of most Americans?
I would observe that people who hold those views are also likely to sincerely believe they are virtuous christians, trying to do the Lord’s work. Not.
More to the issue that Dr. Tom points out, this article notes the key financial problem with the current entitlement scheme. An average couple retiring today has paid just a little over $100,000 in Medicare taxes over the course of their working lives The average retired couple currently receives about $300,000 in benefits even after adjusting for inflation..
TomK:
I hear you.
In my view, if it’s okay for GE to
earn 14 billion in profits and not only not pay a dime in corp. income taxes, but to actually get a multi-million dollar tax rebate, then it’s okay for people to receive more in benefits than they may have paid in.
GE will do fine, as long as we have a war economy, but Mr. and Mrs. Sixpack are more important, imo,
than GE.
I think it’s atrocious that we have people in this country who seem bereft of empathy for those traveling the dark journey with us who might need some help.
bill,
a little background: i was raised by joe six pack who could not pay for my college or grad school so i worked my way through and paid.
i do not believe i am a virtuous christian but i have been fortunate to found three, 501c3 organizations and served, unpaid, as officer and or/board member. one sheltered abused women and children, a second 3rd world health and the 3rd, handicapped kids.
i give generously to charity and served 2 years, at my own expense, doing volunteer work in china, where i learned, firsthand, the shortcomings of a system in which folks might read tom k. comment about “pay 100/ receive 300” and continue to talk about expanding some pie in the sky, unsustainable, “net”.
having worked extensively to help impoverished people, i do not hold the viewpoint that the american government needs to take that which is not theirs and give to those who have not earned it—that is charity, something i firmly believe in but something that should be handed out ONLY in the context of local community oversight that CARES enough to be attending to accountability, safeguarding against enabling irresponsibility and, importantly, given with a cheerful heart, not extracted from a working stiff and given, truly, indiscriminately to others.
i am aware i have been fortunate in many ways but that makes me guilty of nothing and i have found most of my fellow man to be similar to myself: happy to help those in need but ACTIVELY dis-interested in having hard earned money taken away, given to the often undeserving, especially without helping said folks to improve when possible.
you allude to the possibility you might need some help? if so, i assume it is for true necessity, not just accustomed comfort, that it is truly due to circumstance beyond your control and, if so, i would want to help you—if not? gosh you cant imagine just how misguided i and many others think it WOULD be to help you and we have every right to this viewpoint.
i hope this clarifies something and am glad you did not suggest i am uncaring.
Fortunately, your views are not held by most people.
I applaud you for the good things you’ve done, but we both know that most people use charity because of the tax deductions that reduce their tax bill.
GE execs and shsreholders no doubt use the same rationale as you use – i.e., they earned that 14
billion profit, and the government shouldn’t have the right to “take” any of it via taxes.
Years ago, the late H.L. Hunt promoted the idea that people should have one vote for every dollar they have, but if that notion had become law, then maybe the GEs of this world would be supported by
rich people voting for wars, and the rest of us would have more money to spend for necessities.
Agree? Or do you think they’d just vote to transfer the largest part of defense budgets onto the shoulders of middle and lower income Americans?
bill,
you seem like an ok guy but your posts seem filled with name calling, characterizations and straw men that make substantive conversation rare.
let me try to make a substantive point in response to your assertion that “people use charity because of the tax deductions”: you please send me $1000 and in return, i will send you the $390 one of those fat cats gets to reduce his tax bill by—-do so and you will quickly understand that when people give to charity, they are GIVING and in NO WAY gain monetarily in return–the fact is, you just gave up $610 dollars and i thank you.