There are at least two nice things we can have that indeed we don't have to pay for. First is health care. In your chart, Costa Rica has a smaller percentage tax take than the US, with a much smaller GDP/capita. Yet, it has a better health-care system, measured by both life expectancy and availability. Why? American health care is a sick institution that wastes resources.
Second is finance. Finance???? Yes, finance! Finance, like health care, is necessary. There is much to be said for channelling resources to their most productive uses, running a payment system, and shifting and pooling risk. But! There really is nothing new in finance, except automation, which should push costs down. But the price of finance is getting higher and higher. It's a bit like health care--a necessary function but a sick institution that wastes resources and skews the Gini coefficient the wrong way.
However, I agree with your basic political economy: spend more now and pay the tax bill later. The public sector is actually better at cost control than the financial or health care sectors. (The military's share of GDP is not spiralling out of control, for example.)
There are at least two nice things we can have that indeed we don't have to pay for. First is health care. In your chart, Costa Rica has a smaller percentage tax take than the US, with a much smaller GDP/capita. Yet, it has a better health-care system, measured by both life expectancy and availability. Why? American health care is a sick institution that wastes resources.
Second is finance. Finance???? Yes, finance! Finance, like health care, is necessary. There is much to be said for channelling resources to their most productive uses, running a payment system, and shifting and pooling risk. But! There really is nothing new in finance, except automation, which should push costs down. But the price of finance is getting higher and higher. It's a bit like health care--a necessary function but a sick institution that wastes resources and skews the Gini coefficient the wrong way.
However, I agree with your basic political economy: spend more now and pay the tax bill later. The public sector is actually better at cost control than the financial or health care sectors. (The military's share of GDP is not spiralling out of control, for example.)
Go VAT away
Get rid of payroll taxes
Wealth tax
Yes
Groudling entertainment once
In place
Always the midnight pkutonian fear
It just might steamroll up into a threat
Deficit size ?
Irrelevent
if we reg
the interest rate
to sub zero real.
And get to l9ve em
like the trade gap
Deficits are built into
Corporate amerika