More complicated analysis from the right guaranteed to confuse the issue so that no one knows what the truth is. However, the right knows and they want to keep it quiet, don't they Tim?
We Just Don't Have Enough Taxes
I propose a survey. We will ask 500 CEO's of large company's and 500 small business owners just one question
1. Do you agree/disagree with the following statement: In order to make my business more competitive in international markets, the federal government needs to raise taxes and expand its scope
How many out of the 1000 would answer "Agree?" Well, at least the number won't be zero, as long as you ask the NY Times:
…the taxes collected last year by federal, state and local governments in the United States amounted to 28.2 percent of gross domestic product. That rate was one of the lowest among wealthy countries - about five percentage points of GDP lower than Canada’s, and more than eight points lower than New Zealand’s. …the meager tax take leaves the United States ill prepared to compete. From universal health insurance to decent unemployment insurance, other rich nations provide their citizens benefits that the U.S. government simply cannot afford. …revenue will prove too low to face the challenges ahead.
Its true.........US revenues can't keep up with spending. The American deficit has gone from $4.5 trillion to $9.5 trillion in the last 6 years. The US is spending way more than we take in and we don't even have universal health insurance. Meanwhile, the EU limits its member states to a deficit that's 3% of GDP. In 2006, the US's GDP is $13.13 trillion. GDP x 3% is a deficit of $3.9 trillion. We exceed that figure by nearly $6 trillion.
I love the part about unemployment insurance particularly -- other countries are more competitive than we are because they pay their citizens more not to work. Huh? Daniel Mitchel responds:
The editorial conveniently forgets to explain, though, how America is less competitive because of supposedly inadequate taxation. Is it that our per capita GDP is lower than our higher-taxed neighbors in Europe? No, America’s per capita GDP is considerably higher.
That's an average........it doesn't begin to address how the money is distributed per individual nor address the issue that the rich are getting richer in this country.
Is it that our disposable income is lower? It turns out that Americans enjoy a huge advantage in this measure.
On the surface that's true but after you pay for rent, car insurance, health insurance.........the advantage is all gone.
Is our economy not keeping pace? Interesting thought, but America’s been out-performing Europe for a long time.
Not in the last 5 years.
Could higher rates of unemployment be a sign of American weakness? Nice theory, but the data show better job numbers in the United States.
Huh? After six months, people in the US fall off the unemployment rolls. Truth is we don't know how many unemployed we have but I guarantee you its far worse than 4.5%.
I also would point out the general direction of net immigration, which has always been towards the US from nearly every country in the world rather than the other direction.
Other countries limit net inmigration in order to maintain their standard of living. However, we cater to the industry in this country by providing them with cheap labor. Its benefits the industries but I am not sure it benefits the rest of Americans.
The favorite argument du jour for more taxes is that the US has more income inequality than other countries. Well, that is sort of true. Our rich are richer than theirs. But are our poor poorer? In fact, as I posted here, the data (from a liberal think tank) shows that they are not. The poor in European countries have a higher percentage of a lower median wage. When you normalize European income distribution numbers to percentages of the US median wage, you can see our poor do at least as well as those in Europe, while our middle class and rich do better.
The US poor still trail countries like Switzerland, but that is because of very different immigration realities. The US numbers for the bottom quartile are weighed down by tens of millions of recent immigrants (both legal and not) whereas those of Switzerland and Norway are not. If you left out recent immigrants, my guess is that the US poor would be the richest in the world.
The chart is so fukked who can figure out what its saying. However the Swiss would take issue with you that they have far fewer legal and illegal immigrants. In fact, they had a referendum last week to deal with the immigration problem in their country.
Meanwhile your friends say the poor in this country are doing better. How come then the numbers of homeless are greater here? How come our prison population is so much greater? How come crime is so much higher here? How come our life expectancy is lower? How come our slums are so much bigger here?
Per usual, your friends are full of it, Tim! |
