Bosco,
well Your reasoning is something I really can back up. The way those programs will be adjusted will be determined in the not so distant future. Many have a stake here and many a vested interest is at work here.
Unlike You I do not like social pgms, but a safety net in the form of (albeit low) negative income tax (an idea by Milton Friedman) coupled with total flat rate taxation is something I would love to see implemented. My major concern with regard to government spending is : control & crowding out.
Control, because it shifts power (not only spending power but also career allocation power and many other aspects of it) to the central government instead of leaving it where it is.
Crowding out because government "job creation" usually has to be taxed away from biznesses and individuals who would have spent a good deal of it for saving & investment, so just discouraging private investments.
So, if there is any way of a safety net scheme that is not detrimental to individual (people's control) and crowding out of the private sector, I would like to see it implemented. The negative income tax is such a scheme, albeit it's not a perfect one. Private welfare is another.
Anyway, just my 2cents. I'm not a politician but I am very taken up with economic policy & individual liberty. As such, I may be blind to many other views that hold their followers. Of couse, everybody is free to think & talk (but not to insult ), so I hope in exchange of ideas we all may arrive at something better ultimately.
Unlike You I really like Ayn Rand, Barry Goldwater and the like. But pls. don't think this as my lithmus test to categorize people. It's just a pencheant of mine...
best wishes & fruitful inve$ting
CROSSY
BTW: regarding "extremes", the feminists once coined the notion that You got to be somewhat extreme to raise attention and help shift the climate toward Your direction (to somewhere in the middle). I view of this, I guess Greenspan's manoevre was just one smart move in the usual political bargaining process, by a schrewd influential policymaker - our Uncle Al that is. <G> |
