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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (857167)	5/14/2015 11:29:17 PM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1576867

>> The other programs provide value to American citizens A lot of the "value" provided is elusive. While there is no doubt that some people's retirements have been enhanced by those programs, it is unclear whether these kinds of programs truly help people. One that is far easier to look at is the student loan program, which intuitively has helped people but in reality has damaged them. Some people are certainly helped by Social Security, but (a) not as much as they would have been helped by having that money invested elsewhere, and (b) it is hard to say how many people led more difficult lives as a result of the contracted job market that occurred because of the increased cost of hiring. You would have to take into account factors dating even into the Depression, when new taxes were a contributor to prolonging the joblessness. You really can't measure the damage the programs have done, only the positive things. So, there is no real way of knowing whether there has been a net benefit or not. See: Bastiat: What is Seen and What is Not Seen econlib.org