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Re: Corruption of Economics by Mason Gaffney
In the current environment I really think you can judge the health of political discourse in any of the industrialised countries by how reasonable people are about the notion of raising taxes. If the suggestion isn't even politically feasible in discussion then you know: the politics has been poisoned to the point that everyone is simply trying to hug their property as tightly as possible whatever the consequences for anyone else, presumably their children included.
In fact I suspect that those people doing the hugging won't do too well out of it themseleves so good luck with that.
The things that strike me as funny about this is that I suspect that anyone who hangs around here knows how much trouble we (as in, the west) are really in, fiscally speaking. In fact the problem is so intractable that it's possible it's too serious for tax increases to make a dent. (Peak credit.)
(If this discussion's driving you batsh!t, have a look at the debt-jubilee thread!)
But that's too reasonable an objection it would seem. Instead we seem to
have raised the hackles of arch-conservatives with a discussion of how tax is distributed among sectors of the economy and how this distribution effects outcomes.
So it would seemthat the mere mention of tax is verbotten, despite the fact that it is an omnipresent feature of all our daily lives and will obviously remain so, likely forever.
Further, even if we propose to limit it to what does the least injury to individual liberty - which was Henry George's argument, fair or not - the argument is anathema on its face because... I suppose it mentions the word "tax" without an instantaneous hiss of disapproval.
I despair.
In contrast I'm re-assured by the fact that I live in a country where, when we're collectively faced with the fact that we've obviously lived through a period of wild excess, an excess which we may or may not have personally benefited from, and someone in a position of political power suggests that taxes will have to be raised to put us back on a sound footing, the idea is not instantly attacked as being an attack on liberty itself.
We all know that, as the Onion would have it, stereotypes are great time savers. So here goes: I think you yanks are insane.
In the current environment I really think you can judge the health of political discourse in any of the industrialised countries by how reasonable people are about the notion of raising taxes. If the suggestion isn't even politically feasible in discussion then you know: the politics has been poisoned to the point that everyone is simply trying to hug their property as tightly as possible whatever the consequences for anyone else, presumably their children included.
In fact I suspect that those people doing the hugging won't do too well out of it themseleves so good luck with that.
The things that strike me as funny about this is that I suspect that anyone who hangs around here knows how much trouble we (as in, the west) are really in, fiscally speaking. In fact the problem is so intractable that it's possible it's too serious for tax increases to make a dent. (Peak credit.)
(If this discussion's driving you batsh!t, have a look at the debt-jubilee thread!)
But that's too reasonable an objection it would seem. Instead we seem to
have raised the hackles of arch-conservatives with a discussion of how tax is distributed among sectors of the economy and how this distribution effects outcomes.
So it would seemthat the mere mention of tax is verbotten, despite the fact that it is an omnipresent feature of all our daily lives and will obviously remain so, likely forever.
Further, even if we propose to limit it to what does the least injury to individual liberty - which was Henry George's argument, fair or not - the argument is anathema on its face because... I suppose it mentions the word "tax" without an instantaneous hiss of disapproval.
I despair.
In contrast I'm re-assured by the fact that I live in a country where, when we're collectively faced with the fact that we've obviously lived through a period of wild excess, an excess which we may or may not have personally benefited from, and someone in a position of political power suggests that taxes will have to be raised to put us back on a sound footing, the idea is not instantly attacked as being an attack on liberty itself.
We all know that, as the Onion would have it, stereotypes are great time savers. So here goes: I think you yanks are insane.
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