Well, it took a while, and an awfully circuitous route, but we're finally getting back to the national debate we need to have, the one about the role of government.
Unfortunately, it's taken a terribly misguided, albeit revealing turn towards "makers versus takers."
What's misguided about it? It misses the dynamics of real lives in America and instead, creates a false and divisive framework. Were we to accept this framework and try to embed it in our economic policy, our nation would be the worse for it.
The implication is that one group -- the makers -- is supporting the well-being of another -- the takers. Moreover, since the takers don't pay taxes -- they just take government benefits -- they are endlessly incentivized to support politicians who keep their Ponzi scheme going. When conservatives say "we're reaching a tipping point" they mean that the takers will soon be a larger electoral block than the makers, at which point the former only have to get up from their well-worn sofas once a year to vote for their facilitator-in-chief who pledges to keep the transfer checks coming.
But, in reality, for the vast majority, both here and in every other democratic economy, it doesn't work that way. The distinction is meaningless. We almost all "take" at some point and "make" at others. Medicare and Social Security programs are social insurance programs to which we contribute during our working lives and receive benefits from in retirement. Are the beneficiaries of these programs makers or takers? About 60% of those who don't pay federal income tax pay payroll taxes, meaning they're working. Slightly over a fifth are low-income elderly families. Are they takers who should leave retirement and get the hell back to work?
Mark Schmitt makes the point using unemployment insurance (UI):
Everyone who receives benefits from UI, without exception, has worked - usually full-time and steadily for at least a year - and paid into the system through their employers. And they will (they desperately hope) work again and pay even more. Some people might end up receiving more, over their long working lives, while others might pay in while having the good fortune never to be unemployed. But that's the nature of insurance. Most of us, other than the permanently disabled, are givers and takers to government, because that's what it is to be part of a community or a nation.
Are low-income workers benefitting from the wage subsidy that Ronald Reagan called the best anti-poverty program -- the Earned Income Tax Credit -- takers? What about kids who lost a parent and benefit from Social Security survivors benefits, as did Paul Ryan (and yours truly). What about those who take advantage of government-backed student loans (again, yours truly). The mortgage interest deduction, the favorable tax rate on capital gains, the deductibility of interest costs from debt financed private equity deals?
Is there someone somewhere who's not disabled, is of working age, lives off of government assistance but neither works nor pays any taxes? In a nation of over 300 million there must be, but they'd actually be hard to find -- according to my CBPP colleague Arloc Sherman, 94% of entitlement and UI benefits go to people who are elderly, disabled, on UI, or work at least 1,000 hours per year. And if they ever put gas in their car, they paid a federal excise tax, not to mention state sales tax, local property taxes, and so on.
A few weeks ago, Bill Clinton warned of a "you're-on-your-own" approach to government versus a "we're-in-this-together" mode. The makers/takers distinction feeds directly in that YOYO mindset, and you can see it embodied in the privatization or voucher schemes for social insurance, the Paul Ryan/House budget which cuts from the poor to give to the rich, the attack on the safety net, the proposed cuts to mobility enhancers like college aid, the repeal of health reform designed to reduce the number of uninsured, all fed by false claims as to the shares of Americans who don't pay taxes or who needlessly depend on government largesse.
All of us need some help at some point. Sometimes that help comes from family, sometimes from government, typically from some combination of both, but no one goes it alone. If you're lucky, have people who care for you, or have the wherewithal to seek it out yourself, there will be a ladder in front of you at some point. That doesn't make you a taker -- you'll have to climb it yourself.
Right now, I'm hearing a lot from people who were born on third yet think they hit a triple. They're telling me that the role of government is to kick out those ladders. But they are wrong. The role of government is to make sure those ladders are there, along with insurance against ill-health and penury in old age, a safety net when the economic bottom falls out, investments in the public goods the market won't provide, protections against negative externalities like pollution and market bubbles that private markets fail to price in, and so on.
And the more we think in terms of YOYOs and makers and takers, the less likely we are to recognize how important this role is and how dangerously close we are coming to rejecting it.
This post originally appeared at Jared Bernstein's On The Economy blog.
Follow Jared Bernstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@econjared
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| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
I don't consider myself a moocher and I sure as h*ll am nobody's victim!
That this whole conversation of makers, takers and yoyos is even uttered reveals a new depth of depravity and divisiveness in the halls of the oligarchs. They have chosen to pursue global conquest - over 1000 military bases across the globe, two wars, military intervention against those who defy wall st's maniacal whims...and the citizens of this country are the takers?
So basically, the oligarchs want your money that you paid into the system in good faith to run War, Inc. There are 537 oligarchs in DC that depend on your vote to push this insidious agenda. The solution is simple....make words like incumbent, tea party and 1% synonymous with the worst 4 letter word one can utter and VOTE THEM OUT.
During the crash of 2007-2008 he had a successful retail business that relied on consumer credit. When credit tightened up revenues fell so low that the business couldn't support itself. Instead of going filing chapter 11 he threw everything back in to business to hold keep it open thinking the downturn wouldn't last. Eventually, he closed in 2009.
He re-entered the workforce soonafter.
The last ten years have seen the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the United States and, possiby, the world. The corporate overlords want to to turn everything into a for-profit concern: for lack of a better phrase "World, LLC.
I say LLC, because an LLC takes full benefit of the company equals individual CU ruling. If this happens, infrastructure as we know will no longer exist.
A social contract exists between the individual and a government. The corporations seek to bury the social contract and force everyone to participate as an employee
I actually, believe, based on the many insightful, intelligent comments make that you and many of your fellow commentators have much to offer our society. Why dont we have the post 65 year olds run the government?
Sadly, at 50 many begin to think that the individual is no longer a marketable asset. Much as a depreciated asset has no value after 7 years'on the books, but still has value elsewhere.
The first by Stephen Moore:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704050204576219073867182108.html
Stephen Moore: We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers - WSJ.com
"...It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?..."
The response from Professor William K. Black:
http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/04/stephen-moores-ode-to-american-workers.html
New Economic Perspectives: Stephen Moore's ode to the American Workers his Policies Harm
"...Why does Moore believe that human capital is so unimportant? His supposed “takers” are the leading “makers” and protectors of the “makers” he claims epitomize valor. It is teachers that help us become productive (and civilized). The police, firefighters, CDC, and the FDA safeguard lives. Does Moore find that unproductive?
The literature on performance pay shows that even when it is not used deliberately by fraudulent leaders to create perverse incentives it can often disrupt work teams and make them less effective by creating divisiveness. It is as if a mother declared that certain of her children were superior to others..."
I retired in 2001 after 35 years.
Now "Dilbert" is no longer a documentary to me. :-)
Why, Mr. Romney does your money's earnings deserve to be taxed less that the earnings of YOUR own labor and sweat (imagine that, just for effect, if you can)?
As for the efficacy of tax cuts for the rich, that then save/invest it... LIQUIDITY TRAP!!!
If real interest rates are negative... doesnt theis MARKET clearyl say it doesn't need more savings?
But we have to also hold the rich and the captains of industry to some standard of honesty: They gain greatly from our system. The courts, police, and military defend their property. They get hugely subsidized research and development through universities, national labs, and grants. They get limited liability protection through the legal structure of a corporation--also defined and managed through courts paid for by taxes. The military, state department, and commerce department run around the world telling the world to buy our goods. And every type of infrastructure imaginable helps them do their business--often to the point of building airports, roads and highways dedicated to particular firms and factories.
Anyone who says the poor are the mooching dependents just don't like the poor.
The poor got here because the rich need to exploit the worker by not paying a fair wage through various means (not increasing the minimum wage, off shoring etc, wage stagnation), they have sought to avoid paying their fair share of tax which money could be used to do so many better things than buying unnecessary multi million dollar homes, the tax system favors the investor class and punishes the saver class etc.
Yes, I am sure that if we look hard we will find moochers. But there have always been moochers even when there was no social security. But most find it very difficult to live on social security and want to improve their lives by working. They need to be paid a fair and living wage! Even the moochers might work if they can see that you can get ahead if you work. Right now so many remain in poverty even if working that one can not be surprised if the motivation to work is not there.
ome people choose to live with little despite other options others feel the need to keep up with the Joneses. Neither approch is any more wrong than needing lots of friends around vs prefering a few very deep frendships.
It's a despicable tactic because it intentionally obscures the truth and forces seekers of the truth to work ten times harder than the liars. The Republican Party has flooded society with such lies, which is in effect drowning the truth seekers. No society based on the systematic denial of truth can expect to endure.
Too many expect simple black and white answers to complex problems. Too many have been convinced that society is dispensable, and bought into the Calvinist idea that if you're well off it's because, by golly, you're a superior person.
Then you toss religion into the mix... and just like during the second Great Awakening (that led to the Civil War BTW) - if God is on your "side" ANY compromise is a pact with the de vil.
Any "dialogue" requires two talking AND listening... folks who are shouting generally aren't listening..
However, I earn the money that results in my paying those taxes as the direct result of the 100% government subsidized K-12 education I received, the 95-99% government subsidized education I received by attending a state university because I could not afford to attend a private university, and the 100% government subsidized training I received in the military. Because I relied on government for my education and some other training, that would appear to put me in the category that Romney labels as a "taker."
So much for Romney's labels.
As for why some others don't do as I did, I can only speculate. However, each of my parents had a college degree and I attended a high school where it generally was assumed that students capable of getting good enough grades and test scores to get admitted into college would attend college, and those were major factors that help explain why I did what I did. Thus, I would tend to guess that people who grew up without either of those factors, or who weren't intellectually capable of getting good enough grades and/or test scores to get admitted into a state funded college/university, would be far less likely to follow the same path.
In her books, the rich capitalists, industrialists, and entrepreneurs were the Producers who provided jobs for everybody else. Taxes are theft. And anybody who gets a check from the government, as a government employee, retired on Social Security, or on disability, was a "Parasite." Receiving stolen property. And she had no sympathy for the parasites.
Of course, if we take this to it's logical conclusion, all members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President, are Parasites. In the Ayn Randian analysis they receive stolen money (taxes are theft!) from the government, and, since they run the government, they're all engaged in a felony conspiracy to steal from the Producers and the Workers and give to the Parasites including themselves.
And this all flows from the idea that Government does little or nothing of value, that Government is the enemy, Government is the problem, and Government should just go away and let everybody fend for themselves on the playing fields of Holy Capitalism.