One, we already have a very progressive tax system.
"in 2018, the top 1% of income earners—those who earned more than $540,000—earned 21% of all U.S. income while paying 40% of all federal income taxes. The top 10% earned 48% of the income and paid 71% of federal income taxes."
Two if you want a European level of a safety net, then you need European levels of taxes. That means the middle class will pay a LOT more in taxes. Glen briefly made the point, but not enough I don't think. You could tax the rich at 100% of income, and it wouldn't come close to paying for a European level of a welfare state.
Three incentives matter, and people respond to incentives. If you people can't keep enough of the fruits of their labor, then maybe they just don't try. I'm not opposed to a safety net, but it should be limited and require people to work as much as possible.
Four on healthcare. Countries with socialized medicine ALL keep their costs down by rationing care. Moreover, the world's healthcare R&D is largely subsidize by Americans. That sure did come in handy during the pandemic. On a side note, I do biotech investing. This is risky investing, many of them don't pan out. Thus the ones that work need to pay off BIG time. Every successful drug needs to pay for dozens perhaps hundreds of drugs that don't work.
The left focuses too much on who pays for healthcare. But what we should be focused on is bringing total healthcare costs down. You do that by increasing healthcare supply faster than demand and requiring competition.
Healthcare Prices should be required to be posted online. And providers should not be able to change the prices depending on who is paying. IE you don't have to pay more because you are a cash payer (or less if you are the government).
Once we had pricing transparency then competition could actually start taking place.
We probably also need to look at healthcare consolidation affecting competition.
Because the government already controls healthcare spending for the segment of society that needs the most healthcare, how could you really obtain price competition at this point?
Briana makes the correct point that college costs have gone up so much because of federal backed student loans means colleges haven't tried to keep costs down. But then thinks that the solution is for college to be free???
But there is no free. That just means that even more costs will be foisted on the tax payer.
Instead student loans should be limited based on the expected value of your degree. People need to be thinking about what their expected value of their major is before you ever start college. That grievance degree isn't going to pay for itself.
I do think student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy if needed. But colleges should be on the hook for part of that debt. That would also help keep costs down
My first class at a community college Bus 101, had us to a Monster.com report were we researched jobs. I was thinking of doing business management, but that opened my eyes. I saw all the accounting jobs out there and switched to accounting.
don't go to college to find yourself or any of that other BS (unless you are independently wealthy of course). Go with a career in mind and make sure that degree fits the bill.
Yes sometimes we end up in different career fields than when we started. But at least that gets you in the door to where you can build some experience.
Sometimes I think people don't realize how much "socialism" -- and I mean that in a good sense -- we already have in our system. We hear about minimum wage a lot, but next to nothing about Earned Income Credit. Earned income credit, basically, raises minimum wage. And for the social engineering fans out there, EIC has the added benefit of allowing social engineering. Let them try writing "single mothers get higher pay" into a minimum wage bill.
Then there's the way Social Security pays out. Meaning those who earn less get a MUCH higher percentage of their income in retirement that those who make close to their FICA cap. In my mind, that is great thing, the way it should be. It works just as it should. We could brag about the "socialism" we already have in our system. We have nothing to be ashamed about in that regard.
As for healthcare, I'm not sure what they want. Who exactly isn't getting healthcare? What aren't they getting? Can we not say that bad health habits are way more injurious to citizens than any claimed lack of health care? Drugs, alcohol, overeating, a violent lifestyle -- these are major, major problems in the U.S. As well, Steve Jobs, one of the wealthiest people in our lifetimes died at 56. Paul Allen, another of the richest in our lifetimes, died at 65. The point being that you can't buy good health. Can't buy eternal life. And some people have fatalistic attitudes about life; is it fair to spend millions to keep one person going for an extra year or two when another guy declines $10,000 treatment that could potentially add decades?
Oh, well, it seems we rarely get honest discussion in America. That's why we all love Glenn and John so much.
Wide ranging conversation. A couple of points.
One, we already have a very progressive tax system.
"in 2018, the top 1% of income earners—those who earned more than $540,000—earned 21% of all U.S. income while paying 40% of all federal income taxes. The top 10% earned 48% of the income and paid 71% of federal income taxes."
Two if you want a European level of a safety net, then you need European levels of taxes. That means the middle class will pay a LOT more in taxes. Glen briefly made the point, but not enough I don't think. You could tax the rich at 100% of income, and it wouldn't come close to paying for a European level of a welfare state.
Three incentives matter, and people respond to incentives. If you people can't keep enough of the fruits of their labor, then maybe they just don't try. I'm not opposed to a safety net, but it should be limited and require people to work as much as possible.
Four on healthcare. Countries with socialized medicine ALL keep their costs down by rationing care. Moreover, the world's healthcare R&D is largely subsidize by Americans. That sure did come in handy during the pandemic. On a side note, I do biotech investing. This is risky investing, many of them don't pan out. Thus the ones that work need to pay off BIG time. Every successful drug needs to pay for dozens perhaps hundreds of drugs that don't work.
The left focuses too much on who pays for healthcare. But what we should be focused on is bringing total healthcare costs down. You do that by increasing healthcare supply faster than demand and requiring competition.
Healthcare Prices should be required to be posted online. And providers should not be able to change the prices depending on who is paying. IE you don't have to pay more because you are a cash payer (or less if you are the government).
Once we had pricing transparency then competition could actually start taking place.
We probably also need to look at healthcare consolidation affecting competition.
Because the government already controls healthcare spending for the segment of society that needs the most healthcare, how could you really obtain price competition at this point?
That definitely makes it trickier. But I think there can be methods to make it better. Cost sharing, or even rebate checks to encourage thrift
A great table on the tax data at this site, from 2019. https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/
One additional point on college costs.
Briana makes the correct point that college costs have gone up so much because of federal backed student loans means colleges haven't tried to keep costs down. But then thinks that the solution is for college to be free???
But there is no free. That just means that even more costs will be foisted on the tax payer.
Instead student loans should be limited based on the expected value of your degree. People need to be thinking about what their expected value of their major is before you ever start college. That grievance degree isn't going to pay for itself.
I do think student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy if needed. But colleges should be on the hook for part of that debt. That would also help keep costs down
My first class at a community college Bus 101, had us to a Monster.com report were we researched jobs. I was thinking of doing business management, but that opened my eyes. I saw all the accounting jobs out there and switched to accounting.
don't go to college to find yourself or any of that other BS (unless you are independently wealthy of course). Go with a career in mind and make sure that degree fits the bill.
Yes sometimes we end up in different career fields than when we started. But at least that gets you in the door to where you can build some experience.
Good comment.
Sometimes I think people don't realize how much "socialism" -- and I mean that in a good sense -- we already have in our system. We hear about minimum wage a lot, but next to nothing about Earned Income Credit. Earned income credit, basically, raises minimum wage. And for the social engineering fans out there, EIC has the added benefit of allowing social engineering. Let them try writing "single mothers get higher pay" into a minimum wage bill.
Then there's the way Social Security pays out. Meaning those who earn less get a MUCH higher percentage of their income in retirement that those who make close to their FICA cap. In my mind, that is great thing, the way it should be. It works just as it should. We could brag about the "socialism" we already have in our system. We have nothing to be ashamed about in that regard.
As for healthcare, I'm not sure what they want. Who exactly isn't getting healthcare? What aren't they getting? Can we not say that bad health habits are way more injurious to citizens than any claimed lack of health care? Drugs, alcohol, overeating, a violent lifestyle -- these are major, major problems in the U.S. As well, Steve Jobs, one of the wealthiest people in our lifetimes died at 56. Paul Allen, another of the richest in our lifetimes, died at 65. The point being that you can't buy good health. Can't buy eternal life. And some people have fatalistic attitudes about life; is it fair to spend millions to keep one person going for an extra year or two when another guy declines $10,000 treatment that could potentially add decades?
Oh, well, it seems we rarely get honest discussion in America. That's why we all love Glenn and John so much.