RE: Trade Restrictions Don't Make Sense: Importers And Exporters Are The Same People
So what is the solution to the people out of work and the people who do work but make poverty or just over poverty wages?. Unemployment is a low 4.7%, most people do not believe that figure and there are also underemployed people and very poor people struggling to survive, one issue away from loosing their apt/ house, job. Also we have the 1% having the majority of the wealth.
I think a lot of us have ideas on how to fix this but they will never happen because difference in ideology each of us have is so great and no one wants to budge.
My view is:
You need heath care for all. That will kill 62% bankruptcies that happen in this country.
Free higher education/training: A lot of people can not afford to go to college, or if they do have massive loans. We need our work force educated so we can compete with the constantly changing world and other countries. One way to pay for this, having companies and government sponsor students. You work for them during the summers for minimum wage and they pay for or part of your tuition. We also need work "retraining" programs to help people when they loose their job. This could also be sponsored.
Higher taxes to pay for all this.
We need a higher tax rate on the wealthiest to pay for this. I do not believe "trickle" down works. Higher taxes also on companies (but this can be lowered when they sponsor education or training and when they help pay for healthcare)
Now, with higher taxes for companies whats to stop them from just leaving the US? Well if we have the people who can do the jobs they want done then that's one incentive. But I also think a way to solve this would be changing the tax rate of US companies that make money out of the US. Make the repatriation tax rate based on how many US employees a company employees (along with how much each employee makes)
On infrastructure. Yes we need to rebuild. We can use some of the minimum wage students as workers to help with this. But we will also need to increase federal and local taxes on gas and some fees on companies that use that infrastructure to do business.
Really need smart people to get together and figure these issues out instead of bickering back and forth but it probably will not happen since they just seem to want to WIN. I'd say in the end they really don't care about us.
i agree that there's a growing set of people...tough to label in any particular demographic...that either feel, or really are, disenfranchised from economic betterment. You touched on two big issues that would likely help alleviate some financial burden and expand opportunities, everything else equal. Health crises without insurance can destroy a family's finances, and education does boost earning potential...again, everything else equal.
However, not everything else is equal and even these seemingly glaring examples can be overdone with policy support. Federal and state governments have been giving away health and education subsidies for decades...problems are not solved and so many still remain pessimistic; and they've distorted both markets horribly in the process, so we don't know what negative outcomes today are due to that distortion versus what would exist without involvement. Everything's a trade off and i have to say that i don't like the outcomes of government monopolizing health care or subsidizing education to the extent they do. There are costs and there are definitely benefits...you're right in that these discussions so often break down in partisan bickering where each side latches onto whatever confirms their own biases; if you want "free" anything you tout the benefits and ignore the costs, if you're against it, you just focus on the costs and ignore the benefits.
I don't support either of these approaches bc i believe advocates ignore the long run and especially hidden costs. Government monopolies suck and always badly manage resources and stifle innovation. Trillions of federal dollars to fund college education has jacked up tuition and created a new debtor class of people who probably should have learned productive trades instead of inefficiently invested in negative yielding degrees.
That said, there are both simpler and deeper ways to make life better for people who feel disenfranchised. Some simple ideas are catastrophic event health insurance subsidies (not the beast we call health insurance today, which is really a terrible pre-paid bundle of hundreds of services you'll never use), or a universal basic income; the deeper fixes address things that cause slower growth that reduces real employment and hence real wage growth, like dumb or inefficient regulations, licensure barriers, taxation, etc. Of these two solution paths i prefer the latter, but wouldn't complain too deeply about the former if given proper concessions with a mixed bag.
Ultimately, however, i believe that human beings retain the right to their own lives and no matter what my opinions happen to be, none of us have claim to any portion of others' lives against their wills. Taxation to pursue these types of social agendas is partial slavery for those compelled to contribute against their will. Unacceptable from a moral perspective.