02 August 2010
Tax Aversion Syndrome
As Peter Peterson pointed out in his OpEd in the July 24, 2010 Wall Street Journal, it is not possible for the country to continue ad infinitum not to pay for its spending programs. Those programs have to be reduced in size and sufficient revenue has to be raised to finance them.
Federal government deficits are not caused mainly by the demand for entitlement programs. They result rather from government spending on programs that directly benefit those who rely on government contracts for their income—defense contractors, fee-for-service healthcare providers, unnecessary infrastructure builders (a la “the bridge to nowhere”).
The politicians in our totally corrupt electoral system depend not on entitlement programs to buy votes. They depend on contributions for expensive Public Relations strategies from the beneficiaries of government spending programs to pay the cost of sophisticated media persuasion campaigns that ultimately determine who wins elections.
This reflects the sorry state of our political discourse. We claim to possess a democratic polity that is capable of considering available information and selecting representatives to make decisions on our behalf. In fact, we select those representatives based on what we are persuaded to do in the media.
As Peter Peterson pointed out in his OpEd in the July 24, 2010 Wall Street Journal, it is not possible for the country to continue ad infinitum not to pay for its spending programs. Those programs have to be reduced in size and sufficient revenue has to be raised to finance them.
Federal government deficits are not caused mainly by the demand for entitlement programs. They result rather from government spending on programs that directly benefit those who rely on government contracts for their income—defense contractors, fee-for-service healthcare providers, unnecessary infrastructure builders (a la “the bridge to nowhere”).
The politicians in our totally corrupt electoral system depend not on entitlement programs to buy votes. They depend on contributions for expensive Public Relations strategies from the beneficiaries of government spending programs to pay the cost of sophisticated media persuasion campaigns that ultimately determine who wins elections.
This reflects the sorry state of our political discourse. We claim to possess a democratic polity that is capable of considering available information and selecting representatives to make decisions on our behalf. In fact, we select those representatives based on what we are persuaded to do in the media.
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