Of course some people at the bottom of the economic pyramid abuse the social safety net. But there’s plenty of abuse of taxpayer money at the top of the economic pyramid. Big corporations and the very wealthy should pay more taxes because (1) it’s unfair and eventually politically and economically disruptive for the middle class to shoulder the burden; (2) probably ever increasing national debt erodes US sovereignty (the US owes a lot to China ); (3) cutting government spending won’t work because our nation needs to invest in a wide variety of scientific research and development in fields such as (a)medicine, (b) space exploration, (c) alternative energy sources, (d) adaptation to climate change and other environmental remediation; and (4) because of all us have a longterm stake in addressing the needs of those who aren’t thriving in our market economy because of (a) old age, (b) discrimination, (c) lack of available jobs paying a living wage; and (d) mental and/or physical disability. —–Without such investments, we not only lose our political freedom (think Third World countries ) but companies don’t have the human and environmental resources to create wealth. —-Some of the economic elite know this and support taking steps to undo trickle- down economics.——- But the inducements to act according to short-term maximization of profit is probably too powerful for big industry to regulate itself. Government and the private sector should be in partnership.—– We shouldn’t undermine our national interest by allowing government to be a servant to the private sector, and by allowing a society where ordinary folk risk not meeting basic needs so that some of those at the top can try to satisfying their exorbitant wants.
But what’s to stop big firms from going outsude the US to avoid paying more in taxes ?
Regarding another aspect to this, in the likely evebt that federal and state revenues don’t increase and our nation is hit (or hits itself ) with the one-two punch of diminished sovereignty because of national debt combined with public-disinvestment-induced loss in standard of living, economic competitiveness, loss of the ability to have enough unity to act on the global stage, ….this may lead to ???? Fascism or and civil war between competing narratives for what or who is to blame and regarding solutions? To what extent might one side be authoritarian and the other a movement for broad-based liberation?
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