How is America's distaste for government spending working out for us?
Would it be a colossal overstatement (I don’t think so) to say that in U.S. political culture there is a deep and long-running bias against government spending in general?
Would it be crazy or rude to think that this bias favors rich people, who would presumably pay more than their per capita share of higher taxes, and hurts the poor who pay less in taxes and benefit more? (I don’t think so.)
Yes, of course, the USA spends a gazillion or two more on military (please, we call it “defense,” since we never go on offense, except most of the time) spending than anyone else. But, by the standards of the other wealthy countries of the world, we spend less per capita of government dollars on most of the non-defense/offense things that contribute to what might be called the quality of life of its citizens.
What should be subsidized by tax dollars and what should be privatized is a constant issue, and the line has long moved in the direction of more government spending, compared to the past — but not in the U.S. when compared to other nations in the past or in the present. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all wonderful 20th-century additions to the safety net, compared to doing nothing, although they can always be criticized as forms of “socialism.” But, either way, those programs are small compared to what other prosperous nations do to provide basic health care and income to the poor and the elderly.
Read more: https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2019/06/how-is-americas-distaste-for-government-spending-working-out-for-us/
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