View original postFascinating article from the liberal Vox website, using data exclusively from left leaning or neutral sources. Conclusion: The Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez platform is unaffordable and unrealistic. It would raise government spending to 60% of GDP and require a minimum 38% increase of the Federal payroll tax above and beyond the existing 15.3%. Or a European style VAT of 87%.
I thought you were saying that having a VAT of 87 percent was 'European style'.
View original postFree everything for all sounds wonderful, but it ain't free. The unanswered question remains, how are you gonna pay for it?
Yeah, for the most parts these things only work in European countries because they aren't free - just affordable. Not just because that makes the financing less daunting, also because people have a tendency to over-consume free stuff, visit the doctor more often than is really useful, not take their free college studies seriously, etc.
But just because Sanders' exact plan (which I don't believe Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed, incidentally) doesn't make sense, doesn't mean that something in that general direction couldn't be possible. It probably makes more sense to keep all this more on the state level and less on the federal level, though - both for political reasons and for practical ones. And the job guarantee idea is pretty far out there either way.
I'm also a bit baffled by infrastructure getting tossed in there - surely that's one thing you have fairly wide consensus over, and something that economists agree makes sense to spend money on, even if you have to borrow for it, since it enhances productivity. At least, if you support the right projects.
Millennials seem to like Democratic Socialism. But no one will like the bill.
- 08/08/2018 04:13:25 PM
790 Views
For a minute there...
- 08/08/2018 11:33:16 PM
347 Views
Nope
- 09/08/2018 12:11:13 AM
369 Views
Yes - some interesting points on the reason why your costs would remain higher.
- 09/08/2018 11:34:44 PM
330 Views
Doing infrastructure at the federal level is more complicated than people want to admit
- 10/08/2018 01:27:25 PM
341 Views
As someone living in North Alabama, our highways are pretty well maintained.
- 10/08/2018 06:30:28 PM
321 Views
The rich will finally just have to pay their fair share.
- 09/08/2018 05:16:28 PM
375 Views
exactly! then just cut military spending and there you go!
- 09/08/2018 06:17:35 PM
344 Views
At some point shuldn't we cut military spending?
- 10/08/2018 01:32:17 PM
316 Views
maybe
- 10/08/2018 01:42:48 PM
340 Views
I don't know the solution but the current system is unsustainable *NM*
- 15/08/2018 11:14:27 PM
159 Views
But would it even be a net gain?
- 16/08/2018 12:21:40 AM
309 Views
If it is just a question of spending money we can find more productive ways to do that
- 17/08/2018 02:20:43 PM
346 Views
And we all know that "fair share" is always "more", regardless of what they're paying. *NM*
- 09/08/2018 09:16:22 PM
175 Views
Sanders' Medicare for all idea costs $32.6 Trillion over the next 10 years
- 09/08/2018 08:12:27 PM
355 Views
How many people named "Ocasio-Cortez" are going to be paying the bill to any meaningful degree?
- 11/08/2018 11:38:20 PM
337 Views
Honest question?
- 15/08/2018 12:40:22 AM
338 Views
Ocasio-Cortez has been anointed as the new face of the Democratic Party. Not Tlaib. *NM*
- 15/08/2018 01:06:04 PM
149 Views
Why?
- 15/08/2018 01:47:38 PM
313 Views
Unexamined 
Life 
*NM*