Joel Blau
Max B. Sawicky wrote:
I would take it a step further. Recently
Robert not-Paul Samuelson had a screed in
the Post lambasting social insurance as
welfare for the profound reason that it
entailed some people paying taxes that
went in payments to others. Besides
motivating social insurance as insurance,
we ought to motivate "welfare" or public
assistance as social insurance too. In its
anti-poverty role, SS in fact is not a whole
lot different from "welfare," but this says
more about welfare than SS.
mbs
-----Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Joel Blau
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 2:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Subject: Re: bush & SS
That's an interesting question. My initial response is that we should
use the word. But the problem is that its use privileges some government
spending (for all who meet the eligibility standards regardless of the
government's fiscal condition) over others, i.e. discretionary. If the
goal is the validation of all social needs, then such a distinction is
invidious.
Joel Blau
Eugene Coyle wrote:Language? What does use of the word "entitlements" imply? What do I
infer when reading it? What do normal people infer when hearing it? Is
it a word we should use?
Gene Coyle
Max B. Sawicky wrote:Speaking of which, our old friend Dean Baker
has the honor of being criticized by name in
a Washington Post editorial today, after being
praised yesterday in a David Broder column,
all for elaborating on the theme that the
prospective SS deficits (sic) are small
compared to that of Medicare.
The positive impact is to discredit the Bushists'
SS crisis rhetoric. The negative is to encourage
consideration of how to whack Medicare. I used
some of the same points to make clear the inevitability
of significant but feasible tax increases to fund the
growth of entitlements.
Every time I write a budget paper, a post-Keynesian
writes me to say who needs taxes, why can't the debt/GDP
ratio go up to 60-70%? I told him, I don't know why not,
but you don't know why.
mbs
