Three New York Times articles about our problems

To Fill Budget Gaps, ‘Stealth’ Taxes Are Creeping Up – Because of the economic crisis, governments around the world need to raise revenue.  In Europe, income and VAT taxes are already so high that politicians can’t raise them much more, so they’re turning to indirect methods such as sugar or carbon taxes.  In American, President Obama has drawn a line in the sand for families earning less than $250,000 and local governments also don’t want to raise income taxes.

The Perils of Pay Less, Get More – Wagner’s Law is the 19th-century idea, true then and generally true in America until Reagan, that taxes rises as societies get richer.  This is because citizens agitate for greater protections from the vicissitudes of life and have more disposable income to spend on taxes.  David Leonhardt points out that this hasn’t been true in America for taxes, but he misses that spending has nonetheless increased.  Wagner’s Law is “wrong” only because our leaders have refused to make difficult decisions and raise taxes.

Renewing an Old Idea: Common Good – Tony Judt argues that our leaders have failed us. He blames our current predicament on the failure of leaders to make tough choices such as reigning in capital or raising taxes to pay for wars and social programs.  Reagan has made a whole wing of our country allergic to anything which resembles government programs, which means PBS, food stamps, sewers, public education, primary care, our roads, &c have suffered.