Harold Meyerson explains why the growth Democratic party is the true party of the maker by redefining welfare and wealth redistribution as 'investment'.
"Racial minorities, the young, single women — the groups whose share of the electorate is rising — all believe that government has a role to play in increasing opportunity and enlarging the rewards of work."
Yes, even as the handout state increases unabated and brazenly calls out to more and more of the population to get on the such it is still ashamed of itself at some level. It feels obligated to cloak re-distribution of income from those who have earned it to those who have not as some sort of human capital investment regime.
"That doesn’t make them “takers,” however, unless you believe that public spending on schools and on a retirement fund to which American workers contribute constitutes an illegitimate drain on private resources."
Just because you don't want the Mafia to control vending machines and garbage collection doesn't mean that you don't believe in vending machines and garbage collection. The modern redistributionist state has learned the trick the mafia learned a long time ago--marks don't like thinking of themselves as marks. The Don could save both himself and his customers money if he just came round and took a flat payment, but he knows his prey prefers to think of itself as supporting a slightly over-priced local business rather than as paying extortion money. So the tax eaters get their end in the form of padded payrolls, outsize pensions and the provision un-needed services rather than a simple cash payment for votes, allowing the mark--the tax payers--to maintain their self-respect. They are suckers, they are simply more civic minded than their neighbors.
"While the level of labor-force participation for non-Hispanic whites was 64.6 percent, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2010 data, the level for Asians was 64.7 percent and for Latinos, 67.5 percent. So which group has more “takers” and which more workers?"
The three percent difference in labor force participation does not tell us very much about the proportion of takers. There may be more people in the other groups in education. A man who goes through 8 years of higher education is more of a taker than one who drops out of high school to take a low paying job by this logic. The white population may be significantly older than the latino population and thus have more retirees. There may be more stay at home spouses. All of this would increase the proportion of "takers" by Meyer's definition but tell us little about a population's self-reliance.
And you can work and take. What about the number of people that work and take food stamps? Also, people on unemployment benefits are 'in' the labor force, though they are strictly speaking, taking, not making.
"...asked voters whether government should promote growth by spending more on education and infrastructure or should lower taxes on businesses and individuals. The groups that constitute the growing elements of the electorate all favored the spending option — 61 percent of Latinos favored it, 62 percent of blacks, 63 percent of voters under 30 and 64 percent of single women. White voters, however, preferred the lower-taxes option 52 percent to 42 percent."
Yes, the growing elements of the electorate would prefer their handouts be called 'investments,' that is very clear. That may seem cynical but it is a more comforting thought to me than to contemplate that there are still people there who think that the road to general prosperity is to funnel more money into services and good produced by public sector unions. Is it possible to believe that we don't have enough roads? Or that the reason our road system is not better is because we don't pay enough taxes to the government? The 800 billion dollar stimulas was enough to build over 1,600 Hoover Dams. Where did the money go? The suck. The great network of insiders, the players in the public sector mafia, from the big time former legislators now serving as consultants to the low level pensioners and union workers, all who get more for their labor and services through the coerced payments to the government than they could ever get from the freely volunteered payments of the open market, the great suck that drains the forces of energy and innovation that drive voluntary cooperation and enterprise and the creation of wealth.
Meyerson then incredibly cites the example of California as an example to be emulated. The rise of minorities in that state's electorate has allowed them to finally outvote the white population that favored low taxes and approve, by referendum, increases in taxes on the those with incomes over 250,000, all to pay for increased 'investments' in roads and education. What Meyerson overlooks is that California is going broke and that rich people and business creators are leaving.
"Median household income is shrinking as the share of company revenue going to wages descends and the share going to profits increases."
Yes, as you mandate more and more benefits per worker, businesses respond rationally by hiring fewer workers, which just proves that they are mean and that the government should mandate more benefits per worker.
Meyer concludes, "If more private-sector workers were able to bargain collectively for wage increases, they would be less dependent on governmental income supplements and the safety net for rudimentary economic security."
Ah yes, if only keep running the liquor and gambling he wouldn't have had to raise the prices on garbage.
"Racial minorities, the young, single women — the groups whose share of the electorate is rising — all believe that government has a role to play in increasing opportunity and enlarging the rewards of work."
Yes, even as the handout state increases unabated and brazenly calls out to more and more of the population to get on the such it is still ashamed of itself at some level. It feels obligated to cloak re-distribution of income from those who have earned it to those who have not as some sort of human capital investment regime.
"That doesn’t make them “takers,” however, unless you believe that public spending on schools and on a retirement fund to which American workers contribute constitutes an illegitimate drain on private resources."
Just because you don't want the Mafia to control vending machines and garbage collection doesn't mean that you don't believe in vending machines and garbage collection. The modern redistributionist state has learned the trick the mafia learned a long time ago--marks don't like thinking of themselves as marks. The Don could save both himself and his customers money if he just came round and took a flat payment, but he knows his prey prefers to think of itself as supporting a slightly over-priced local business rather than as paying extortion money. So the tax eaters get their end in the form of padded payrolls, outsize pensions and the provision un-needed services rather than a simple cash payment for votes, allowing the mark--the tax payers--to maintain their self-respect. They are suckers, they are simply more civic minded than their neighbors.
"While the level of labor-force participation for non-Hispanic whites was 64.6 percent, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2010 data, the level for Asians was 64.7 percent and for Latinos, 67.5 percent. So which group has more “takers” and which more workers?"
The three percent difference in labor force participation does not tell us very much about the proportion of takers. There may be more people in the other groups in education. A man who goes through 8 years of higher education is more of a taker than one who drops out of high school to take a low paying job by this logic. The white population may be significantly older than the latino population and thus have more retirees. There may be more stay at home spouses. All of this would increase the proportion of "takers" by Meyer's definition but tell us little about a population's self-reliance.
And you can work and take. What about the number of people that work and take food stamps? Also, people on unemployment benefits are 'in' the labor force, though they are strictly speaking, taking, not making.
"...asked voters whether government should promote growth by spending more on education and infrastructure or should lower taxes on businesses and individuals. The groups that constitute the growing elements of the electorate all favored the spending option — 61 percent of Latinos favored it, 62 percent of blacks, 63 percent of voters under 30 and 64 percent of single women. White voters, however, preferred the lower-taxes option 52 percent to 42 percent."
Yes, the growing elements of the electorate would prefer their handouts be called 'investments,' that is very clear. That may seem cynical but it is a more comforting thought to me than to contemplate that there are still people there who think that the road to general prosperity is to funnel more money into services and good produced by public sector unions. Is it possible to believe that we don't have enough roads? Or that the reason our road system is not better is because we don't pay enough taxes to the government? The 800 billion dollar stimulas was enough to build over 1,600 Hoover Dams. Where did the money go? The suck. The great network of insiders, the players in the public sector mafia, from the big time former legislators now serving as consultants to the low level pensioners and union workers, all who get more for their labor and services through the coerced payments to the government than they could ever get from the freely volunteered payments of the open market, the great suck that drains the forces of energy and innovation that drive voluntary cooperation and enterprise and the creation of wealth.
Meyerson then incredibly cites the example of California as an example to be emulated. The rise of minorities in that state's electorate has allowed them to finally outvote the white population that favored low taxes and approve, by referendum, increases in taxes on the those with incomes over 250,000, all to pay for increased 'investments' in roads and education. What Meyerson overlooks is that California is going broke and that rich people and business creators are leaving.
"Median household income is shrinking as the share of company revenue going to wages descends and the share going to profits increases."
Yes, as you mandate more and more benefits per worker, businesses respond rationally by hiring fewer workers, which just proves that they are mean and that the government should mandate more benefits per worker.
Meyer concludes, "If more private-sector workers were able to bargain collectively for wage increases, they would be less dependent on governmental income supplements and the safety net for rudimentary economic security."
Ah yes, if only keep running the liquor and gambling he wouldn't have had to raise the prices on garbage.
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