A Government For The People
77% of Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the country. Only 22% trust the government to do what is right, and only 29% approve of Congress's work. I’m sure you’re not surprised.
America didn’t always distrust its government. Trust hit a high of 77% in 1964. At that time, the minimum wage bought twice as much, and the middle-class dream was at its peak.
Today, buying a house or starting a family is too expensive. Schools are underfunded and underperforming. Healthcare spends more to manipulate the system than to save lives. And people work hard every day just to stay afloat while wondering if Social Security will even be there when it is time to retire.
The goals of our government should be straightforward such as: All men are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is time to guarantee that every American has enough.
The wealthiest nation in the world should not have people living on the streets, unable to get food to eat, or lacking medical treatment. No one who works a full-time job should struggle to get by. And the middle class should be able to buy a house and afford a family. They shouldn’t be desperate to find affordable child care because they’re working two jobs to keep the lights on while racking up credit card debt despite renting a place that is too small for their needs.
That doesn’t mean turning to socialism, the boogeyman conjured to scare away efforts to care for our fellow Americans. Regulated capitalism is a driver of innovation, productivity, and prosperity. But billionaires competing to create the biggest rocket and corporations with a revenue greater than 150 countries shouldn’t complain about paying taxes when children are hungry and homeless.
Taking care of our own doesn’t need to be excessively expensive. A guaranteed minimum income program would be far more effective for a cost similar to or less than existing federal aid programs. Universal healthcare would reduce costs overall. And Social Security can be solvent without raising the retirement age. All that we lack is people demanding it.
Guaranteed minimum income is different from what many people think it is. It isn’t about sending every American a check each month. Instead, it is about ensuring that no adult American earns too little. One type of basic income program is a negative income tax, which famed American economist Milton Friedman popularized in the 1960s.
A negative income tax system that would work well today guarantees every adult American $12,000 per year or $1,000 per month. For every $2 in income, $1 of the benefit is reduced. So, the government would pay $12,000 to a person with a $0 annual income. Someone who earned $6,000 would receive $9,000 from the government, for a total of $17,000. The government would provide someone who earned $24,000 or more with no additional income.
Not only did Milton Friedman push for the US to adopt that type of system, but Republican President Richard Nixon also wanted to implement it as a replacement for other federal aid programs. That is precisely what we should do. We would have a smaller, more efficient government that cared better for its citizens.
Nixon felt his plan would be more palatable to conservatives than traditional welfare programs, and it should be. However, partisanship has become more extreme since then, and any policy accepted by one side is demonized by the other. It is time to put that standoff to an end and discuss the merits of a policy, not who proposed it.
Over 1,200 economists wrote a letter to Congress in 1968 urging them to enact a minimum income program for the nation. The most Congress was ever willing to do was set up test programs. Over 100 basic income programs across state and local levels are being run in the US today. All of them continue to give the same results. These programs:
Improve children’s lives
Improve parenting ability
Improve food and housing security
Reduce poverty
Increase education
Improve employment
Increase wages
Improve health and medical care
Nothing achieves the results that basic income programs do; no other program is as simple and efficient.
Instead of fighting culture wars, complaining about problems we never fix, and being afraid to tackle meaningful change, let’s do something substantial. Let’s end hunger, reduce poverty, improve lives, and save money at the same time. Let’s show the world that America can still be an innovator and a leader.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/
