About two thirds of the federal budget is consumed by "Robin Hood" programs that take from one group of people to give to another. Not all of the takees are necessarily rich as in the old fable: the top 50% pays 96% of the taxes.
But most Americans would agree that we need to help provide our fellow citizens with their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in order to enjoy those same rights ourselves in the long term. What separates this unmistakable bedrock of the American way of life from vague platitude? A single word: 'pursuit'.
The pursuit of happiness is a much different thing from happiness itself, and too many a liberal idea has been devoid of this principle. Further, it is a mistake to consider a contrary opinion to liberal fundamentalism completely so. Many conservative ideas yet executed share some of the basic principles of liberalism; the difference is in the means. Here are a few examples:
- Unemployment-- Unemployment insurance is Germany's biggest economic challenge in 2006. The United States has managed to maintain more reasonable levels of unemployment insurance, but it is ever creeping toward larger, less effective levels. Why? To get votes for an incumbent. The problem here is that the way the current program is structured, the only way to get maximum utility out of unemployment is to go without work as long as possible. A better approach would guarantee a certain amount of money to the unemployed no matter when they find a job. This way, there is incentive to detach one's self from government feudalism. Sure, you'd have to have parameters around the program to avoid abuse, but what's the worst case scenario? We spend the same amount of money as before.
- Health Care-- One of the biggest problems with health care is that most consumers of this resource do not trade any of their attainable resources for health services. That is, most health care plans are "all you can eat" so to speak. If you've ever been to a Ponderosa, I'm sure you've see all the half eaten bread sticks and plates full of uneaten chicken wings. People are getting health services that they don't reasonably need just because they can. To some this might seem like a blessing, but what it really does is squeeze the system such that demand has greatly exceeded supply-- to an extent that only the middle and upper middle class employed population can reasonable afford healthcare. The government caused this problem by structuring tax breaks on health care to support the "all you can eat" programs in lieu of health care savings accounts or tax deductions on health care. If the latter were true, people would have to trade some kind of resource to get health care, and you'd see a democratized system instead of a "golden ticket" system like we have today. Of course, some might argue that we should expand the golden ticket program. This simply will not work. Health care, like any other resource, is finite, and the best we can do as a society is distribute it fairly and efficiently.
- Education-- This is a doozy, and it really emphasizes a bedrock of conservative thinking: let government pay for as little as possible and let it do almost nothing. Education has been paid for and run by government for so many years now that it is completely hopeless in its current form. All schools should be auctioned off to private entities (like the Catholic church, Harvard and GE) who compete for students' government provided vouchers. Vouchers need not be given to all students. Rather than having the government collect money from residents of Greenwich, CT so that they can pay for schools in Greenwich, CT, cut property taxes and let those rich citizens pay tuition in Greenwich or any other school they feel is best for their children. Teachers could become as well paid as their union leaders dream by creating revenue by attracting students by teaching well.
- Social Security-- This is probably the most ill-conceived, well liked program in US history. It effectively takes from black men and gives to white women. I strongly believe the program should be scrapped entirely. We should cut one time checks to those who have paid into it for all of their contributions plus compounded 3% and we should do it retroactively (and post-mortem) for 20 years. Then we should expand tax deductible retirement programs like 401(k) and call it a day. Americans are the smartest, hardest working people in the world (for now). I think they can manage a low risk retirement portfolio.
The basic idea here is that our government treats us like fools. They take our money and give it right back to us, minus the vig. Americans should be concerned when Washington, DC is one of the fastest developing cities in the nation-- this is the clearest indicator of the overall problem.
Incentive and ownership based programs are the answer.
