A question from Yahoo! Answers:
Should we start calling the United States dollar the United States Peso if it keeps going down in value?
Does anyone think gas is going up or is it that your dollar is just worth less in this Welfare/ Warfare state?
(inflation tax)
You are confusing dollar depreciation with inflation… While both concerns are valid, they have to be treated separately.
Depreciation of the dollar is not necessarily a bad thing. It will lead to reduced trade deficit and increase in employment in export-oriented and import-competing industries. In 1985-87, the dollar depreciated about 50% against both the yen and the mark, and the U.S. economy continued to hum along nicely.
Inflation tax does in fact exist, but it is much smaller than income tax and way smaller than payroll taxes.
As to welfare and warfare, the U.S. definitely needs less warfare and more welfare. Suffice it to say that the U.S. is the only advanced nation without universal heathcare and has one of the worst primary and secondary educational systems in the industrialized world…
Original poster’s reply:
more welfare?
welfare sometimes can create lazy criminals.
take away someones self respect by giving welfare and suffer the consequences of their future behavior.
Yes, more welfare (in broad terms), including universal health coverage and a reform of the public school system.
There’s absolutely no evidence that welfare creates lazy criminals. What does create lazy criminals, however, is restricting teenagers’ access to abortion. Legalizing abortion usually leads to a visible drop in crime in 16-18 years. Criminalizing abortion, conversely, leads to increase in crime in 16-18 years.
As to taking away people’s self-respect, health insurance companies do it every day by denying medically necessary treatments to people they insure, and very few people seem to care…