Thursday, January 07, 2010

Economics in 1967 and in 2010

The past is always instructive to those of us who are dealing with the problems of the present and future. In 1967, the governor of California wrote the following:

For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told there are no simple answers to the complex problems which are beyond our comprehension.

Well, the truth is, there are simple answers; they just are not easy ones. The time has come for us to decide whether, collectively, we can afford everything and anything we think of simply because we think of it. The time has come to run a check to see if all the services government provides were in answer to demands or were just goodies dreamed up for our supposed betterment. The time has come to match outgo to income, instead of always doing it the other way around.


In 2010, we will see the U.S. economy continue to struggle, and it will be made worse by the tax increases for every citizen in our country. The current trends in both Congress and the White House will raise the amount of tax paid by every individual in this country, even by the poorest.

What we need now is lower taxes for every American, meaning that the current leaders in Washington will need to stop thinking of new ways to spend money. Any expansion of government programs is a crushing burden to wage-earners who can least afford it.