Monday, November 16, 2009

Toward a fairer distribution of the crumbs

Clive Crook, Financial Times:

The US social contract needs to be revised, so that the elderly, many of whom are comparatively well off, receive less so that the poor can get more.

Now here is a fine example of why we we need an economic civil rights movement, as well as the class consciousness which informs it: because diverting resources from people on fixed incomes, "so that the poor can get more," only makes sense if you want to preserve outlays for everything else.

Notably, this includes paying the Taliban to protect the US supply routes used for fighting the Taliban.  One could argue this is a poor use of taxpayer money -- to say nothing of meddling in the Middle East immediately after being attacked for meddling in the Middle East!

But insofar as defense expenditures have proven the most patriotic means of separating Americans from their tax money in the least transparent of ways, our desire for "national security" has grown accordingly -- and in tandem with our deficits!  No amount of debt is too great for securing "the homeland," but see if you can convince anyone at the Washington Post that the "homies" who live there deserve security in their daily lives -- or that this actually makes good economic sense.

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