Many suggest, when discussing President Biden’s aggressive spending plans, that the proposals are too costly. Mark Twain said, “It isn’t what sum you get, it’s how much you can buy with it, that’s the important thing.” (“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”) In other words we should expect to get what we pay for.
Yes, this will be expensive, very expensive. But as Twain notes, the important thing here is what we get for our investments. I am not an economist but am certain that major changes will need to be made to existing tax codes. This will have to include actually taxing everyone, including the very rich who reportedly pay a much smaller percentage of their earnings than people like you and me. It will also ensure that everyone who works full time will get a living wage; a home, food, television, broadband connectivity and something left for vacations and leisure activities.
There is good evidence that this government model works in a significant number of countries around the world. Their citizens realize that investments in themselves pay dividends to make all citizens’ lives better. It almost sounds like, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, a country “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
We might be at a rare stage of our history where virtually everything can be made better for almost everyone. I am entering the later stages of my life and would be very glad to see the torch of humanity passed to a better world than we have now for future generations.
Wayne Wilson, West Jordan