Cutting Spending

Cutting Spending

Adam Kotsko:

You know what would really help, if you want to cut spending? Most things that actually help the majority of people — social programs, preventive health care, even free college tuition — are not very expensive. Most human beings’ needs are actually quite modest, even if you’re thinking in terms of “full human flourishing” — which of course is a ridiculous thing for the government to care about, but stay with me. The really expensive things are huge tax cuts for the wealthy ($300bn), bailouts for reckless speculators who threaten to undermine capitalism as a whole ($700bn), and unnecessary wars ($700bn).