A Liberal’s Vision For Saving The Economy

Lower taxes. Not exactly what people would consider a liberal statement, but dealing in absolutes as a Republican policy is the reason we continue to grow trillions of dollars into debt while Americans live a lower quality of life than some European nations. The solutions are common sense, but the majority refuse to accept them, owing to their xenophobia.

Raising taxes on the rich is a first step in achieving this. Indeed people in these positions often give remarkable gifts to society and work hard. However, take Jeff Bezos as an example. He is worth $175 billion, meaning he could have 99% of his money taken away and still live a life thousands of times better than the average American. No person could conceivably spend that amount of money, and one must realize that expecting the well-to-do to contribute their fair share could cut the average tax burden in half (the top 1% control most of the nation's wealth).

On the opposite end, we need to cut government spending. Too often "greedy bums on welfare" are blamed for the national government's spending excesses. However, we spend more than half of our total budget on military spending. We could cut our military budget in half and focus on home-based defense and still spend more than the next 12 countries combined, all but 2 of which are our allies. Taking the diplomatic approach would hasten world peace and reduce the tax burden on most Americans entirely. This would help business and increase individual spending, which would help workers via competitive wage increases and begin a cycle of economic growth.

We must also stop bailing out corporations. For a nation that claims to fear socialism, we seem to ignore principles laid out plainly by Adam Smith in his definition of capitalism. We consider corporate structures people, and corporations got 2.5 times as much money in the COVID-19 bailout as the people did (and still laid off workers).

Liberal economic principles would work if people could listen to common sense. Obama reduced the deficit by 80% and Clinton presided over 4 surpluses, while Bush oversaw a recession, as did Trump. The economy is at stake; do the math.