Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The Ugly Side of Benevolence

According to Congressman, Paul Ryan, there are currently more than 90 federal poverty programs (many of them overlapping) that the government is ""administering" (mismanaging, is probably a better term). I propose that we do away with all of them and replace them with two; a beefed-up Earned Income Tax Credit (which I would administer monthly rather than in one lump sum) and subsidized health savings accounts supplemented with a high deductible catastrophic policy. You see, that way we could continue to help poor people but we'd be doing it in a manner that is far less bureaucratic and far more empowering to the individuals. That, and, since the patient himself would be the one in charge of these expenditures, the cost of overall healthcare would probably come down (much like it has for lasik eye surgery, full body scans, nose jobs, hair transplants, etc. - the fact that people would take better care of themselves, not go to the doctor for small things, shop around, etc.) as well.........................................................................................Of course, this type of approach wouldn't make the bureaucrats and paper-pushers down in Washington very happy in that it would radically reduce their power over the citizens and taxpayers. But that's a major-league positive side-effect, in my opinion.

3 comments:

dmarks said...

Will, would you abolish the minimum wage, since you then would have the EITC... which does a lot more for the working poor the the minimum wage does, and helps only the working poor also?

dmarks said...

Also, Will, the preponderance of such programs serves to make legions of bureaucrats wealthy.... taking money, medical care, and food away from the truly impoverished.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I think that the minimum wage is a very cruel construct in that it freezes out of the job force those with the fewest skills. We have close to a 50% black male teenage unemployment rate and raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour is just going to solidify that.......That, and these wage supports never work well. Just ask Hoover and Nixon.