Equitable Economics

MANIFESTO

Bob Reich discusses the health care proposal in his latest post. The money passage:

I know: Critics will charge that these [ultra-rich, who will pay for the plan] are the very people who invest, innovate, and hire, and thereby keep the economy going. So raising their taxes will burden the economy and thereby hurt everyone, including those who are supposed to be helped.

But there's no reason to suppose that taking a tiny sliver of the incomes of the top 1 percent will reduce all that much of their ardor to invest, innovate, and hire in the future. Yet if this tiny sliver means affordable health care for a far larger number of Americans, who will be able to get regular checkups and thereby stay healthy and productive, the positive effect on the American economy is likely to be far greater.

This is the type of social democracy that I believe in. May it come to pass.