Posts Tagged ‘Economic’
No more apologies – Part II
We grovel before Gadhafi and hide our flag. Critics claim we are a self-centered and selfish country, providing less foreign aid than twenty-one other countries when comparing the aid as a percentage of gross national income. Are our critics right? Are we not what we believe?
Can we tax our way out of irresponsible debt?
Congress believes irresponsible debt and spending is needed to rectify the problems created by irresponsible debt and spending. Further, it believes raising taxes to pay for its irresponsible debt will actually stimulate spending.
The fraud of socialism
Leicester University in England recently ranked Denmark as the happiest country. What is their secret? By their own admission they are a socialist, welfare state providing everything for everyone from birth to death. And they freely, almost proudly admit they pay for it with the highest income taxes in the world.
Socialism or democracy – we choose
Who should pay taxes and how much of their income should they pay in taxes? What is fair? Should everyone pay the same percentage of their income in taxes, or should the percentage increase as their income increases? If everyone paid the same percentage of their income in taxes, the more you earned the more taxes you would pay. That seems more than fair. Our government thinks not. Our government believes those who earn more should pay not only more in total taxes but also pay a higher percentage of their income as well.
The United States – the world’s provider and protector
We consider ourselves a giving, caring country. But how do we compare to other “rich” nations in our willingness to provide foreign aid? The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a thirty-nation organization that works with countries to develop “open market economies, democratic pluralism, and respect for human rights.” In 2003, OECD reported how much their member countries gave in foreign aid. The United States was responsible for 35 percent of the total contributions of the thirty nations and gave more than twice that of the next biggest giver, Japan. But, when the same foreign aid data was presented as a percentage of the country’s gross national income; the United States did not fare as well, ranking in the lower third of the world’s richest countries, giving only 0.15 percent of our gross national income compared to the most generous country, Norway, that gave 0.92 percent, followed by Denmark that gave 0.84 percent.
