Income Problems or Spending Problems

I’ve heard several senators express the idea that the USA has an income problem. IE we have made commitments ([by senators] to spend money that we didn’t have [to buy votes]) that we cannot fail to meet. However I am quite old enough to recall the peanut man JECIII and remember that he too had a problem of encroaching inflation… the current administration has learned to cook the books and not report inflation (although anyone who has visited the grocery store or a gas station lately knows better) or worse yet stagflation (this is where normal investments such as houses go down in value while the necessities of life increase in price) which is happening. I would say that my personal misery index meter is beginning to show yellow and for a lot of people it is showing red! However this does not address the issue of whether or not the USA has an income problem it just indicates that we have a priority problem. The government has printed money to try to cover some of its obligations and this money has in essence driven up the price of survival.
So supposing we actually had an income problem (which we do not) the next question would be how should this problem be addressed? Many senators insist that taxes must be raised to increase the income of the USA yet in all of the world I know of no enterprise (including government) that can increase its prices and actually increase its income. In fact the most one of the most successful (profitable or highest income) businesses in the world is Wal-mart www.walmart.com/ and their motto is lower prices always.

Therefore the only reason to raise taxes that I can see is for the government to either punish activity that it believes is bad or reward activity that the powers that be regard as good.

© 2011 Vic Jones