There are better solutions than wealth taxes, ‘Medicare for all’ or universal basic income.
American capitalism is at a serious inflection point. Many Americans, including the two of us, are alarmed by enormous levels of inequality and by declining economic mobility. We are concerned that in many cases American markets are no longer the most competitive in the world. And, we worry that our country’s long-term economic strength will slowly deteriorate because of an unsustainable fiscal trajectory that leaves future generations worse off.
The solution is not to upend the system. A market-based economy, for all its flaws, is still the best way to achieve broad economic prosperity and to ensure that living standards continue to rise over time. But the answer is not to maintain the status quo, either.
Radical change or complete inaction seem to be the only types of solutions that are being debated in today’s marketplace of ideas. Americans can’t afford to restrict our thinking based on political ideology and the false equivalency of having to pick one extreme or the other. That’s a recipe for stalemate.
Since founding the bipartisan Aspen Economic Strategy Group more than two years ago, our focus has been on bringing together leaders with different perspectives to highlight the importance of evidence-based policymaking. Earlier this week, 38 of our members signed on to a statement of principles that should guide the development of a new economic policy agenda. We also believe we must rigorously analyze some of the proposals that are being put forward in today’s policy debates, including universal basic income, “Medicare for all” and direct taxes on wealth.
Based on research from the newest book from the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, the two of us are more convinced than ever that those policies are fundamentally misguided and would result in economically harmful outcomes that could put our economy on an unstable and precarious path, harming the very people they are intended to help.
The collective work to identify specific policy solutions, however, also suggests to us that there are still many ways to ensure more that many more people can participate in America’s successes. And while there are no silver bullets, nor will there ever be complete agreement about every policy detail, we see many excellent ideas that are ripe for bipartisan collaboration and that can begin the process of adapting our economic policies so that they work for far more people.
First, we must aggressively invest in our human capital. That starts with addressing the supply side of the education market, including investments in community colleges to provide more students the option to obtain a high-quality education and complete their degree. This ensures that more American workers have the skills they need to compete in a global economy. Just as important, investing in education will increase economic productivity, which will help drive the wage growth needed to reduce income inequality.
There are other steps we can take to further address the distribution of economic opportunity and wage growth. But as Melissa Kearney and Magne Mogstad have argued, universal basic income is not a viable solution. It directs resources away from the neediest individuals and fails to address the underlying factors that contribute to inequality. Instead, we should look at more targeted and efficient approaches to encouraging work by supplementing the wages of low- and middle-income Americans, such as expanding the earned -income tax credit or enacting a wage -subsidy program.
Finally, we have to confront the uncomfortable truth that our country is on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory. Spending priorities such as education, infrastructure, and high-value research and development are underfunded, while our commitments to entitlements continue to rise indefinitely. Restoring the sanity of our fiscal position will require raising more revenue, slowing the rate of growth in health care spending, and making Social Security sustainably solvent.
Returning to fiscal responsibility through spending reform alone is neither just nor possible. The United States needs to reform its tax code in a manner that is more progressive and produces more revenue. But there are better approaches than a wealth tax, which would be highly distortionary and is unlikely to capture nearly as much revenue as its proponents claim. Making the income tax code more progressive and reforming estate and gift taxes to eliminate the loopholes that allow wealthy Americans to pass on wealth to their children at very low tax rates would be a better first step.
Whatever path policymakers choose, it is clear that we need to move away from theoretical arguments and wishful thinking and into the arena of pragmatic policy solutions that can actually be enacted. There is a plethora of policies that already enjoy broad bipartisan support, and these policies can be enacted only through effective government, which will require leaders to engage in principled compromise and make decisions grounded in facts and analyses.
The cost of inaction is severe and grows each day, as inequality undermines our economic strength and more Americans become disillusioned with the capitalist system that has made upward mobility a pillar of the country’s identity since its founding.
Robert Reich: A Bold New Idea to Boost Wages
Robert Reich explains how expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit would boost wages for millions of working Americans.
Crushing it for whom, Mr. Kudlow?
Last week, one of President Trump’s top economic advisers, Larry Kudlow, argued the U.S. economy is “crushing it,” posting boom-like numbers in key areas, all thanks to the leadership of the president.
Evaluating such claims usually begins with assessing whether the president should get credit for an economy he inherited in year eight of a solid expansion. But the fact that Trump is claiming credit for trends that were largely ongoing before he took office is one of the few ways in which he is not much different from former presidents.
.. Who is actually getting ahead in the Trump economy?
.. . In contrast, corporate profits and equity markets truly are crushing it, both on a pre- and especially, given the large business tax cuts, a post-tax basis.
.. There is also no evidence of an investment boom, suggesting the recent, above-trend growth in GDP is Keynes, not Laffer — meaning the deficit spending is providing a temporary boost but will not have lasting, positive impacts for long-term economic growth.
.. Starting with wages, since Trump took office, the real hourly wage for the 82 percent of the workforce that is blue collar in factories and non-managers in services is up half-a-percent, an extra 11 cents per hour.
.. the growth of mid-level pay has picked up a bit, as we’d expect with such low unemployment. But inflation, largely driven by higher energy costs, has also sped up, canceling out any real gains.
.. If energy prices come down and unemployment continues to fall, real wage growth for mid-wage workers will improve. But the magnitude of their gains will likely be nothing close to the administration’s claim that the tax cut would add at least $4,000 to annual earnings within a few years of the legislation.
.. In President Barack Obama’s second term, real annual wage growth for mid-wage workers was about 1 percent, so call that the baseline.
.. Sticking with the tax cut, its proponents main claim was the big corporate cuts would generate more business investment, which would lead to faster productivity growth, which would position us for higher paying jobs. So far, every link in that chain is broken.
.. Business investment is growing, as we’d expect in an economy operating close to full capacity. But its growth rate is not faster now than at various points earlier in the expansion.
.. There has been a modest uptick in investment in structures (such as plants, offices, wells, mine shafts, warehouses) in the first half of 2018, but, as economist Dean Baker has shown, the growth in such investment was due to higher energy prices generating increased investment in mining for oil and natural gas.
.. While mining investment has increased by 36.7 percent over the last year, it rose by 47.3 percent from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, when the Obama administration was still enforcing environmental laws. In both cases, the key factor was rising world oil prices.
.. It takes time to plan investments, so it is too soon to conclude the tax cuts have not made a difference. But none of the surveys of companies’ investment plans show any plans to ratchet up capital spending
.. What is clear is firms are using their tax windfalls to boost share prices through buybacks, which, along with strong corporate profits, are fueling a historical bull market for stocks.
.. instead of borrowing $2 trillion to finance the regressive tax cut, Congress could have put more money in the pockets of working Americans and made investments for our economic future.
.. First, we should have expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit to compensate for decades of stagnant wage growth. The Brown-Khanna plan, calling for a $1.4 trillion EITC expansion, would have provided working families making up to $75,000 with up to $8,000 more in take home pay.
.. the best way to raise pay for ordinary Americans is to do so directly as opposed to pretending it will come through the largesse of executives and shareholders.
.. Second, we should have put billions to expand the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program, linking employers to technical schools to develop credentials that respond to the needs of our cutting-edge industries.
.. Third, we should have provided hiring incentives for anchor companies to create jobs in places left behind such as Paintsville, Ky., or Flint, Mich. If a company is willing to hire in places where people do not have enough access to high-wage jobs, then they should get support for doing so.
.. Fourth, we should have invested in bringing high speed Internet to every corner of America. Providing fiber broadband to every corner of the United States is the modern equivalent of rural electrification.
.. Larry Kudlow’s right: The Trump administration is crushing it for its donor base, which is in turn handsomely rewarding them.
.. But it has done nothing for the forgotten Americans and nothing to make sure America is a winner in the 21st century. We do not need more sugar highs for those already doing well. We need to give lasting pay raises to those struggling to pay the bills and then focus on the forward-looking investments that will finally reconnect GDP growth to broadly shared prosperity.