Could we be happier if we had higher taxes but worried less about other things?

Most of the questions during last night’s presidential debate dealt with the economy. One of the issues that I find a major part of the economy is health care. Personally, I think that we should have universal health care. But that’s just me.
Anyway, the plan laid out by Barack Obama offers the closest thing to universal health care that we are going to get. Contrary to popular belief, Obama does not propose that the government completely take over health care. He does propose that ordinary Americans have access to *gasp* the plan that our elected representatives have access to — …read more

I got this great question recently from a reader:
I really don’t use my health insurance that much, beyond preventative care visits and a couple of regular prescriptions. What is it that is causing my health insurance premiums to go up?
This is a common question that many people are asking right now. After all, the cost of health care has become expensive — prohibitively so in some cases. Indeed, I just received notice that my health insurance premium is being increased by $70 per month, starting in July.
But why is this happening? Lucky for me (and my questioning readers) there are …read more

One of the pet peeves I have about the debate over universal health care is this argument: “If we socialize health care, where will it end?” As if health care would be the first socialized institution in our country.
Our education system, police force, and even our mail system is socialized. When you look around and see all the social-type program we have, it seems rather amazing that only when health care comes up do people start to worry about socialism.
And, of course, one can’t forget socialized capitalism.
Er, isn’t “socialized capitalism” an oxymoron? In theory, I suppose so. In practice, though, …read more

As many regular readers know, I’m not a big fan of recent “economic stimulus” efforts. They tend to be band-aids rather than solutions. And Jennifer Hofmann at My Organized Biz asked me what I would do.
So here it is:
There is no way for the government to fix the economy. And it can’t happen in a short period of time. These things are cyclical. Downcycles are inevitable. Trying to prevent them at all actually makes the economy more unstable, as we’ve seen since the last economic stimulus a few years ago (during G.W. Bush’s first four years). But if the government …read more

We’ve been looking at what different presidential candidates have to offer in terms of economic plans. As the lone remaining Republican contender, it is no surprise that John McCain offers ideas that are different from the two remain Democratic candidates. He does have some interesting ideas, especially this idea that government deficit spending should be stopped. I like the idea of fiscal responsibility, but I’d like to see it achieved by other means, I think.
Basics of economic plans offered by John McCain

No universal health care here. Instead, McCain proposes that a refundable tax credit be offered to help offset the …read more

For the next three days, we are going to look at what the presidential candidates have to offer in the way of economic plans. The idea, of course, is to give you an idea of what the three top contenders offer in terms of trying to save the economy. Today: Hillary Clinton.
Economic plans from Hillary Clinton
The basics:

Save money by taking away subsidies for oil firms and drug companies. I assume the continued preferential tax treatment given to large, profitable Wall Street firms would also be in question.
Overhaul credit card regulations to limit sudden rate hikes and high fees.
Retirement savings plans …read more