On 10/13/10 1:12 PM, nom=de=plume wrote:

"Jim" wrote in message
...
On 10/13/2010 9:06 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:13:08 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

That's the problem with entitlements. Once they're out there, they
become a sacred right. For a variety of reasons US manufacturing has
become uncompetetive in the world market place. Increased
entitlements and the resulting higher tax rates can only make the
problem worse. A service based economy can only take you so far.
Sooner or later you have to make something or have enough foreign
exchange to purchase it elsewhere. Right now we are extending IOUs to
fund our imports but sooner or later those chips will be called in.


So, which ones are you willing to give up? We have a fairly low tax
rate
already, certainly vs. the rest of the world.

You conveniently miss the point: The discussion is/was about
starting new entitlements not getting rid of the existing ones. In
addition to having lower tax rates than many other countries, we also
have a much higher standard of living. Unfortunately that is likely
to change.


There are many countries now that provide a much higher quality of
life for the majority of their citizens.

Exactly.



Here's one set of indicators:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index

There are others. The United States is not first in quality of life. It
probably is first among modern western nations in disparity of income
between the wealthy and the middle class, but the fact that a relatively
few have tremendous wealth does not mean a country has a high quality of
life.


--
I'm not a warlock . . . I'm you!