Originally posted by KazetNagorraProbably from the Cato Institute?
[b]It is quite typical that workers on government jobs are paid 50% t0 100% more than their private sector counterparts.
Really? That's certainly not the case around these parts. Where did you get that figure?[/b]
Originally posted by TeinosukeFor me a job doesn't need to be fulfilling. For me it is what you do outside the job on your time off.
It would never occur to me to think about whether a job was a government job or a private job when I applied for it. I'd be thinking about whether it suited my skills and qualifications and whether I thought the job itself would be personally fulfilling and socially useful.
Originally posted by RBHILLWell, what I do outside the job is important too, but one way or another you're going to spend a lot of time at the office. I'm quite glad that I have the kind of job where I feel I'm making just a bit of a positive impact on other people, influencing the lives of my students, helping them to work out what kind of adults they want to be.
For me a job doesn't need to be fulfilling. For me it is what you do outside the job on your time off.
And it doesn't make a damn shred of difference to that aim whether I happen to be working at a state-financed or a private institution!
Originally posted by normbenignEven if only half of the top marginal tax rate was actually paid by the rich, that's still high compared to half of a lower rate. And yes, progressive taxation had everything to do with the national debt being paid off successfully in the right direction under Truman, then less so but still solidly under Ike and JFK, then stalling in the 1970s, then worsening greatly under both Reagan and George W. Bush. For the latter two Republican presidents, increased neoconservative military spending was another factor in increasing the national debt.
You missed the key item in the timeline, Nixon's blow up of the Gold Standard. And the subsequent floating dollar theory originated by Friedman and followed since by the Fed. Progressive taxation has little to nothing to do with paying down the dept up until Ike. Hardly anyone paid the highest marginal rates, so not much revenue was generated.