We also owe our Veterans a huge debt...this is outside normal economic policy IMO.
It is my contention, however, that the area to the RIGHT of the mean of the income curve is also being distorted...significantly...by a whole host of government programs, the monstrous tax and regulatory codes for one, and other government lobbyist efforts for another.
Guest labor and immigration non-enforcement is yet another... all of these policies act to reinforce certain occupations and income levels, at the expense of other levels. This is why you will not find the actual income distribution curves discussed in economics papers...they are much too reveling of what is really going on.
Do you think it is an accident that Teresa Heinz Kerry pays less, percentage wise, as income tax than you or I do?
It is my contention that the Social Darwinism we see being advocated is actually selected groups and individuals using the federal and state governments to enrich themselves, at the expense of other groups.
Conservatives who favor unlimited guest workers, must eventually confront the reality, than in a society which allows wholesale replacement of higher paying jobs with equivalent non-free market negotiated lower paying H1b or guest worker jobs, is setting up a system whereby the only protected jobs are:
Entertainment related jobs
Jobs which require individual high levels of creativity, expression, talent, and a recognized name recognition. Talent falls along the same bell curve...these jobs are by definition limited.
Government jobs
Jobs which are required by, and involve daily interaction with a government entity..ie legal and law enforcement for example.
Union or trade regulated jobs
The net result of all this, is unfortunately...MORE GOVERNMENT and socialism...not less.
Its a self reinforcing system..what engineers like to call POSITIVE FEEDBACK.
Don't know what to tell you, you're probably right. Adam Smith used the phrase "nation of shopkeepers" to describe the exchange of talent and time for money. We're now a "world of shopkeepers." The competition is not just down the street or across the country, but on the other side of the globe.
But what is the role of government in this? Do we "apply" government power domestically to smooth the humps and bumps of a global economy or do we apply it on the international front to isolate ourselves via tariffs etc.?
If I was smart enough to figure this out, I'd be a rich guy.