US politics: worse than I expected

[mtbc]

Before WWI we had Pax Britannica, after WWII we had Pax Americana, apparently until now: clearly, the US can no longer be trusted in that role. I am glad to see Europeans trying to scramble to plug the gaps on this side against Russia, I wonder if we could see some similar alliance in Asia against China's territorial ambitions? I am perhaps more right-wing than many friends, I am glad to see some reversal of the deep cuts in defence spending here, though in a competently run industrialized country I think we should be able to spend on defence and look after, house and feed everybody to at least a basic level. From where Britain is now there's some catching up to do, like the US we seem bad at learning that if you treat and help everybody well then you get to get more tax back from them instead of their travails costing the state more. Policy failings in health, education, welfare take as long to reverse as the costs arising from underinvestment in infrastructure. We can spend less on defence when the world is full of liberal democracies but we sure ain't anywhere near that yet.

I keep finding myself outside the US when Trump is in power, I feel bad not being able to help more given my privileged status as a white straight male US citizen but I have to look after my family and the US is not the place for brown-skinned non-Christian immigrants. Since principled senior officials elsewhere in government seem to find themselves either resigning or being forced out, the judiciary seems to be about the best remaining bulwark and it's not like they command much of an army. We'll see how the Supreme Court rules on some coming conflicts and to what extent the executive even has to care. Though, while the administration runs the playbook already executed by Erdoğan, Orbán, etc., perhaps I can also draw hope from that Trump is failing to please his base in some ways: if he were competent enough to manage their cost of living issues then the situation would be even more dire. Still, rather than defending the Constitution, remaining Republican officeholders seem to be taking the tack of keeping quiet in the hope of the leopards eating other people's faces instead.

Comments

[thewayne]

..."we should be able to spend on defence and look after, house and feed everybody to at least a basic level"...

The problem, of course, is the rich don't want to have to pay any taxes at all, and can afford the tax lawyers and accountants to make it so. When the USA had 90% tax on the rich back in the '40s, we still had phenomenally rich people, we also had a much narrower gap between the rich and poor, and a very prosperous country. Not so much anymore, and the rich are still sinking their money into off-shore tax havens.

We need to start progressive taxes so that the tax burden is lightened on the poor and lower classes and increased greatly on the wealthy and rich. In the USA, that includes uncapping Social Security taxes so that the rich continue to pay into it. We need very serious tax reform so that the Borrow, Buy, Die paradigm is broken and the rich get taxed on income like everyone else.

We're going to have an insane number of awfully fat leopards before all this is over.

[dewline]

And we cannot count on any of them suffering heart attacks.

[mtbc]

Absolutely. Here I'm in the top 5% by income and I'd be fine with the top tax bracket taking two thirds of the highest incomes (say, for the 1%), especially if passive income is taxed similarly, and with the IRS getting funding increases at least past the point where the funding pays for itself in enforcement (including barely taxed money that's earned from overseas sources then remitted to the taxing country). And the US tax code needs torn up and rewritten, it's by far the hairiest bit of legislation I've ever read. But, especially while the mainstream media's cowed, I'm not holding my breath for enough of the protesters to bring their pitchforks for prodding the powers that be, too many of the lobbyists and donors would howl so loudly, we still can't even sufficiently regulate investment banks.

[thewayne]

Years back, there was a tax amendment introduced to Congress.  Incredibly byzantine.  No one could figure out who the tax break would benefit.  Finally a financial magazine took some analysts and had them sit down and work it over.  The entire bill benefited ONE person: H. Ross Perot.  I have no idea if it passed.