You Probably Rely on the Federal Government a Lot More Than You Think You Do

[applegrove]

You Probably Rely on the Federal Government a Lot More Than You Think You Do

by Seth Masket at the Pacific Standard

http://www.psmag.com/politics/government-need-long-invisible-69011/

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And yet the government tends to get involved where real needs exist, usually due to market shortfalls. Lack of health insurance, unaffordable flood insurance, difficulties obtaining housing, lack of access to higher education, etc., are real problems, and American voters have repeatedly expressed their frustration over them and their support for candidates who offer solutions.

Except … these needs run against a peculiar American ideological strain that rejects most (or even all) signs of federal power and equates even modest levels of taxation with tyranny or socialism. Thus has the American political system developed an unusual way of meeting citizens' needs while attempting to hide the fact that it is doing so. This system has been dubbed "the submerged state" by political scientist Suzanne Mettler and, relatedly, "the kludgeocracy" by political scientist Steven Teles.

Even Senator Ted Cruz gets help from the taxpayers, despite his claims to the contrary; his wife's private health insurance plan is provided through a tax exemption.

As Mettler shows in her work, such a form of public policy tends to lead to perverse understandings of American politics by its citizens. For example, many people wish to buy homes, and the federal government wants to see more people owning homes, as homeownership produces desirable qualities in citizens and the housing sector is an enormous part of the economy. But houses are expensive. So rather than produce some federal bureaucracy that helps people afford homes or sets price caps on them, Congress instead inserted the home mortgage interest deduction into the tax code. The federal government spends about $100 billion per year on this program, but most of its beneficiaries either don't know about it or don't think that they are benefiting from a federal program. Indeed, some 96 percent of Americans rely on some federal largesse at some point in their lives, coming in the form of subsidies or tax deductions, but most of us think of ourselves as independent. Even Senator Ted Cruz, as John Sides points out, gets help from the taxpayers, despite his claims to the contrary; his wife's private health insurance plan is provided through a tax exemption.



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[Thinkingabout]

1. I would bet he travels by air, air traffic controllers are paid, he travels on our roads and highway

Built by tax money, our military which protects us, paid for by tax payer money, yep we all take a part of the tax payer money for our lives.

[KentuckyWoman]

2. I would be sitting in the dark right now

No free market electric company would build the power grid out here.

[JoeyT]

5. +1

I make that argument constantly to people out here. Rural utilities would be non-existent were it left up to the market. Paved roads out here wouldn't be a thing either. Basically living in the country would require you to be a multi-millionaire, or to be the kind of person that's happy carrying water from the creek in buckets to take a cold bath in the dark.

[gopiscrap]

3. I've been telling people that for years, specially after reagan got into office

[Laelth]

4. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth