REAGAN, BUSH & CO.
It’s Jimmy Carter’s quote, but Reagan, Bush & Co. owe him a debt of gratitude for setting the right tone in his final years as predecessor proprietor. Thanks, Jimmy.
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Some of these costs will be paid through largely regressive taxes, some simply through reduced standards of living. Many future costs are hard to estimate: What is the cost of the government failing to support high technology, such as advanced computer chips, photovoltaics (solar power), or high-definition television, as government-supported foreign competitors seize major industries of the future? What is the cost of our continuing trade deficits and our huge foreign indebtedness considering that the money borrowed did little to raise U.S. productivity?
Reagan cut back on already inadequate public works spending, shunting the expense to the future and diminishing the productivity of the economy. Chicago Federal Reserve Bank economist David Aschauer has persuasively argued that investing in needed public works would now raise even private profits more than a comparable investment in private industry.
This represents cost health care spending per capita in the United States compared with Canada, which has a national health insurance program (and much more comprehensive coverage). The burden would seem even larger if the comparison were made with Germany, Japan, or Britain, all of which have national health care systems.
