No Free Lunch

The Kokomo (IN) Tribune’s Guest Columnist on September 24th, Judy Dugan, went a bit overboard with her criticism of Mitt Romney while detailing her dependency on federal and state entitlements. She said she and her husband are and have been “dependent on federal and state entitlements”. With the exception of Social Security benefits including Medicare which I fully agree she and her husband are entitled to since they funded them during their working period before retirement, I point out that any other entitlements she has received have been at the expense of someone else. Entitlements are not freebies. There is no free lunch. By the way, contrary to her claim Social Security income is not taxable, it is.
A federal mortgage deduction means someone else has to pay more to make up for that. Forgiving a student loan means someone else has to pick up the tab. Any federal or state credits for anything mean someone else has to foot the bill or we as a country just continue to deepen the government debt now over 16 trillion dollars.
And Ms. Dugan just does not get it about the capital gains tax and dividend taxes. Taking those taxes to lower levels or eliminating them altogether puts more dollars into the funding of business development and expansion which means more jobs for many more people. She complains about anything that puts more money into the hands of the “wealthy”.
Let me tell you a little story. The State of Florida increased significantly the tax on yachts several years ago thinking the “rich” should pay more. Sales of yachts went down significantly putting the workers who build those boats on the street. The same for those who sold the boats, serviced them, worked as crews on them, sold fuel and supplies for them, and for all who were employed at harbors that housed them. In short, the money spent by the “rich” put people to work. Raising taxes put people out of work. That is pretty basic economics. Florida quickly eliminated the tax increase.
Since Ms. Dugan is now among the retired, it would be wise if she enrolled in an economics course at Ivy Tech State College which is “free” of tuition for those over 60 (another entitlement which must be subsidized by taxpayers).