The Cancer of Utopianism

I recently ran across this from Nancy Pelosi advancing reasons to support Obamacare.

She proffered that it would lead to "an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance."

In other words, it would facilitate the migration of people to activities which are less economically productive. Now, in the Utopian fantasy mindset this is all quite wonderful because we don't actually have to confront how the things that support these artists and photographers get produced. But in the real world -- say in places like Greece -- we can see what actually happens when we penalize higher economic producers in order to facilitate more low producers.

This is not really new news. Most people have always known that when you tax an activity you will get less of it, and when you subsidize it you will get more of it.  What (apparently) has still not quite registered is that we are passing the tipping point where the effects of ignoring this fact turn malignant.

The Next Time You Hear Someone Praise Congress as Brilliant . . .

"What Congress did turned out to be absolutely brilliant—it created a system that harnesses private enterprise and private capital to deliver the public benefit of home ownership. And it maximizes this public benefit while minimizing the public risk, and without spending a nickel of public funds."

Franklin Raines, CEO Fannie Mae, May 16, 2000

The Rich Get Poorer. Are You Better Off Now?

According to the IRS, the number of "super-rich" dropped by more than 50% over the last three reporting years.
This should make the Occupy Wall Street crowd ecstatic. Are you feeling better off now?

Number of taxpayers with income of $10 million or more

2007       18,394
2009         8,274

Income Envy Versus Wealth Envy

Why the focus on the top 1% of income earners (which obviously changes quite a bit year to year) rather than than top 1% of wealth ( all financial and non-financial assets, including bank accounts, investments, houses, cars and debt)? Is it possibly because this measure has remained remarkably stable over time? Harder to get worked up over that "growing injustice" I suppose.

Does This Look Like a Matter of Too Little Revenue?

Spending and Taxes as a Percent of GDP