"The chief enemy of knowledge is the presumption of knowledge."
The history of science is replete with examples of authorities presuming to "know" more than they actually did. Progress came when the accepted ideas were challenge such as when Copernicus challenged the accepted astronomy or Galileo disproved Aristotelian physics or Einstein shattered many ideas.
But the tendency to presume to know things is common in all areas of life, including politics. Corporate media has induced the public to have a unquestioning and blind faith in propositions which are highly questionable. This can be seen in two areas.
1. Taxes. Much of the public firmly believes that tax cuts are the strongest and best medicine for an ailing economy. Space limitations preclude a detailed analysis, but the overall trends are clear: over the last six decades this nation has lowered its tax rates and its economic growth has slowed. Of course that does not prove that higher taxes create growth, but some astute economists argue that tax cuts are highly overrated.
Back in 1953, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, income over $400,000 was taxed at 92 percent. Shortly after, the rate was lowered to 91 percent.
Several months before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy proposed a 20 percent tax cut. As a result, in 1964, Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed that into law and the top tax rate was about 70 percent until Republican Reagan lowered it to 50 percent in 1982. In 1988, the top marginal rate was lowered to 28 percent.
Corporate tax rates also followed the downward trend. During the 1950s, the corporate income tax was 52 percent of profits. It was lowered to 48 percent in 1964, to 46 percent in 1978, to 45 percent in 1981, and then to 34 percent in 1986. The average inflation-adjusted economic growth for the 1960s was 4.44 percent; for the 1970s it was 3.26 percent; for the 1980s it was 3.07 percent and for the 1990s was 3.11 percent. Why did our economy grow faster when tax rates were higher?
When Clinton raised taxes to 39.6 percent at the beginning of his administration, Republicans predicted doomsday scenarios. Yet during Clinton's tenure 21,872,000 jobs were created. George W. Bush and the Republicans, which controlled both chambers of Congress for his first six years, used every excuse to cut taxes enormously. During W. Bush's eight years, there was net job loss of 672,00 jobs.
For politicians to tout the benefits of Bush tax cuts is tantamount to a salesman still attempting to sell his product immediately after it utterly failed a demonstration.
Our tax policies are created by politicians who depend on the contributions and votes of those who are not poor. In the 2004 election, of the 40 million people making less than $35,000, about one third voted. Of the 33.4 million people making over seventy five thousand dollars, about three-fourths voted.
2. Health care. It is widely presumed that the U.S. approach to health care is more efficient than other nations. In 2008, our government agencies spent $4,500 per person on health care while each person, on average, spent another $3,100, making over $7600 per capita. Our government's health care spending is more than other rich nation's public and private spending combined.
The total public and private spending on medical care in Germany, Canada and Belgium was about $4,000 per capita. Australia and Britain spend $3,500 per capita, while Japan spends less than that.
Taiwan spends about 2 percent of all health care spending on administrative and overhead expenditures while the U.S. spends about 25 percent -- which is more than any other industrialized nation.
Polls show that 81 percent of Americans presume that the health care overhaul will add to the deficit over time even though the Congressional Budget Office found exactly the opposite.
The public unawareness of key facts allows it to presume that the right wing versions of free market ideology are correct.
This helps Republicans since the misconceptions are unlikely to be dislodged by brief advertisements. Because successful politicians must appear to share the deeply ingrained positions of the voters, Democrats, and even Democrats in name only (Blue Dogs), have an uphill battle.
Rick Jones, of West Haven, has taught economics.
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