Philosophy Club Meeting: Banishing the Myth of Wasteful Government Spending

Please join us in Auerbach 320 or online this Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m., for our next meeting of the University of Hartford Philosophy Club as Brian Skelly presents:

Banishing the Myth of Wasteful Government Spending: The Capitalist Argument  for Investment in the People

I have lived much of my life not quite able to shirk the notion that it is the bane of government to spend too much, thus digging for itself a debt hole from which it can not climb out. The things trotted out as the most egregious cases of this kind of government waste were “social programs’, “entitlements”, and “welfare programs” for immigrants and for the needy. It was argued further that we should not invest in “undocumented aliens” at all because they had broken the law in coming to this country in the first place. According to this line of thinking, fiscal responsibility entails cutting back on all such wasteful expenditures in order to lower the national debt, focusing government spending on the military to keep the world peaceful and prosperous while doing what we can when necessary to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes on the wealthy. The argument for this was that the wealthy are the main job producers of the economy, so giving them tax breaks will leave them with more money to invest in the economy, thus creating more jobs.

This, roughly, jibes with the position known as “economic liberalism” in most of the rest of the world, but more commonly known as capitalist conservatism here in the U.S. This vision was the motivation behind much of our public policy from Eisenhower on, Democratic presidents included. It was the reason behind our massive efforts at welfare reform, our animosity toward immigrant services, most notably bilingual education, which was made illegal in some states, our rush to bail out businesses and banks in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008 while allowing large segments of the American people to flounder in bankruptcy and mortgage default, and our longstanding policy since the Clinton era of not allowing people to declare bankruptcy on their student loans. (Complete document attached)

To join the meeting online, click the button at the bottom of the page. If you have trouble joining, call Brian Skelly: 413.273.2273

Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.  

Food and drink are served. Come and go as you wish. Bring friends. Suggest topics. Take over the club! It belongs to you!