Both parties have advocated new spending on infrastructure, but in our post-Covid economy that could spell disaster for our economy. Why? Because the greatest danger to our economy today is inflation.
That's because the supply chain was greatly disrupted with all the layoffs due to Covid. Now that consumer demand is increasing, we should be putting our money to work to repair the supply chain, not build new infrastructure. Hiring for new infrastructure projects will compete with hiring to re-staff the supply chain. New jobs on infrastructure don't directly produce more goods for more GDP, but new jobs in the supply do. If demand exceeds our ability to produce, then we'll have inflation.
The answer is to cut income taxes to encourage spending and economic growth, and to provide earned income credits to encourage employment. Replacing unemployment and welfare with basic income would eliminate the penalty that punishes recipients of those benefits when they get a job. But basic income is only feasible if it is paid for with a payments tax instead of income tax increases! Funding basic income with increases in income taxes or through a VAT would be like shooting ourselves in the foot!
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