
The House Just Voted to Bankrupt Graduate Students - csomar
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/house-tax-bill-graduate-students.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
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s0rin
Here lies my concern with any sort of government-sponsored program in the US:
once it becomes policy, any discussion that involves cutting, limiting, or
removing expenditures becomes an ethical argument against the group benefiting
from the programs. Here's another spin on this: subsidies to graduate students
are bankrupting the United States. This article isolates a single decision,
politicizes it, and demonizes anyone who isn't in favor of keeping the program
as-is. But here's the kicker - they don't offer a solution or an alternative.
The US has an unsustainable level of deficit spending, and we can either
increase taxes, cut spending, or some combination of both. The article doesn't
even offer an alternative, or explore the underlying justifications for why
they opted to cut these benefits, which further emphasizes the point. We don't
live in a world of limitless resources - every dollar we spend on X is one
fewer dollar we can spend on Y. This type of narrowly-focused journalism isn't
productive, and has made me more cautious of politicians who want to implement
policies that cost money, but don't talk about how they're going to get the
funds.

Just as a full disclosure, I'm actually in favor of the deductions/exemptions,
and I'd rather see reductions in government administrative staff,
entitlements, and military contractors. But I'm not naive - cuts need to be
made, and as recent news has shown, increasing taxes isn't always as cut-and-
dry as it needs to be due to the various loopholes. The most egalitarian
solution would be a flat percentage-based cut across all programs, and some
form of flat percentage-based increase in taxes, but instead of gaining bi-
partisan support, it would probably just piss off everyone. This is probably
why I'm a better accountant than politician - because people want to do what
they feel like doing, irrespective of whether or not it's the right thing to
do.

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detaro
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15716704](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15716704)

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willstrafach
Looks like that one was flagged to death.

