[PEN-L:11461] Re: Child tax credit

["Max B. Sawicky" <Max.B.Sawicky@xxxxxxxxx>]

> From:          Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject:       [PEN-L:11455] Re: Child tax credit

> C'mon Max, didn't you read the DLC welfare literature? Time limits are the

No because it is nothing but glosses of the
tough guys (e.g., James Q. Wilson, Lawrence Mead)
who are worth reading if not supporting.

> stick, and the EITC was the stick. And you're not going to deny that the

Calling a wage supplement a "stick" is
bewildering.  I guess that mandatory health
insurance would be a club, and higher wages the
kiss of death.

> EITC is a public subsidy to low-wage employment, or more accurately,
> low-wage employers.

I won't deny that like a tax (but in reverse),
part of the EITC is shifted to employers, but I
will deny that none of it is received by workers.
Beyond that you're into arguments about
elasticities.

Your point about policies towards the
low-wage sector can get dicey.  I hear the same
thing at EPI.  The problem is that we know very
well how to destroy jobs by regulating and
taxing them to perdition, but it is not so easy
to create the jobs we would like to see, so I am
leery of experiments in job creation that begin
with job destruction.  If we had a better safety
net it would be as much of a concern, but we
don't, as you know.

> >"People say I'm arrogant, but I know better."
> >                              -- John Sununu
>
> Are you making fun of Sununu, or adopting this as your motto?

Both, albeit temporarily.

Cheers,

MBS

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Max B. Sawicky           Economic Policy Institute
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