ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for an expanded social safety net on purely pragmatic grounds. It explains a more effective safety net would benefit not only the low-income citizens who receive services from it directly but also the more affluent citizens whose higher tax payments would be necessary to support it. The reason is that income inequality has prevented us from adopting efficient solutions to many problems that affect rich and poor alike. Anti-government rhetoric has also prevented the adoption of energy policies that would produce better outcomes for all. All countries have governments with the power to compel tax payments. In 2004 the George W. Bush administration reduced financing for the Energy Department's program to secure loosely guarded nuclear stockpiles in the former Soviet Union by 8 percent. Although the Bush tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest families threaten American economic prosperity, they have done little for their ostensible beneficiaries.
