| 摘要 | What can policy makers do to increase U.S. economic growth and what role should government play? Bloomberg Opinion columnists Noah Smith and Michael R. Strain recently met online to debate.
Noah Smith: I think we both agree that Americans are upset because they aren’t better off than their parents. Growth is the lubricant that makes an economy function. But how do we produce faster growth?
For years, the conversation was captured by the idea that cutting taxes and slashing regulations was the key to making the economy grow faster. But the repeated failure of tax cuts to deliver capital investment booms or rapid wage growth shows that a growth agenda can’t rely on small-government methods anymore. Progressives need their own growth agenda, focused on government activities that complement private business -- better infrastructure, more scientific research, more immigration, denser and more affordable housing, fewer powerful monopolies, and a government health-insurance system that relieves employers of the burden of providing health insurance for their employees. It’s this agenda, and not a Reaganite program of smaller government, that can deliver the growth Americans crave.
Michael Strain: More immigration and more housing seem like supply-side solutions that we can agree on -- so there’s no need to cast doubt on President Reagan’s wisdom. Better infrastructure we can agree on, as well, though that would surely require some of the deregulation you seem to think is ineffective. Employers don’t seem to mind providing health insurance for their workers, and workers seem to like the arrangement as well -- I’m not sure how this would increase growth. And we are in complete agreement on funding for scientific research, which could fuel basic innovation.
Let’s step back. We can increase growth by expanding the workforce and by making the workers more productive. Conservatives are right that big government gets in the way. The current structure of our disability insurance program, for example, keeps people out of the workforce. A $15 an hour federal minimum wage would significantly shrink the workforce, as well. Productivity is more mysterious, but a high-regulation, high-tax government regime surely isn’t helping technology, innovation and efficiency to advance.
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NS: Well, let’s examine some of these ideas. Because of the employer-sponsored health system, people can’t change jobs because they’d lose their health care for however long it takes to find a new job. This freezes workers in place, prevents talent from being reallocated between companies, and prevents ideas and expertise from flowing between companies. But if the government took over health insurance, people could change jobs freely, leading to greater dynamism. It would also make hiring workers a simpler task for small businesses. |
