Five incentives carried out within the U.S. rank among the world’s largest socialist undertakings:
• The Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the Federal Government, was established in 1935. With an annual budget approaching $750 billion, it now is the world’s largest agency of its sort.
• The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly called the G.I. Bill, offered extensive benefits to returning World War II veterans. The benefits included higher education for millions of veterans, many of whom would not otherwise have been able to afford it. Economic historians consider the G.I. Bill to be the incentive that raised the level of human capital that in turn supported the country’s long-term economic growth.
• The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 funded the Interstate Highway System, then the largest ever public works project in the U.S.
• From 2008 on, the Federal Government poured $200 billion into the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) to rescue and then nationalize them.
• In October 2008, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was enacted. It authorized government expenditure of $700 billion to buy up “toxic assets” choking the financial system.
M. Michael Brady Asker, Norway In everyday American vernacular, “socialism” has become a tainted word. The roots of that aberration lie in recent history. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office. As a...
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How much more socialism can we afford?