Redistribution

The Obama campaign has been shamefully deceptive in describing the tax consequences of McCain health proposal. Because of the associated refundable tax credit, the net affect on most taxpayers will be a decrease in taxes, particularly in low to moderate income brackets. Only a few taxpayers with high incomes and very expensive plans are likely to suffer an increase in taxes.

This is, however, not a feature, but a bug. Tax revenues will fall significantly, and the government will not be able to make up the difference with money put under its pillow by the Unspecified Medicare Savings Fairy. The result will be substantial redistribution from future taxpayers (many of them currently too young to vote) to current citizens, disproportionately those of low and moderate income, and to those currently paying for their own insurance. This element is morally troubling. And since it’s a refundable credit, it would go to workers that don’t pay income tax, exactly the sort of transfer that enrages McCain when it’s part of an Obama proposal.

What would a similar plan look like if we weren’t asked to vote ourselves a subsidy to be paid for by our children? To be revenue neutral, the tax credit would need to be lower: perhaps $2,500 for a family. That would be approximately neutral for a median family that gets coverage through work, helpful for most lower income families, and be a significant help for families that currently pay for their insurance themselves. Taxes on higher income families would increase.

Note that both this variant and the current McCain plan make it more attractive for employers to offer group policies to low income workers than it is today.

The other benefits claimed by the McCain plan are grossly oversold. Proponents argue that there is significant over-consumption of health care because of the current tax subsidy. The reality is that most companies that offer health insurance don’t pay for all of it. Such companies have no reason to prefer paying for $8,000 of a $10,000 dollar policy to $8,000 of an $8,000 policy with high deductibles and copays.

On the average an employer can offer group coverage cheaper than the worker can buy it on the individual market with its high screening and marketing costs. Coverage through the employer will continue to be attractive for most workers.

Aside from the borrow and spend aspect, there are things to like about the McCain plan, but it’s silly to pretend that redistribution is something only Democrats do.

As one of my readers points out, all taxation results in redistribution. But I think one can draw valid distinctions among different kinds of redistribution.

Over 30,000 Served

Some time in the past week this blog passed 30,000 visits, not counting those of you that read this by way of a feed. Woohoo!

The last 40 included visitors from the UK, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Finland, Saudi Arabia and Norway. Over half of them are going to the archive by way of a search engine. This is very much a long tail site.

One of the things that most SF writers missed in the days before search engines was the awesome power of artificial stupidity. Our best programs are still epic failures at passing a Turing test, but fast, patient cheap bots with perhaps the intellectual capacity of a termite have transformed our world.

One of the things that’s exciting about the alternate universe I live in is the boundless inventiveness of humans in finding ways to use the new technology that the original inventor never imagined. Internet Porn. Gold Farmers. Mostly Medievalist Bloggers linking to Undead Martin van Buren.

Best Dead Guest Blogger of the Week

Here.

Daily Life in Chaucer’s England: What’s New in the Second Edition?

The second edition is significantly expanded. I don’t have a final page count yet since I just turned in the index, but it looks like it will be about 50 pages longer than the first. We’ve added a lot of primary source sidebars, many of them directly related to Chaucer’s life, and added new material to the text, particularly on contemporary society, Chaucer’s world, deeds of arms and the profession of arms, archery and music, holding a medieval event and digital resources. The bibliography has also been updated.

There are fourteen new halftone illustrations. New line art includes new patterns for a pouch, belt purse and breeches and sheet music and lyrics for two songs from 14th century England, as well as a new exemplar for a cursive batarde script based on Chaucer’s own handwriting.

Daily Life in Chaucer's England, Second Edition

This is one of the major reasons my blogging has been light lately. I've completed the index and sent off my corrections to the page proofs. Woohoo!

It's scheduled for release in December.

Medieval Living History at Pennsylvania Colonial Plantation, October 18-19

An event in Media, PA. La Belle Compagnie will attend. So will I.

Update:

Venison marinated in red wine and roasted on a spit. Mmmmmm. There are many tasty ways to prepare venison, but this is hard to beat from the diner's viewpoint. It's the circle of life, little Simba. They ate our Rhododendron, and we ate them.

Living history. Before that weeekend, I didn't know what that tasted like. Now I do. It was a significant education.

Photos from the event here.

Machaut and the Robot

MESSENGER, our robot proxy near Mercury, has taken a stunning picture of the crater Machaut, named after the 14th century poet and composer. I always enjoy the opportunity to write about robots and the 14th century in the same blog post.

Staggeringly Recursive Marginalia Jokes

Got Medieval has a splendid post on an extended and erudite joke expressed by a grotesque figure in the margins of a medieval MS.

If you have any illusions that we are significantly more clever, acute or imaginative than our ancestors from 500 or 600 years ago, please discard them now. Evolution doesn’t work that quickly.

In my Parallel Universe…..

Flying robots from the Holy Land protect the Pope. Who is battling a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Templars. Meanwhile, there’s a Zeppelin over London

Happy October Fools Day. Which is to say, the antipodal opposite of April Fools Day. On April Fools Day you pull people's leg by telling them things that aren't true. On October Fools Day....

More on the Recent Unpleasantness

Tyler Cowen has an excellent summary here.