Can Trumps economic plan work?

[hollodero]

(01-24-2017, 10:29 AM)xxlt Wrote: My rebuttal: Germany, France, Norway, Sweden... pretty much all of Western Europe, not to mention our neighbor to the north.

As long as Billy Bob and Verna Mae think their trailer park is just like Bob and Mary's clapboard 750 SF 2/1 in an aging subdivision - the thing that puts the sparkle in our shining cities on a hill in this the greatest country on earth - and they never read a newspaper or book or talk to a furr-n-er things won't change. Why would you want the higher wages, 6-8 weeks vacation, maternity leave, child care, cleaner air and water they have in the rest of the world? Well, you wouldn't want it because you don't know how much better they have it than you in so many places. The average American thinks Europe still looks like it did circa 1945, and that everyone there is envious of our "right to work" and our "freedom." And as poor a job as our schools do of letting Americans know otherwise, there is a movement to dismantle them just in case. Ignorance is bliss - for the one percent.

I get it. What can I say. I love the things you mentioned (although it's mostly 5 weeks vacation). I'd like to add universal insurance (health, unemployment, retirement), also a fine thing to have.
Be aware though, we do pay higher taxes to get all this. We get more out of it than the additional taxes we pay, but still. Americans, even the more knowledgeable ones, would rather stay uninsured and have no vacation than to even imagine to agree to a one cent tax raise. That's just how most of you roll.
(Plus, we have another advantage in financing the welfare states, we don't need that much federal money to keep a multi-billion military death machine rolling. You provide that protection for us completely cost-free, which really is very nice and thanks for that.)
And 20 Dollars minimum wage... I don't know if you talk gross or net wage (that's more complicated in the US), but either way we don't get that much here. Times get tougher in Europe too, especially for employees where social benefits are softened.