In yesterday's New York Times, Eduardo Porter gave an insightful analysis of the way a large segment of Americans see the social safety net. In my view, there are two types of people. One group sees life as a zero-sum game: if you are winning (i.e., getting an undeserved benefit from government programs), then I am losing. The other group sees life as win-win: we all benefit when people's lives are improved by the social safety net. ACA (Obamacare) is a win-win program. The health care proposal being worked on by the Republican-controlled Congress is zero-sum. I have an idea: instead of shrinking the social safety net to appease groups who feel they are being left out, why not expand the safety net so that everyone benefits? Oh, but that would be too Scandinavian.
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