Economics is an odd study, as common sense seems to be a backwards notion. For an example, the idea of taxes is a strange one, as no one wants to pay more money than what's marked on that pretty little bar code, however, the government can't make money in many other ways. Taxes aren't just used for governmental revenue, as a large tax creates a tremendous dead loss in revenue, which can be used by the government to regulate "sinful" items in our culture (one common example of this is the tax on tobacco) by encouraging the public not to buy such items.
As a nation, we are currently in an "economic recession" where the value of the dollar has decreased and the price of goods has increased. Internationally, the dollar has hit an all-time low! Why is this happening? Well, in the case of The Great Depression, the American public hoarded their money, and by not spending money, it wasn't able to circulate and build the economy. In my humble opinion, this is exactly what is happening, or going to happen, to the economy. The public is worried that times are going to get harder, and so they save money and spend less, causing the amount of money in circulation less, and therefore creating an economic recession. Should the government have told the public about the "looming recession"? Morally and ethically, yes, however, morality and ethics are hard to equate into economics, and any good economist would have not said a single thing. If the people simply spent their income normally, rather than saving much more than normal, then the recession would not have or will not occur. Therefore, one can conclude that in regards to economics, ethics, and morality, there is a Catch-22: lie to the people and have everything turn out okay, or tell them everything and have things fall apart?
Now, lets look at exactly what a politician may say to people to get them riled up before election day: "Lower taxes on the middle class!", etc... Now, if you ask me, I wouldn't touch the taxes on the middle class, as they aren't terrible. The government does need money to run programs. I would, however, raise taxes on the poor; am I evil? No, I'm simply giving incentive to the economically instable portion of America to save their money. If they saved their money, they could get off of welfare, maybe get a job or two, and build get out an economic whole. Also, I'd lower the taxes on the richer portion of Americans, as they spend about one third of the gross spent money, however, they populate only about four percent of the population. Should they have higher taxes, as many people would like (as they do technically have the money to pay the higher taxes), they would slowly start to spend less money. If they don't spend their money, then our economy would simply sink to the bottom of the ocean.
Now, when we started studying taxes in school, I decided that I loathed them. Most people would answer yes if you were to poll the question, "Should taxes be abolished?" I would want to abolish them, as they are a nasty little way to spend more money than you truly want to, but then... How would government make money? Well, it should sell things: clothes, weapons, utilities, services, etc. If our government were to run itself the same way that Microsoft or Paramount Studios did, it'd make beyond enough money to put an end to any leaky faucet deficit that should spring up from war, natural disaster, or any other tragedy.
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