Edward Alden > Quotes

“Over the last decade, other G7 countries have made more dramatic changes to their pension programs than the United States has to Social Security.33 Germany and Japan have put automatic stabilizers into their public pension systems so that the pension benefits rise or fall automatically with the country’s ability to afford them. Italy linked pension age eligibility to life expectancy, while France indexed part of its public pension system to price inflation. These changes amount to huge spending cuts by 2040 compared with previous law—roughly 30 percent in France, 40 percent in Germany and Japan, and nearly 50 percent in Italy.34 Some of the reforms were delayed because of the recession. Nonetheless, the public broadly understands that future benefits should be cut, and the push for reform has come equally from the Left and the Right. The United States, meanwhile, has not managed to pass a major Social Security reform in thirty years.”
― Edward Alden, How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy

“Less headway is being made in figuring out how to improve teacher quality, an undertaking more complex than simply recruiting new teachers with better academic credentials or offering higher salaries. In high-achieving countries, such as Finland, Singapore, and South Korea, teachers come from the top of their high school graduating classes, teaching schools have a high bar for acceptance, and teachers’ salaries are competitive with those of lawyers and scientists. It is generally the opposite in the United States.”
― Edward Alden, How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy

“Child-care tax credits for all families. Federal child-care tax credits are available to all families. The principal tax credit is the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. But credits can be claimed only if an individual owes taxes, and poor Americans generally do not. Only if a tax benefit is refundable—meaning it can be paid out to a recipient with or without a tax payment to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—do the poor reap any gain. The child-care tax credit is nonrefundable, so more than 60 percent of child-care tax credits go to the richest 40 percent of families.49”
― Edward Alden, How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy

“CFR’s Renewing America initiative—from which this book arose—has focused on those areas of economic policy that are the most important for reinforcing America’s competitive strengths. Education, corporate tax policy, and infrastructure, for example, are issues that historically have been considered largely matters of domestic policy. Yet in a highly competitive global economy, an educated workforce, a competitive tax structure, and an efficient transportation network are all crucial to attracting investment and delivering goods and services that can succeed in global markets. The line between domestic economic policy and foreign economic policy is in many cases now almost invisible. Building a more competitive economy for the future requires that our political leaders—not just in Congress and the White House but also in state and local governments—understand how their policy choices can affect the choices of companies that can now invest almost anywhere in the world.”
― Edward Alden, How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy

“Getting U.S. public debt on a sustainable path will require more sacrifice from the American public. Just to slow debt growth to the rate of GDP growth (or a steady debt-to-GDP ratio) from today through 2040, changes to current policy would have to be dramatic: cut entitlements by 10 percent or cut discretionary spending by 24 percent or increase tax revenue by 6 percent, or some combination of the three.27 Adjustments to actually lower the debt-to-GDP ratio would be even more painful. Ideally, the debt-reduction burden would be shared by all Americans. But one thing is certain—less generous entitlement programs and tax increases will need to be part of any balanced solution. PUBLIC OPINION: FOR A BALANCED BUDGET, BUT AGAINST SACRIFICES TO BALANCE THE BUDGET Changes in entitlement programs and tax increases, however, collide with an American public that largely wants neither. Almost as a rule, Americans support a balanced federal budget. But public opinion moves decisively in the other direction when Americans are asked about the specific actions necessary to balance the budget.28 Entitlement programs are broadly popular. Although most Americans understand that entitlements have a financing problem, they oppose making them less generous. When given the choice between preserving entitlements and reducing the deficit, Americans prefer the status quo. A solid majority, or 69 percent, would rather keep entitlements as they are and incur the debt consequences, whereas only 23 percent say the country should take steps to reduce the budget deficit that would include entitlement cuts.29 It is understandable that older Americans are more inclined than their younger counterparts to want to preserve entitlements. But even so, most Americans age eighteen to twenty-nine, who will foot the future debt interest bill, still favor entitlement preservation over debt reduction. Perspectives differ depending on party affiliation: Republicans are more likely than Democrats to favor making deficit reduction a priority. There may be a “tax more” option. Americans do appear to favor increasing taxes on the rich, though Democrats more so than Republicans.30 It is unclear, however, whether Americans would favor raising their own taxes to cover their entitlement expenses. This suggests a fundamental disconnect between the services Americans want and what they are willing to pay in taxes to fund them.”
― Edward Alden, How America Stacks Up: Economic Competitiveness and U.S. Policy