nakedempire


The American Empire in a Changing World



Pages

Saturday, November 3, 2012

''The war over '‘entitlements’'

From Reuters
By Michael A Bernstein

''It’s all in the wording. Throughout this presidential campaign, voters have heard a stream of claims and counterclaims about “entitlements” – payments the federal government makes to individuals.

The power of words to frame political ideas can’t be overemphasized. How we label specific practices and proposals affects the ways we think about them. Decades ago statisticians and economists used a neutral phrase, “transfer payments,” to describe various government disbursements: unemployment assistance, old-age pension support, food for the hungry, disbursements to veterans and federal employees.''

read more 

No comments:

Post a Comment