No politician would dare say it--Americans spend (waste) too much and aren't taxed enough. But we need to spend less and save more at the personal level, and should be taxed more to pay for programs we all want like social security, medicare-health care, and defense. And we must insist on getting better value for every dollar we spend personally and by elected officials. Our freely elected government has led us into the ditch of huge deficits and massive debt service payments to foreign countries, because we bought the Kool Aid about having more by getting taxed less and borrowing to make up the difference. Now that the bills have come due it's doubly hard to change--it means a period of difficult austerity. But neither Democrats nor Republicans want to own up to it--since they want to get re-elected. Who has ever won on a platform of higher taxes and reduced programs?
But essentially that is what is going to happen to us. We can see the future by looking at state and local governments, which are forced by law to balance budgets. Property and sales taxes increase, the number of user fees expands. You pay more for car registrations and fishing licenses. Tolls go up. Cigarette taxes and parking fees increase. We get nickle-dimed and quartered everywhere. But people scream to keep schools funded and sanitation and police service untouched. They want roads repaired. So income taxes may have to increase too. And no official wants to see
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
