Last Wednesday the University of Hartford Philosophy Club hosted a virtual discussion about banishing the myth of wasteful government spending. An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large, meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.

Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic, just contact the advisor of the club Brian Skelly for more information. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses. Food and drink are served, and members are welcome to come and go as they wish.

The discussion last week opened up by describing the kinds of perceived government waste such as social programs, entitlements, and welfare programs for immigrants and the needy. Then the conversation focused on the capitalist argument, which believes we should not invest in “undocumented aliens” at all because they had broken the law in coming to this country in the first place. According to this line of thinking, fiscal responsibility entails cutting back on all such wasteful expenditures in order to lower the national debt, focusing government spending on the military to keep the world peaceful and prosperous while doing what we can when necessary to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes on the wealthy.

The argument for this was that the wealthy are the main job producers of the economy, so giving them tax breaks will leave them with more money to invest in the economy, thus creating more jobs. To indulge in these types of discussions join the University of Hartford Philosophy Club! If you have any questions email [email protected].