Cost Benefit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cost Benefit - Essay Example In the case stated, reducing expenditures compared to raising taxes have various repercussions even if both course of action are unpopular. Reducing expenditures meant foregoing the opportunity to serve the people and to provide services that could potentially prevent future problems. For example, health care programs could make the population healthier with an implication of lesser health cost in the future. In the case of education, reducing its expenditures may not be immediately felt but it will undermine the country’s competitiveness in the future because it would mean having less educated workforce. Raising taxes however is unpopular. But it will enable the government to fund its social services such as health and education. Excessive taxation however invites social unrest that could defeat its intent to provide services to the people. The repercussion of high taxation is political as policy makers may lose public support and will no longer win in elections. Ultimately, governments have to balance between increasing taxes and reducing social services. Ideally, taxes should be low and social services should be high but that would not be possible since social services is expenditure and it needs income through taxes to fund it. This explains why social services and taxation should be