Those items are not "debt" as I would categorize them. I realize it's a tall order for anyone to expect the U.S. government to scale these programs back, but calling these obligations "debt" is like telling young parents that it will cost $350,000 per year to send their child to college in 18 years.
The parents simply say: "If college costs that much, then we ain't buying it."
Your point is valid about a parent being able to make a decision not to send his child to college if the cost is too high.
However, an 18 year old has a lot more options than a 65 year old. The 18 year old can decide to go to a less expensive school or go into a trade that does not require a college degree.
The 65 year old who hasn’t saved up enough money to support themselves in retirement and is counting on the gov’t to pay for a large part of his living expenses as well as expensive medical treatments for 30 - 35 years until he dies is not in the same boat as an 18 year old.
Is the gov’t just going to say “If Social Security/Medicaid/Medicare costs that much, we ain’t paying it?”
A new report just came out that “conservatively” estimates that Americans who are getting ready to retire have under-saved by $6 trillion.
American consumers now owe around $13.5 trillion in residential mortgage debt and other consumer related debts. (That number was less than $500 billion in 1975)
Private and public pensions are underfunded to the tune of trillions.
These debt numbers, both private debt and public debt, are terrifying.
The gov’t has overpromised and most Americans have undersaved and overspent... to the tune of many trillions.
Here’s an interesting question to ponder... I heard the other day that the echo-boomer generation (now 18 - 30 yrs old) is one and a half times bigger than the baby boomer generation.
How is the competition in the job market going to play out when all of those echo-boomers are looking for a job and all of the underfunded baby boomers are back in the workforce looking for a job?
It really gets interesting when you think about the fact that we have killed the goose that lays the golden egg in America: industry.
We sent our jobs overseas due to a complicated, punishing tax code, too many regulations and too many law suits... not to mention a dumbed-down public school system.
I wonder how all of that will play out?
Boy, these are depressing things to discuss on a Monday!