“If non-negotiable bonds are not ‘safe’, then what is?”
Well, if I were to be able to choose between a negotiable financial instrument, and a non-negotiable instrument, I know which one I would choose.
It was an illusion. They took the money and recycled it back into the budget for spending as soon as it was allocated to the “non-negotiable” bonds.
“That makes it a contract. Yes, a contract is sort of a promise”
You are correct - actually a contract IS a promise. However, the government cannot honor it’s contract/promises.
They will either renege on the contract, or pay it with dollars of drastically lower value than the dollars originally promised.
There are too many promises made to too many people.
You cannot, for instance, expect me to pay you benefits that were promised to you by someone else.
The perverse problem we have is that military and other government retirement benefits are awarded to people who then must be paid by people who cannot fund their own retirement because they are taxed so much to pay yours.
That may be immaterial to many. The faces are obscured when the money gets laundered through the federal government, so its easy to say “we have the money” or “we should pay my benefit before someone elses benefit” when the taxes are coupled with defacto money printing.
But in the end you have to say to me (or other productive taxpayers) that you deserve my money for your retirement before I deserve my money for my retirement. That’s a tough argument to make successfully over the long-term. That’s why we are borrowing torrentially right now.
When the borrowing must end I will simply stop working my private sector enterprise instead of working so that you can get a paycheck in retirement. Millions of people will make the same calculation.
There is no difference to the taxpayer - from a financial standpoint - where the money goes. We can’t fund the active promises we have right now. One way or another you are not going to get the money you expect - nor will anyone else who relies on a “promise” from government.
The course we are on now only guarantees that the cut-off to federal benefit recipients of all kinds will be sudden.
The outrage that military is the first to go is well placed. I’m a veteran, so I know about this. But it’s all a charade to make people think that we are doing something to remain solvent. We are not doing anything of the kind.
I wish we had a vibrant private sector that could support the size of federal benefit recipients - minus sponges - because that would mean I could pay for your retirement and my own.
I can’t do it. I don’t have enough money for you and for me.
It’s not my fault that you accepted a promise from the government at face value. We’re all going to pay the price.
Government lied to all of us. Our founding fathers understood this, and sought to keep our government limited - we’ve tossed that idea out the window - but the reality is not changed - we don’t have the money for everything promised.
“The perverse problem we have is that military and other government retirement benefits are awarded to people who then must be paid by people who cannot fund their own retirement because they are taxed so much to pay yours.”
Again, the money was already paid. At best, your argument would be that the general population borrowed money from me and now refuses to pay it back - ie, the general population is STEALING MY MONEY - because it was already paid into an account for me. The American taxpayer then ‘borrowed’ it to pay for things he wanted free, and now he is refusing to repay the loan and telling me it is unfair for me to expect him to repay my loan.