They are not paying into SS or Medicare.
The goal here is to ensure that people in 2030 who are paying 50% of their income in Social Security and Medicare taxes will actually have a much higher standard of living than people in 2006 who are paying 10% of their income to support these two Ponzi schemes.
It depends on what jobs are being exported. If we become a society without a middle class, we will resemble a third world economy. Also, if workers are paying 50% of their income to the government, we are well on our way into socialism similar to what is happening in Sweden. That is a hell of a price to pay for security. I can just imagine what kind of control the government will exercise over our lives. I say that advisedly having worked for the USG for 36 years. r
Not directly -- but when you think about it, they are (in the form of an artificially stunted standard of living).
If we become a society without a middle class, we will resemble a third world economy.
You might be right. On the other hand, there may be an inevitability about this whole thing. I never understood why slavery in some form was the norm in almost every culture in human history, but I'm starting to wonder if this is because the human condition is such that slavery is a "necessity" at some point and a sizeable middle class is the exception, not the norm.