"Then let them save and get to WORK. I have less pocket money now than I did 6 years ago and I make almost double ... the reason? TAXES !"
Unemployment is near record lows. They ARE working, just like you.
And no, your taxes didn't go up in the past 6 years. They went down. Bush was elected. You have less pocket money because gas got a lot more experisive, energy got a lot more expensive in general. Thank the rise of China and India (needing more oil and gas than ever) and the Iraq war (taking Iraqi oil out of the world energy flow) for that.
You also have less pocket money because health care costs have exploded. You have less pocket money because housing costs exploded.
None of this had anything to do with taxes, which are as low as they've been since Reagan.
The government is not stripping you of your money. Inflation in the regular old economy is.
How much can you save of your income a year?
Add that up. Are you going to be able to live on the interest off of that for 30 years after you retire?
Are you going to be able to pay for cancer treatments off of that?
No.
That's why you need the social safety net: Social Security and Medicare will pay for those things which you won't be able to.
If you have kids, can you afford to send them to private school? Yes? No? Could your parents afford to send YOU to private school? No? The social safety net probably provided you with the education that your parents probably couldn't afford to provide on their own dollar. And are they old and nearing retirement? Without Social Security and Medicare, do they have the means, just sitting in the bank, to provide themselves a living income off the interest for the rest of their lives, including paying for all of their health care costs?
Hardly anybody has that much money, and hardly anybody can save that much money. That's why we've erected a social welfare state, and that's why we're going to keep it.
We need to be realistic about this.
I was born in 1938, in rural Oklahoma, so I know of what you speak. It is the loss of American Culture that saddens me the most, but neither party is going to change that.
in 1955, I had an appendectomy along with peritonitis. I spent three days in the hospital, the total bill for hospital, surgery, and doctor $300.00, about a month's pay at the time
A couple months back, I had a laporoscopic surgery to look at a kidney, the bill was $60,000.00 and rising, a little more than a month's pay for most I would say.