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Posted on 04/17/2009 12:33:15 PM PDT by FromLori
Here's the good news: future costs of Social Security and Medicare won't require higher taxes. Now here's the bad news: the reason these programs won't require higher taxes is that they'll be so expensive that there's no possible way to pay for them through taxes. Everything in the US (not counting people) is worth about $50 trillion and those two programs will cost $80 trillion, unless they are reformed.
Wharton insurance and risk management professor Kent Smetters, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary and economist for the Congressional Budget Office, explains that the only way for these problems to survive is by cutting them back drastically. From Wharton's Knowledge@Wharton:
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
This has been known for YEARS and I have yet to hear an actively campaigning politician bring up either subject.
You can tea bag all you want, but even if the halcyon days of pre-911 were given back to us as a result, we are still firmly on the path to insolvency.
Give me a wake-up call when people start talking about the real problems that we are facing.
Exactly. For SS to work, the number of recipients has to stay significantly lower than the number of contributors. That means the age a person starts receiving benefits needs to be two to three years below the average death age, or the population needs to continue to expand. The 1986 change in SS was specifically because abortion and the pill had reduced the number of younger workers to where there weren’t enough of them to pay for it. Now, just about everybody’s on SS. There is no one else to drag into the system.
Sorry, I don’t buy it. I don’t think this is possible.
You know what happens when you give every single person on the planet a million dollars? A loaf of bread costs a million dollars.
You know what happens when you hand out social security to everyone in america that adds up to more than the value of every THING in the country?
Those THINGS go up in value to compensate. Whatever becomes scarce will suddenly become very expensive. If there are lots and lots of people on the dole and retired and recieving free health benefits from the government, then suddenly an able bodied working man will become a very valuable commodity. And it will remain a very valuable commodity until more people are enticed to become able bodied workers thus restoring the balance.
That’s my theory anyway.
BTTT
My perception as well, consider this:
This government is financially broke and reduced to borrowing TRILLIONS to remain afloat as it is. States themselves are broke and in a bind when it comes to meeting their obligations. This "stimulus" plan was a short reprieve to those liberal hell-holes unable to remain solvent on their own. It bought them and the scumbags running them a little time before they have to face their constituents with the truth. The limit is running out on how far this "can" of accountability can be kicked down the road. Time is running out. Something MUST be done to avert the disaster looming for those responsible if the public is faced with the truth that liberalism has ruined their lives and futures.
Over the past fifty years, liberals have made promises to take care of everyone who supported them. They’ve promised social security, medicare, and prescription drugs to the baby boomers. They promised exorbitant retirement packages to the teachers, the federal workers, and to the high ranking military. They promised cradle to the grave subsistence to the poverty stricken with welfare, food stamps, housing assistance, etc. etc. etc.
These “promises” total over 57 TRILLION dollars. The baby boomers are almost ready to start retiring in massive numbers. They want their goodies. The federal workforce, along with the teachers and police are starting to retire in large numbers as they’ve put in their time as well. They want their goodies. Same for the military, etc. etc. The poverty folks are falling further behind and they will be making their continued demands.
If you are the United States government and are FLAT BROKE, how do you handle this situation? You can’t pay your bills. You can’t let the ones you’ve promised so much to find out it was all just a scam, at least if you are a current office holder. There is ONLY ONE SOLUTION. You anger the masses to the point of breaking up the country into separate political entities. Doing this means your day of reckoning NEVER arrives. You don’t ever have to show your hand. You simply allow history to change the landscape politically as you melt back into whichever society emerges. That 57 trillion dollar turd NEVER hits the fan. Knowing the end is near so to speak, steal as much “future” wealth as you can and take care of your buddies on Wall Street before you leave office (Bush), and take care of your buddies as you (Obama) wreck the nation into the disarray that will bring about this “change” everyone thought they were voting for.
Yeah, we'll all have FREE health care at the very BEST hospitals - then the liberals will decide it needs to be means tested. And the middle class will get nothing. As usual. Except the bill.
I am afraid Tricare will be rolled into the “National Health Insurance Program” when it arrives as it surely will unless we can make huge gains in the 2010 elections.
Or redistribution of wealth from the young to the old.
In the same way it’s an apples and oranges comparison if someone vows to cut your genitals off, but decides to settle for merely castrating you.
It’s 80 trillion dollars, man. We’re not going to be able to afford it.
Not the same.
It’s 80 trillion dollars, man. We’re not going to be able to afford it.
Perhaps not, but comparing future obligations to current wealth is nonsensical. The economy generates $12T+ every year.
There is another solution.
You either manufacture or ignite a financial crisis, make the case that the current regulatory system is inadequate, and potentially cede sovereignty to a supra-national government with a regional or global currency. In the midst of all the number changes, folks lose track of Social Insecurity and Medifail.
Presto, problem solved.
The establishment maintains its power, the globalists get their dream State, and the Constitution (a pesky obstacle to the emergency of the "new world order") is banished.
Of course, there is always the risk that the financial crisis could get out of control, inciting the people to anger and action, and then turning on the very establishment that sparked the crisis in the first place.
Older folks already DEPENDENT on these programs would never forget them, and especially so if the payments stopped due to lack of money. Our liberal government has created a monster that gave liberalism life yet shall also be it's end. Remember, liberals survive only by giving away the wealth of others. This nation is financially on life support and it's sources of wealth are quickly evaporating.
* The only "trust fund" the SSA has is an IOU payable by future tax serfs.
* If government kept its books on an accrual basis it would be bankrupt.
* Politicians have known that SSA was a fiasco in the making and have done nothing to stop the slow-motion train wreck
* Bush "tried" to touch this third rail but was met with cynical "kick the can further down the road" attitude from both parties and the public.
* But Bush only tried after he added to the problem with the Senior Prescription drugs entitlement.
* Future politicians facing the wreck will absorb funds from private pensions, 401k's, IRAs. Why should the rich have their retirement funds when the rest of us can't?
* The future wreck may not be that far off. SSA was projected to go into red at end of 2017. Now it could happen by 2010. The last depression lasted 15 years.
* There is no plan to repay our unpayably large debts. No politician wants to raise taxes that high.
* Ever higher inflation - perhaps hyper-inflation - is the default.
* By Q3 of 1923, the peak oh Wiemar hyperinflation, Germans were spending 94% of their money on food.
* Gardens, guns and gold (or silver).
Over our dead bodies.
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