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America's Budget Problem In One Chart
In a country in which the aging population wants their (10,000 kcal) cake, and the diabetes treatment for free too, the chart below is what happens.
Bank of America explains:
Where’s the budget problem: The rapid growth in federal spending largely reflects increases in spending on mandatory programs, particularly the major health care programs — Medicare & Medicaid — and Social Security. As a share of GDP, total spending on these programs would rise to 14% of GDP by 2038. That is twice the 7% average of the prior 40 years.
Furthermore, as we have shown previously, anyone preaching about a "stable" 75% debt/GDP should probably first look at the following public long-term chart from the CBO.
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You think a little death cross is going to bother Congress?
PS that was like 4 charts......I was referring to the first one.
Has anybody here mentioned the increasing possibility that more and more Americans will simply stop paying taxes as they see the US Government as being the useless pile of shit it's become?
Ultimately it's the US taxpayer that funds the Government, not Congress or the Treasury.
I think we will soon see the day when what's left of the Federal Government gets permanently shut down by the US taxpayers refusal to spend their money on a corrupt, inept bunch of shit heads!
Do these numbers include the insurance subsidies from the ACA? Those subsidies are going to kill us. Our republic is lost, time for a new southern based version.
What does the Obummer think about these charts.
above his pay grade.
I wonder how much savings they could cut back from Medicare and Medicaid if they would outlaw McDonalds, Burger King, Coke, Pepsi, and all the rest of the synthetic stuff they call food.
Catch 22. When the system can so successfully extract wealth from the population through inflation, the synthetic stuff they call food becomes all that many can afford. Of course, it's killing them, but oh well. Their slow death will be paid for through even more wealth extraction. Some do-gooders will try to legislate good health through outlawing the things you discuss... do gooders fuck everything up, so that will be a cluster, of course.
Try actually eating "healthy" on a budget. Unfortunately processed foods are at times much cheaper than (fresh) fruits and veggies.
We have had a significant rise in the the theft of fruit from our orchards. The Sherrif said we cannot put bear traps on the property, so I hired a couple local thugs to beat the fuck out of trespassers. Honestly, my guess is that these guys actually know the thiefs. So be it, "problem" solve either way. best part is they are paid in cash, under the table. As I have said before, go long black markets and sharcropping.
Plant cannabis around the limits of your property. (not on yours)
They'll say fuck the fruit.
Plus many of those foods have a long shelf life. Even bacteria doesn't want them.
10 lb. bag of rice $5.00.
Add veggies. Cheap and healthy.
Closer to $7 now. I usually buy the 25lb bag though.
Did you know you can cook rice by boiling it just like pasta? 12-14 minutes. Not as tasty, slightly less nutritious, but fast, and cheaper than Burger King.
This is not really true - although many want to pretend that the reason poor people are fat is because they can't afford healthy food - but they can afford to eat chips and cookies and McD.
Do a little research - you can eat healthy and spend less - but it takes a little bit of WORK to actually prepare the meal. The reason many people are fat is because they are too darn lazy to cook the healthy food and would rather just toss something in the microwave or hit the fast food joint.
Not all poor people are lazy - not all lazy people are poor - that is not what I am saying -- but if you are in fact too lazy to get a job then is it a big shocker that you are also too lazy to go to a store, buy food, take it home and cook it?
Also - don't think that it has to be fresh fruit & vegetables to be healthy. Frozen vegetables (and many other things) that are healthy are also cheap.
I don't think that's it. It's pretty easy to eat a banana or an apple. I think the problem is they like the way junk food tastes.
WORK also takes TIME. Something else the "less well off but Working" have a shortage of too.
There have been lots (as in hunderds) of studies re. the benefits of frozen vs "fresh". Almost every time the "frozen" product came out on top in terms of nutritive value, simply 'cause the interval between harvest and slam-freezing was so short. "Major Store" fresh has been shown to be hardly so (with e.g. apples being held in cold storage for months), along with many root veg. (potatoes, parsnips, turnips / swede, even the "tropical "species (yams, etc.))
Add in the wastage from "fresh" vegetable preparation (which you've paid for since the vegetables are sold on "weight") then the "healty choice" advantage becomes yet more diluted.
Can't "grow your own" owing to the Metropolitan / Apartment dweller lifestyle? Try window boxes. There are a lot of miniature vegetables around (carrots, potatoes, radishes) as well as the usual window box fodder (tomatoes!). For a nice salad mix - try the mini lettuces, spring onions, dwarf carrots, and the ever popular hybrid mini tomato varieties. Supplement with home-grown mushrooms (living under the staircase) and you'd be surprised what a spot of lateral thought can come up with . . . . .
Around here grass fed beef costs an average of $7 a pound. If I didn't trap and shoot my familiy's meat, there's no way I could put healthy meat on the table every day.
It's not so much that healthy food is more expensive, it's just that it requires work to prepare it.
Dozen eggs, $1.29, boneless skinless chicken breast $2.09/lb., bag of onions, clump of greens, carrots, peppers, dirt cheap. 5 lbs. of brown rice $4, etc, etc.
If one knows how to cook and one actually tries, eating "healthy" doesn't have to be expensive and it can be really delicious. Most of these fat people are too stupid or lazy to try.
Its easier to just say "Super size please."
Also good food isn't addictive like junk food. After a good plate of scrambled eggs with veggies one has had enough. Chips and soda on the other hand will be consumbed until the large bag and 2 liter bottle are empty and then it's back to the cupboard and fridge for another of each.
What my spose and I decided to do was move to a small house on a nice 1/4 acre plot and turn the entire yard into a garden. With barely an hour or two of work a day, give or take (the more you put in, the more you get out), our grocery list is down to dairy products, eggs (until I can find a way to hide a chicken coop), flour, meat once a week, and occasionally sugar. That's it.
We're now saving (yes, saving, even with our barely-above-minimum-wage jobs) to buy some property adjacent to family land and get some cattle, horses, etc. That will cut it down to 0.
Seattle now allows up to 5 chickens laying eggs in city limits. That can be anywhere, I think. A couple hundred yards from sky scraper office bldgs, you can hear the cackling. Some Yuppies have coops that mimic the look of their house....
It's simple. Buy bargain meat in large quantities. Buy fresh vegetables in season in large quantities. Do your own canning ... it's a trivial exercise. If you can in 8oz jars you can fix a wide variety of meals in less than 10 minutes by just boiling up to temperature the jars of an entree and a couple vegetables. It's better than a microwave. One I particularly like is a jar of pork loin and a jar of ham. It's so tender you can stir it together with a fork, add a little BBQ sauce, and you have a great pulled pork sandwich ... in minutes.
Todd Marshall
Plantersville, TX
Thats a nice 4 sentence summary if where we are at.
That would mean the FOUR pork producers Shuanghui-Smithfield included would have to cease controling the market and.......
http://www.fakefoodwatch.com/2013/06/smithfield-sale-to-chinese-could-he...
the kind of drugs and low welfare standards in the US meat-processing sector would have to cease.......but not much chance of putting human health and animal welfare above Porsches and mansions
Wait until Shuanghui-Smithfield ships those pigs filled with toxins to the US.
Even the elite will be consuming it.
Outlaw those things, and people live longer. And that's the problem.
Social Security was designed to provide for retirement from age 65, because at the time it was designed, the average worker's lifespan was 63, so less than half of the workers were expected to collect benefits. The longer you keep them alive, the more they collect. The average lifespan is now 77: that's the social security problem in a nutshell. Combine that with the amount of money that gets spent in medicare to keep the even the healthier elderly alive with expensive new treatments, and you can see easily that the problem of funding the government has really become a problem of sustaining longer lifespans.
The solution is not less McDonalds, but more: cull the herd with more McRibs, and see those fuckers drop at age 50 instead of 80. Extra credit if we can recycle gramps into free, carbon-neutral soylent McRibs. Also, make smoking mandatory.
The libertarian in me can't go along with making smoking mandatory but based on the economics we shouldn't be taxing cigs we should subsidize them.
If I'm not mistaken, the gov already subsidizes tabacco farms.
The kicker is half or more of the old folks on these programs just want to die in peace on their couch watching TV! I know my g'ma does. And i've spoken to others with similar stories. They're done, and they definitely don't want to be a burden on society. We have revoked any and all end-of-life dignity, save for unexpecteds.
The phrase you are looking for is "waiting for the sweet release of death."
Sad, but yeah.
From an economic point of view, you still lose. Those people will not die quickly, they will get a few carts and live on consuming the majority of healthcare costs. It does help SS, maybe, but SS will probably have to pay for their kids until they are 21....
"outlaw McDonalds, Burger King, Coke, Pepsi, and all the rest of the synthetic stuff they call food"
So your solution to the complete cluster fuck of a government system we have now - is more government regulation - more laws - more government control?
Sorry - but this sort of thinking is a big part of the problem.
The problem would get worse. The problem isn't that people get sick and die. Sooner or later everyone gets sick and dies. The problem is people do so at a later age than in the past. Anything to speed up death helps the situation.
Recent radio program on the evils of sugar, particularly HFCS, which induces a sort of biochemical addiction. Listen when you have a spare hour:
http://radiowest.kuer.org/
and search for the program:
Sugar: The Bitter Truth By Doug Fabrizio I avoid HFCS as the poison it is, and recommend you do the same. You can't metabolize it properly, and the resulting fat drives you to eat more of it.Of course, but a bathroom attendant is above his pay grade and ability...
What do his string pullers think?
He was told there would be no math...
+100 MP!
Bullish for Hoveround and Rascal repair.
Don't forget “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
Life Alert, Bitchez!
"Bullish for Hoveround and Rascal repair."
Nope, they're electric vehicles, and due to their nature, they will spontaneously combust and explode, rendering them unrepairable.
Bullish installing 400+hp gas-powered V8s in them to make them safe.
It was lost with our without the subsidies. All we've really done with ACA is doubled down on the Ponzi scheme... which if you're familiar with a Ponzi scheme, is a requirement. People should read up on the Nixon administrations attemp to pass, in essense, ACA 40+ years ago. ACA is a lever, nothing more.
ACA subsidies will end up being many MULTIPLES of estimates, just like Medicare, Medicaid and every other "entitlement".
OK.....you're starting to sound a little like a dangerous anarchist.
Dangerous Anarchists...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPfeTBwrGAw
This is already happening. Inside and outside of the country, the dollar is the "US governement". Outside the U.S., people are avoiding the dollar. Inside the U.S. folks are hoarding cash and trading goods and services outside of the "official" markets.
Better hire someone from the Weinmar Republic as a consultant to help me negotiate what's coming.
I am continually astounded and depressed that with all the information available to Americans nowadays Americans are still meekly submitting to letting lawless federal thugs fraudulently confiscating their earnings/wages when they are specifically, constitutionally prohibited from taxing individual citizens and have NO CONSTITUTIONAL POWER to impose taxes on wages or compensation received for personal services rendered.
This has been affirmed over and over and over and over and over again by the U.S. Supreme Court.
There is NO LAW requiring an individual citizen to file a tax return with the federal government.
State income tax returns are also frequently required only from individuals who are required to file federal income tax returns and therefore are also a nullity.
The brainwashing/enslavement of a devolved, dumbed-down, population is sad to behold. Grow a backbone, educate yourself. STARVE The Lawless Beast!
+1 nullity
Problem is, for wage slaves the theft doesn't happen at the end of the year, it happens each and every paycheck witholding. No witholding, no employment.
While I truly appreciate the notion of people refusing to pay taxes, I'd very much like to hear exactly how you or anyone else propose that this be effected.
Considering that the vast majority of Americans have these taxes (and 'contributions' eg FICA) AUTOMATICALLY withheld from their paychecks, what you propose would require that these Americans' employers be the ones who refuse to pay taxes on behalf of their employees.
While there are tens of thousands of intrepid American individuals who'd happily test this, I can't imagine that WalMart, McD's, IBM, P&G, Pfizer, etc would go along with the prerequisite to your proposal. Ditto the neighborhood hardware store or gas station. It's simply not going to happen...no matter how many times someone like you proposes it,and no matter how many thumbs up the sentiment receives.
Don't get me wrong. You can count me amongst those 10's of thousands, but in my circumstances the best that I could possibly do is to falsely claim more exemptions on my W2E. That leaves me owing taxes that I could then refuse to pay, but simultaneously it does NOTHING to affect the FICA or Medicaid portions.
Respectfully,
Chem
Who is John Galt?
Coordinated action would be required. Thats why the information stage (the one we are in) is so important. If people don't know WHAT it is that has to change, what are the odds of it changing. It, in this case, being fractional reserve banking, fiat currency, and usury (high levels of compound interest).
John Galt was a fictional character, and he was not as deeply ingrained into "the grid" as are 99.99% of Americans.
Again, I appreciate the sentiment and fully support it, but you might as well refuse to pay sales taxes. See how far that gets you.
There will come a day when we stop paying taxes, but it will be due to SHTF and not to a coordinated effort. It will be the result and not the cause. The notion that we can refuse and then go on our merry non-messy way is beyond pollyannish.
Chemystical,
There are many that are living the freedom from the taxing beast right now. You must be devoted and creative to live in liberty in the midst of this beast. The last voluntary tax form I filed was in 1978. When I was much younger, I did not know how to fully avoid the beast and had to fight them first hand. Since 1979 it has cost me over $5,000 to fight them. So, $5,000 over 35 years is not too bad. I assume that some people that don't fight pay that much in a single year.
Yes, for most people it is nearly impossible to escape but to those who are committed to retain Liberty, there is a way.
May I take it that you do not work for the aforementioned "IBM" or "Pfizer" or "McD" or "small business"? If so, then that puts you in the distinct minority. If you have a roadmap for those people to follow, then please do expound.
If you can't tell us the path and can instead offer only "it's not easy, but...", then you either haven't been on it or it is far too narrow to be trod by 300MM Americans. There's a large Amish community in my township. In general they lack the ecoutrements that the other 299,999,000 Americans are unwilling to forego, and they do manage to make it to the local WalMart on a regular basis because it turns out that their society cannot provide everything that it "needs".
I also noticed the disclaiming language that you haven;t filed a voluntary return. Does that imply that there have been involuntary extractions?
"more Americans will simply stop paying taxes as they see the US Government..."
I quit in 1979 and sleep with a clear conscious knowing that I don't fund murder and tyranny. This is where secession starts...with individuals brave enough to say no to the terrorists.
We already have that to some degree as the Republicans and Democrats fight to simultaneously absolve the rich of any and all tax liabilities while making them richer at the expense of the remainder that's still expected to pay taxes. It's not a matter of the serfs choosing to stop paying taxes but being unable to pay the kind of taxes needed to fund the increasingly grandiose adventures that the so-called elites would have their government engage in.
Have they gotten rid of the printers? Have they been banned or something? Can't 'US taxes' be 'printed' like everything else?
I have 'preached' this religiously to many deaf ears in the past.....if you earn a 'paycheck' don't pay your taxes at each check. Hold off an pay them on April 15......if everyone did this, the .gov would go backrupt in less than 3 months (or would have to buy extra printing presses).....
In America you can have your cheese, or you can have you cake, or you can have your cheesecake and the belly ache which will accompany it.
Stick to 3 year charts...no one thinks they'll live that long
Btw, Obamacare has nothing to do with lowering the cost of healthcare itself. All it deals with is health insurance.
Not true.
I voted for Obama because he said my family would save $2,000 per year on healthcare under his plan.
TA DAA!!!
Insurance is one thing, the actual cost of Healthcare is another.
Time to eliminate the middle-men.
Especially the biggest middleman: FedGov.
"Eliminate" Well put
A two hour visit to the emergency room with a cut finger a week ago cost me over $3,000.
That is the problem.
You can save for a life time and become homeless and bankrupt with a two week stay in a hospital.
That is the problem.
The real underlying problem is lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, and more lawyers.......a national curse.
Should have gone on a boat trip to Cuba
Or wait a few weeks...the US will be Cuba.
You should've haggled for fewer chickens with a private, unlicensed doctor.
While you bleed?
Especially the Lawyer-in-Chief
I don't think you can actually call him that since he doesn't have a license to practice anymore.
Yes.....he even screwed that up.
and I voted for Hoover because he said that he'd put a chicken in my pot. That too was a lie, but the pledge was an easier one to fulfill.
after all, I too am a selfish prick who doesn't think things through and wants only that Uncle Santa tell me that he can give me free stuff. (SARC)
Chartz Shmartz
All this doom and gloom is fantasy...psychologically induced hysteria
Ameria is the richest country in the world
/sarc
Why is it that despite all of history teaching us it is not possible to live beyond our means for long we still keep doing so?
Why? Because all animals are created equal, some are simply more equal than others.
Because if history teaches us anything it's that people are facile, easily manipulated, and inherently ignorant.
You left out most of the seven deadly sins.
They're all holographic projections of pride anyway.
Why is social security on this chart? Social security has it own revenue stream. If revenues go down, so do benefits. Medicare? Yet again we see a world that wants to be able to have it's cake and eat it too. Good luck with that.
Taken by your government is taken by your government. SS is no more "essential" under the law than the ranger station at the Grand Canyon. Don't tell me you believe in the "lockbox" of paper stuffed into a file draw somewhere.
Social Security is on the chart because good ole Uncle Sugar cuts the checks.
Try to think a bit harder. If the gov really attempts to approach this with your attitidue, my response will be simple, I will no longer participate in the program, and none of my employees will either. Simply having a fucking dedicated revenue stream to begin with makes SS very different from Medicare, which has none. Be very careful what you wish for motherfucker.
Eat me fuck nuts. You have been had and you don't want to admit it. How stupid to have believed in the benevolence of Uncle Sugar. Your "dedicated revenue stream" flows into the general fund.
Yeah, I have been "had". LMFAO We will happily accept your gold when you want to eat.
Bring it motherfucker.
You'll be king of the world, just like that Mohawk guy in the Road Warrior. Uh huh.
We all work to create our own realities, to each his own.
Same as it ever was..
The only reason politicians thing Social Security is so vital is because of the % of revinue ear marked for the trust fund that has been syphoned off for other purposes. They don't give a shit about anyones benefits, ant those will be gone soon enough to feed the ravenous hunger.
Still, because of the earmark, this presents a problem for the kleptocrats who simply want to steal all revenues to enrich themselves. Good for us, because it accelerates the loss of trust/faith etc. Bring it!
Laws,
You are an arrogant prick know it all. No way you have any "employees", who would want to work for a douche like you?
I have given them bonuses in physical silver before and will again if the bankers keep smashing the price down. I know the value of a dependable tribe. I suggest you do the same. Don't assume that an angry man is not intelligent.
Where do i sign up? i have a visa for all the BRIC's except Russia. Currently developing business in Power Geneartion.
QF
Because math.
"If revenues go down, so do benefits."
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!! Good one.
j/k
That which cannot be sustained, won't be. (I'd say that the quality of care has already dropped significantly)
Step back and look at a slightly bigger picture: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/10/02/real-crisis-government-shutdown-paul-craig-roberts/
Or is it a Boomer bashing day here at the Fight Club?
That's tomorrow. Today is bashing WW2 veterans day....in which I think technically some are Boomers.
[smip from article]
An executive branch that has the power to inter citizens indefinitely and to murder them without due process of law
USA USA USA.....let's blow the doors off the Mao and Stalin killing records.
Technically, Boomers are the first wave of children born to WW2 veterans and the veterans' contemporaries. Boomers' first opportunity to become (unofficial) wartime veterans was in Viet Nam.
As for comments about an executive branch that has the power to inter citizens...remember FDR and the Americans of Japanese descent?
And rather than emulate the killing records of Mao and Stalin, I'd prefer a replay of the French Revolution: start at the top.
Or is it a Boomer bashing day here at the Fight Club?
Ummm... This is Fight Club - a Boomer shows up, he gets bashed!
Some of us are atypical, friend. I'm not wild about a lot of them either.
Shit; I've been kickin' Boomer ass since before grade school. Some even returned the favor.
This is just gimme, gimme jealousy.
"Teacher, Teacher, DOT got more chocolate chips on his cookie than I did !"
Maybe, Principal Obama, will have to make sure all the cookies are just the same.
Regret to inform that chocolate chips were axed in budget cuts years ago.
Chews wisely.
Plus a kid was allergic to them once. Now they are banned forever.
Sorry to hear that they are gone.
Like show-and-tell where we could bring cool stuff and show it off.
I brought a Swiss Army knife -no problems.
except in NYC where they're permitted (literally) but only if they are less than 0.1 gram each.
Green for you, CH1.
This is Fight Club.
Sounds like Tyler is rooting for the death panels to be set-up and operational as soons as possible.
When the elders have passed on, all that will be left are the indolent and feral denizens of a hollowed-out and morally devolved shell of a once-great nation.
Good luck to you poor survivors.
All some of us want is what we paid for. What was promised when they confiscated our earnings.
These systems are now supporting more people who never paid anything into them than those that did.
Blame the demented commie judges and the goddamned commies in the congress and the white mosque on pennsylvania avenue. Economic and cultural destruction is ongoing and has accelerated under the current evil muscum cabal. There are too many parasites in the system to be able to stop the inevitable collapse.
The system is too corrupted to save it, from the local fascists to the illegal alien muscum in the white mosque.
Oh lordy, another white nigger sob story.
Get the towels!
Fuck you.
Boomers deserve to be bashed; most if not all of the national debt and erosion of civil rights in America happened while these self-centered, viagra-popping morons flipped houses, took out HELOs to buy stocks, and then sprawled out on the couch, dosed on Prozac while watching "Survivor" (not once sensing the irony!).
We made our parents proud. They voted; we hit the hustings to pay for the (soon to be Ungrateful) kids.
Would of....
Could have...
Should have....
Which way shall we go now , Bitchez?
Sometimes one has a moment of clarity during a fit of rage. Nice work, GM. +1
You may be correct in general, but you could tip a hat to those of us who kept Jesse Helms undefeated. Might want to check his record.
Gen X will fix it. No problem.
More hair bands.
Downvoted by 9 ka-boomers. folks, we got a 50/50 ratio of boomers to others on ZH, I'd wager. Interesting, I'd have thought ZH would have appealed more to the youth, but guess that's a growth opportunity.
Starting at the present & projected forward 26 years? BTW let's not forget W. started Medicare part D with no source of funding not to mention the unfunded wars. Are they deliberately trying to bankrupt in order to implement some drastic change?
No, just bribing the most loyal voter block in the history of the world to keep the status quo as status as possible (which is, thankfully, not that static at all, as we may soon see in earnest, in interest).
Maybe. Sooner is better than later....for the governing too. They probably want to get to the next currency, since the current currency is degrading and devolving daily. The interesting thing will be Gold, and how much is actually held anymore. Maybe they can base it on land, like the RentenMark ? A pure paper fiat "PaperMark" won't work at this point. What will be the basis of the next currency ?
FED and Government statistics may no longer be used conscientiously as a basis for information because they have been proven to be fraudulent.
If for instance the actual cost of healthcare is the average of the global cost and if the included graphs based on global averages still show the same result then there may be a moral decision possible to be made as to whether or not diabetes healthcare costs should be a social benefit (as concerns expense vs. lifestyle).
Get rid of the FRAUD first and then have another look. Otherwise, you have no argument.
Calling bullshit on that first chart.
I see no evidence or observable change that indicates any spending decreases.
Fore-ward!
When the government runs out of options....like selling bonds..they will start to tax more ..then confiscate property.....wealth is wealth and they will want it anyway they can get it...
If we had been on a gold standard instead of the Bernanke standard, Americas aging population would have saved to cover their retirement costs. As it is, their life's savings purchasing power has been squandered by Fed's inflation while interest due to be received on that savings has been confiscated to prop up a fraudulent banking system.
while at the same time, inflation stats--which determine how much SS payments increase--are manipulated so the government doesn't have to pay out as much as they should.
And an endless stream of must-have crap, like Billy Bass, air freshener crowns, DVD rewinders, and George Foreman grills.
You have a DVD rewinder?
Cool.
Love that Shaper Edge. They got everything.
I bought a Billy Bass at a yard sale as a gag gift for a friend. When I asked the price the woman said "50 cents and if that is too much I will pay you to take it."
If we had been on a gold standard, a significant portion of them would already be dead, precisely because they wouldn't have saved for their retirement (difficult to do in a deeply recessionary gold-standard economy anyway). Nothing prevented them from saving on the Bernanke standard but their own hubris and fallibility.
"deeply recessionary gold-standard economy?" And how do we know "they" wouldn't have saved for retirement? In the present system a lot of folk invested in supposed big homes that would only go up in value, to be sold upon retirement.
Centuries of empirical evidence and the knowledge that you can't save what you never earn.
Truer words were never spoken. Under the gold standard you generally worked until you died (at a fairly young age, in 1900 average American life expentancy was 48) and "retirement" was a fiction. If you somehow did live long enough, they gave you a gold watch for your service and sent you out to pasture, where you extended family would take care of you (because you were penniless).
Which is different from the retiring Boomers how? They all forget that they have a tab, called 'portion of the National Debt', which of course they know they will never have to pay off. And meanwhile their retirement only exists in the form of promises. It was PROMISED to them, years back "Keep working now without a raise and we'll take care of you in retirement". But it was mostly lies.
I figure most will receive what, 40 cents on the dollar, and purchasing power will be 50% of what they imagined it would be, leaving you with approximately 20% as much retirement benefits coming your way, compared to what you expected.
Basically a double screw job, one from each end: The politicians in order to get votes offered "free" shit that eventually would outstrip our ability to pay for them: SS, Medicare, Home Loans, Education Loans, etc which introduced enormous distortions into the need to save. "Why bother? The govt will pay for it."
On the other end, those prudent, stodgy savers who could see the ultimate demise of this folly and tried to save, well they got screwed.
Yes, we have kept millions of old non productive people alive through outrageous medical expenditures, but at the cost to the younger members of society.
What is so difficult to understand about this? I am a baby boomer myself and a physician. I tell it like it is.
on some levels your rhetoric is brave new world-ish and fright-inducing. sounds as if you'd jettison the aged because they are non-productive. what about the mentally retarded? would the physically handicapped be given special dispensation but only commensurate with their mental abilities? consider also that in a world where the average iq is elevated by disposing of the 'retards', you and your 140 iq would soon enough find yourselves on my chopping block.
physician, eh? silly me I thought mengele was dead.
your sentiment is ok by me if you're opposed to propping up vegetables for 10 years simply because the available technology allows us to, but i sense that you put yourself in a position of playing god and defining the quality of life. and playing god is ironically the thing that is accomplished by the technology that you decry. if that technology is not playing god, then it is at minimum playing against god.
Lucky for you that you don't have to be smart to weild an axe.
I can't surgically arthroscope a worker's torn knee cartilage because he can't afford it. On the other hand, some old lady with a broken hip gets an exhaustive prescreening battery of tests before she goes to get her hip fixed. Why? Because she has Medicare. Why? It goes beyond the young vs the old or the productive vs the non productive. It is about fairness . The government intrusion has long since eliminated this. Your old standby of me being a Dr Mengele is very time worn. Obviously I would fix both patients, but the system is so preverse and off the wall it is beyond description. The result is anyone who addresses the real issues gets attacked.
All the employment projections given to college students 5-7 years ago were based on the expectation of boomers HAVING SAVED, and retiring on schedule. The knock on effect is that those jobs do not exist for recent graduates, that were predicted. Yet another example of where using computer models to simulate the future will get you.
I'd term them observations and conclusions. Attacks are in the eye of the beholder - much like Shakespeare's "there is nothing either good or bad. thinking makes it so."
I agree wholeheartedly (and wholemindedly for those of you who might wonder whether I'm a liberal) that Uncle long ago threw off the referee's uniform and donned a player's unform, and that this has completely distorted not only all markets but also the people who participate in them.
as a bone to the libs at heart, consider also that if you Doc can rationalize that the worker's knee is more important than granny's hip, then you'd surely agree that a teacher's knee is more important than "LeBron's". are we as a society investing in our future or are we picking winners and losers and divesting ourselves of non-performing assets? Go fullblown Fight Club and 'Darwinian' for all I care. I'm only observing that the inevitable path of your proposed solution puts you squarely in the position of being the beast that you decry.
Interesting that you mention the "battery of testing". All "mandated" to provide "best care standards", and all "mandated" by those Committee Members who are as far removed as they can possibly get, from the Clinician - Patient interface.
The "decision" to book tests should be based on individual knowledge and experience, not on some "State Mandate". This is where the money goes - and the absorbed radiation dose rises. Repeat "staging" CTs to determine the progress of OA, repeat Clinical Chemistries for the same, and "the beat goes on".
Yet another example of "Health Care by Committee" - and there are many more "out there".
I agree but having savings is not enough. There has to be someone willing to do work for you in exchange for your savings. If each retiree had a basement full of gold but there were half as many workers as retirees it would still be hard to find someone to empty your bedpan. Hordes of long-lived retirees require an exponentially expanding population. Universal retirement is a ponzi scheme. My grandfather got it, my father's got it but I am probably too far down the pyramid to ever get it. Safeguarding my health through diet and exercise seems the prudent course. Live long, drop dead.
How much physical Gold is actually remaining ? Its possibly loaned out many years ago. That may be one of the final mysteries solved.
If MMT is true, the GVT has uncle Benny, and aunt Janet to pay the bills :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6JkceQ9FU
At some point it will become in part a battle between the free shit army and unions/insurance companies/ lawyers....... That will happen after the middle class (those making 100-200k family wise) are completely obliterated. Yes 200k is very middle class in the north east, dont believe me try it.
Yeah okay whatever, Charlie Gibson.
There's no need to guess what "middle class" means when the statistics about earning are available. It's called a standard deviation, shitwit.
Time for the Evil Empire to extract more tribute from the vassals. Tomahawk Extortion attacks to raise revenue from resource rich nations. The US Navy would take control of Saudi Arabia if they could get the Hashemites in Jordan to take control of Mecca and Medina.
Israel will have to devise a new scam for the US so they can swagger around the playground together and eat everyone's lunch
I'll make my lunch a ham sandwich; Thank-you.
Is your ham "the real deal", or is it this - http://www.yvesveggie.com/products/detail.php/meatless-ham-slices ?? Interesting "list of contents" - wonder how much of that is "semi-synthetic"??
Chart needs to take into effect the enormous success of QE1-4 and that for every downturn every 5 years into our future, someone will turn the spigots on again because we now have precedent.