whiterock said:The policy makers have to balance a budget regardless whether they are looking to Keynes or Hayek for inspiration.historian said:whiterock said:Beware the mixing of political metaphors...... NeoCon is a foreign policy epithet; SS is a domestic policy issue.FLBear5630 said:Haley said that, but she is a NeoCom. You a closet NeoCom, Whiterock?? : )whiterock said:in 1935, when Social Security was enacted, life expectancy was 61.7 years.Doc Holliday said:Us average life expectancy for a male is 73. Lifespan is also rapidly declining because of our diets and lack of exercise.whiterock said:We should raise SS to 72 as full retirement.Doc Holliday said:I'm not saying all debt is bad or unnecessary…but the current expenditures are insane.whiterock said:Remember, there is a method to the madness = Inflation services debt.\Doc Holliday said:They'll have to print money which will lead to even more inflation,historian said:
Unfortunately, that is true. Social Security is the largest Ponzi scheme in history. They all have insane obligations that will not all be possible at some point. If you think our national debt is insane, look at our unfunded liabilities (lower right):
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
It is unsustainable and our incompetence Congress just voted to send another $61 billion of your grandkids' money to the Ukraine forever war.
Inflation is legal counterfeiting and counterfeiting is criminal inflation. Central banking is a coordinated currency counterfeiting cartel that runs the world.
Milton Friedman said money printing is just like alcoholism: you feel good at first and then you eventually have the hangover. The same is true about inflation, every time there's a crisis you have to print an exponential amount of money because there's an exponential amount of liabilities from the last round of printing.
It will eventually hyperinflate into worthlessness if they continue doing this.
And one more even less well understood concept. We do not have to maintain a terribly tidy financial house; it just has to be tidier than anyone else's.
We can do whatever the hell we want, and as long as EU, Germany, Japan, UK, France, etc.....are in worse shape.......everyone will flock to the dollar and keep it alive.
You don't have to outrun the lion.
You just have to outrun your buddy.
The US govt raises $5 trillion per year in revenue. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the debt cost $5 trillion per year. Everything else requires debt to pay for. Defense, State Dept, Agriculture, Education, NASA ... everything.
The level of inflation we've been dealing with is far outpacing wages. The idiotic Keynesian economists claim otherwise, but buying power is in major decline and that stems directly from printing money which causes inflation. We can't continue to go down the current path.
If debt really doesn't matter then you could print unlimited amounts of money. We know that doesn't work and countries like Venezuela have tried and it resulted in chaos.
They're gonna raise SS to age 70 which is 35 years before I turn 70. Im barely gonna get anything out of it after paying for a lifetime. It sucks ass man.
Extending out the retirement age will slow the decline of the workforce by retaining our most highly skilled workers. That will also retain our most highly compensated workers (an incremental add to the wage tax base). More to the point, though, SS was not intended to be a two-decade long defined benefit plan. we waited way too long to start nudging it up. And nudging it up is indeed the way they will fix it. The worse the demographic tree looks, the more they'll have to nudge it up. You need X number of workers to pay for Y number of retirees......
I have no plan to retire to read books & watch bobbers in the creek. The stuff I like to do costs money.....
If they keep raising it then everyone who could qualify for it will be dead. So what the hell is the point of SS if the vast majority of people don't ever get it?
in 1935, when Social Security was enacted, full retirement age was 65
Today, SS full retirement is 67.
Look at what's happened to life expectancy.
Full retirement age has not kept pace with life expectancy. Fix that, and you fix social security.
(wink)
Neoconservatism has domestic aspects too. Unfortunately, they are all based upon Keynesian economics with the corresponding results.
If they are inspired by Keynes, they will almost never balance the budget. Hayek would inspire more responsible governance.
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
Psalm 119:36