Where is the US economy headed?

@BillRM,

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One hell of a large percent of older people and not nearly enough younger people to support them.

People in their prime who have not been allowed to build a life anywhere near as cushy as their parents enjoyed because their parents left a boat load of debt, a broken down infrastructure and keep demanding to suck huge paydays at the public tit in their retirement might decide that the old geezers dont deserve to be supported......making sure that we have plenty of younger new Americans to pay our (I am a boomer) debts and current bills and to put the country back together after a generation of neglect is not exactly what I would call a sound plan.

Debt servicing requires ability+willingness to pay the debt...come on Bill, this is econ 101.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

Debt servicing requires ability+willingness to pay the debt...come on Bill, this is econ 101.

Unless you are counting on the overthowed of the US boomers along with middle agers will give the younger people no choice but to be willing to pay the SS debts.

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3.7% increase for those collecting SS?? Does anyone know what the average increase for wage earners was? Was there an increase? Increases in payments to old people and their medical care are going to be a political problem so long as wages continue to perform poorly as they have in recent years.

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@hawkeye10,

Interesting question. However, the fact is the inflation forecast by conservative economists and denied by the proponents of even greater government deficit spending and money creation by the Fed is already developing.

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@hawkeye10,

I think I read that at 3.5% it's about $43/monthly increase.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

I think I read that at 3.5% it's about $43/monthly increase.

OK, and how many workers are earning less than $3.5% more than they earned last year?

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

is not exactly what I would call a sound plan.

I read somewhere that the Eskimos had a sound plan but I suppose in their case it was necessary.

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@hawkeye10,

Probably the majority.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

Probably the majority.

How is that going to work out over the long haul if the current wage situation and job scarcity situation are drawn out over a decade or more as many are predicting?? Are the majority of American taxpayers going to tolerate this?

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@hawkeye10,

What are you talking about? There has been no real increase in wages for 80% of the work force since 1979.

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@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

What are you talking about? There has been no real increase in wages for 80% of the work force since 1979.

I am talking about those on entitlement programs doing better year over year than are those who are paying for said programs, and the likelihood of political problems as a result.

We saw much the same thing in Wisconsin, where the beef is that government keeps costing more each year to run, in part because employees keep getting more money in pay/benies/deferred income but the state citizens who pay the bills have not been keeping up. This caused the taxpayers to demand government employee pay cuts.

Can SS collectors continue to collect increases year after year better than the current workers do without there being an effort to force SS collectors to take a haircut?? I dont think so, what do you think??

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

Can SS collectors continue to collect increases year after year better than the current workers do without there being an effort to force SS collectors to take a haircut?? I dont think so, what do you think??

So 50 millions voters repeat 50 millions voters are going to allow themselves to take a haircut in order to allow the top one percent to keep the majority of the wealth?

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@BillRM,

Quote:

So 50 millions voters repeat 50 millions voters are going to allow themselves to take a haircut in order to allow the top one percent to keep the majority of the wealth?

Dont we all need to sacrifice now in order to right the ship?

IDK what will happen, but I have long been on record as expecting both class war and generational war, I dont see why the need for one precludes the need for the other.

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@hawkeye10,

Sorry but as one of those collectors of SS benefits for all of a year I am not planning on taking any cuts until I see the greatest imbalance of wealth in the nation history address.

The top 800 or so riches men and women can somehow lean to live on say twenty percents of the total wealth of the nation before they are allow to take a dime extra out of my pocket.

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@hawkeye10,

It's already common knowledge that social security and Medicare cannot be sustained at current levels of benefits, but our government lacks the common sense to make the necessary adjustments. This is very old news, and the only conclusion I can draw is that our government is really, really, STUPID!

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@BillRM,

The wealthy dont seem to have any interest in sacrifice either...we shall see if a majority forms to force it upon the wealthy...and/or the retired.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

It's already common knowledge that social security and Medicare cannot be sustained at current levels of benefits, but our government lacks the common sense to make the necessary adjustments. This is very old news, and the only conclusion I can draw is that our government is really, really, STUPID!

A big problem to be sure. A bigger problem would be if the majority American people are no longer willing to pull for the common good. It remains to be seen just how broken American society is, all we know at the moment is that we are in big trouble and have reason to be worried that we are no longer wise enough and strong enough to get out of this hole that we have made for ourselves.

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@hawkeye10,

I don't give much credit to the American voters; they seem clueless on many fronts including intelligence. They want to keep giving the wealthy more tax breaks as our nation's deficit grows. They also believe giving more tax breaks to the wealthy will create jobs - which hasn't happened since GW Bush's 2001-2002 tax cuts. They see the majority of Americans losing jobs and their homes, but keep believing in fairy tales that the rich will save them.

They are clueless; and I bet they also believe that Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan will save them when in reality it will increase their taxes, and cut the taxes for the wealthy.

There's no cure for stupid; I'm afraid there are too many in this country.

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@hawkeye10,

Well as the wealthy used the government to gain that percent of the total wealth over the last three generations or so the majority of the citizens have ever legal and moral right to tax it away from them before taking even more funds from the bottom half of the population.

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@cicerone imposter,

You are an old man, you are supposed to crotchety and I hope that that is the source of your observation. My fear is that you are right.

Those who have been paying attention know that we have a people who are poorly educated, are filled with fear, and that we have a corrupted by the corporate class government which has shown an abundance of willingness to both oppress the citizens and to lie to the citizens.....IE, that we are in deep trouble.

Can we get out? Can we get out even if we dont find any leaders whom for the moment are nowhere in sight? IDK...

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Where is the US economy headed?

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