Wrong. Seniors owns America.
Social security liability: 15 Trillion
Prescription drug liability: 20 Trillion
Medicare liability: 79 Trillion
US unfunded liabilities: 114 Trillion
Social security liability: 15 Trillion
Prescription drug liability: 20 Trillion
Medicare liability: 79 Trillion
US unfunded liabilities: 114 Trillion
So the person who really owns America is whoever is going to lend us the money to pay the seniors (and those becoming seniors) in the next 30 or so years.
(And yes I'm prepared to be Downvoted here too but I'd rather be downvoted while trying to get people to face an obvious truth than hide from a bully with a quick mouse finger)
We've essentially outsourced to the government what for millennia has been taken care of by families- caring for our seniors and elderly. If we want to have a sustainable path forward, this is something that we as a society will eventually have to confront, come to terms with, and hopefully solve.
The fact is tax increases of any kind are currently hard to get. Maybe as benefits for seniors start disappearing we'll see that change since seniors vote. If we ever get back to 20% of GDP for Federal tax revenues there's no special reasoning that says getting to 21% is going to be any harder then going from 18% to 19%. The whole 20% thing is just silly.
It doesn't show any such thing. The whole truth is that from 1940 to 2000 average taxes paid including state and local went from 18% to 32%. Plenty of governments around the world and a number of US states are over 20% in federal taxes alone.
"Tax avoidance behavior increases as tax rates increase, you have moving targets."
This is obvious but, unfortunately, does not get you to "it's impossible to collect more then 20% federal taxes"
Social security and medicare are both insurance funds. You pay in now to get benefits later.
The current generation of seniors going into retirement spent all their retirement before they retired. They elected the politicians who bankrupted social security through generous tax cuts and costly wars.
The solution isn't an end to social security. The solution is a temporary reduction in benefits for the baby boomers.
That would be fiscal responsibility.
Considering the ridiculous prices for health care in the US, we could easily knock 50 trillion off that by just sending all those seniors to Canada for health care. Or perhaps reforming our health care system to not charge 3x as much for worse services than are available in more civilized countries? I think someone tried that, but the people who plan to pocket most of that $99 trillion weren't happy at all about the prospect.
I've lost multiple loved ones to precisely this "feature", and have gained a sister that almost certainly would have died in the queue -- because she happened to be studying in the US when she fell ill.
I think I personally prefer the risk, and choice, presented by a medical system with (expensive) oversupply.
I'd take waiting months or years over a choice between no health care or extensive debt/bankruptcy.
If I was in the country illegally, or had no assets or desire for future credit, I could go to an emergency room and receive plenty of services without a need to pay a cent. As a law abiding, legal citizen with moderate assets, my options are very limited in the US. In all directions regarding healthcare, there is an absurd subsystem seemingly designed to require that one works for a large corporation which provides health benefits.
That is simply not true. When was the last time you've been in the emergency room?
Unless you are close to death, private hospitals won't even treat you. They ship you off to the closest public hospital. Where, if you don't have the money you are the last seen. And in South Florida that can take days, depending on how busy the hospital is. And you get the minimal care to keep you alive. Period. Not to mention, the local governments pay for it. Trust me, public hospitals don't give services out of the goodness of their hearts. It's a terrible situation I know. But the solutions (universal health care) haven't work out so well.
some points to back up what i say: -my grandfather was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. they caught it early, and the next week he was undergoing treatment.
-i was diagnosed with a rare eye condition. within a week i was in the specialists office.
-i was in a car accident. it was fairly minor, but they insisted i stay in overnight for observation. i had cat scan, x-ray, etc as soon as possible
-me and my wife have had 3 kids. we never had any delays seeing a doctor, all were born healthy, and every one of them sees a doctor on a regular basis without long delays.
As far "unfunded liabilities" liabilities go, that's another politically-motivated relabeling.
The US will spend more on military spending than social security next year, just as it did last year and intends to do ten years from now. But social security is called an "unfunded liability" and military isn't. Guess why?