05-18-2016, 05:04 PM
(05-18-2016, 04:25 PM)Mikebert Wrote:(05-16-2016, 07:43 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: The great inflection is upon us. The ongoing fall in world wide fecundity, coupled with improved health care and longer life spans, has brought us to the point of Peak Youth.
And guess who's going to pay for this situation?
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/were-...00694.html
With MMT, there is no need to "pay" anything. The real problem isn't demographics, but demagoguery when it comes to "deficits". The best thing to is ditch the Fed because it's not necessary and turn the control of the currency back to the treasury. Debt free fiat currency should be used instead of our current currency regime which has its origin in debt. That is to say, the current dollar is "backed" by US government debt. Debt isn't sustainable because it grows exponentially. A MMT based debt free fiat regime requires us all to be grown ups so we don't end up like Venezuela. That means the US would need an accurate CPI number to go by and the backbone to raise taxes when the CPI goes out of range of say 1%. We also need MMT to counter deflationary effects of automation as well. So:
1. We need to basically decouple first health care from work with a single payer system like Canada and eliminate health insurance company monopolies, and eliminate Medicare and Medicaid as being redundant.
2. Beef up the safety need. This essentially means that we need to realize that there won't be enough real work to go around.
3. Fix up the infrastructure in the US. This would create jobs and reduce structural/hidden costs. I don't want potholes creating a fallen transmission. I also hate driving and long TSA driven waits at airports. A 1st world passenger rail system would certainly be nice.
Mikebert Wrote:I was aware of this when I was in my early 20's, back around 1980. Back then SS was going bankrupt and I believed that SS and Medicare would be gone by the time I was 65. So I resolved to save a lot (which I did). To ensure solvency for the generations older than the Boomers, payroll taxes were raised in the 1980's to levels well above what was needed to pay for current benefits and the surplus used to finance tax cuts for the rich. The GI and Silent gens all collected far far more in benefits (and tax cuts) that they ever paid in, at the expense of Boomers and later gens in their maximum earning years in the 1980's and afterward.
Yeah, I remember that also. I thought it was dumb since Social Security is just a line item on a virtual balance sheet. Social Security taxes coming in are credits and Social Security payments are debits. I mean really, what the hell difference does it make since it's the entire balance that matters?
Quote:And then in 2005 the government came up with a plan to stiff the Boomers (and GenX) by getting rid of SS (privatizing they called it). It did not fly. The issue of financing these entitlements will come up again.
Impeccable timing by Shrub and his merry Republican friends. Invest SS in dodgey stock market schemes right before a crash. I don't trust Wall Street with much of anything. Keep Wall Street's filthy hands off my SS!
Quote: The problem of getting GenX and the Miilies their proper due is actually trivially easy to do, technically. Assuming GenX and the Millies back the right side, it will be fixed, no sweat. If they choose the wrong side, then it won't. So choose wisely.Agreed. Suggestion 1. Friends don't let friends vote for Republicans!
---Value Added 