Maybe the solution to this mess is to tie benefits to the total fertility rate. Would create a lot of interesting incentives.
Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
61–70 of 89 posts
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#62The healthcare portions of the debt seem unsolvable but I don't know why we think Social Security is that complicated to fix. 1. Define very clearly what SS is. We need to be clear that it's an agreement between the working class and the retired class that says "if you are too old to work and you can't afford to live, we will take care of you" 2. Get rid of the SS tax cap. You don't pay any SS tax above 180k ish, whi…
That isn't enough to solve the problem.
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#63I got interested enough in the national debt to do some research: is there a single-issue NGO that's working on the national debt? With a platform that you could imagine a Democrat or a Republican supporting? I found the Concord Coalition [0], and their sister organization Concord Action [1]. I haven't done enough research to endorse them, but I'm just saying: they exist and this is their issue. [0]: https://concordc…
There's the Peterson Foundation and the CFRB.
Thank you for these pointers!
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gen-X here. I’ve grown up with the warning non-stop that Social Security will become insolvent. My question is this: If I can’t get some or most it, why can’t I steer the money to where I believe the money ought to go?
There's no steering anything. You are not paying for yourself, you are paying for current retirees on the hopes that there will be enough people to pay for your. Current retirees are not getting enough from that, so they are accumulating debt to pay themselves even more, hence the article. Since the population pyramid has not worked that way, you will simply have a worse time, and younger people even worse, unless yo…
Children are the retirement plan but tax revenue positive migrants can also plug the gap.
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#65lets do austerity for the wealthy first. we give them money hand over fist, in fact we've never met a problem we didn't try to solve by giving the rich more money. we currently fund R&D for three private space programs, from which we buy the technologies we paid the development costs for. Lets get down to 0 publicly-funded privately-owned space programs before we start picking which grandmothers we need to starve out
That R&D money to private space companies has lead to the biggest advances in space technology in our lifetimes.
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#66Its amazing to me how many people find the thought of societal collapse more palatable than raising taxes on corporations and capital gains.
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#67Its amazing to me how many people find the thought of societal collapse more palatable than raising taxes on corporations and capital gains.
Because your proposal leads to layoffs and sell-offs, accelerating decline.
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reminder that social security is funded entirely by a separate tax and not debt, so unless you are planning to cut benefits but continue the tax it would do nothing to reduce the deficit or debt.
IIUC, in the future, the SS tax isn't going to cover the benefits that SS will be obliged to pay out. So some analyses model the shortfall as coming out of the government's general budget. So, yeah, it's "separate" spending in a sense, but it's not totally in its own sandbox.
This is already the case. Social Security has been running a deficit since 2010. It's only stayed solvent because of the trust fund, which is expected to run out in around seven years. So the government is currently keeping it afloat using general budget revenue.
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#69Its amazing to me how many people find the thought of societal collapse more palatable than raising taxes on corporations and capital gains.
Because your proposal leads to layoffs and sell-offs, accelerating decline.
The alternative, letting the deficit grow while continuing to cut taxes, hasn't worked out either though
Re: Solution to US debt crisis is severe austerity triggered by a fiscal calamity
#70The healthcare portions of the debt seem unsolvable but I don't know why we think Social Security is that complicated to fix. 1. Define very clearly what SS is. We need to be clear that it's an agreement between the working class and the retired class that says "if you are too old to work and you can't afford to live, we will take care of you" 2. Get rid of the SS tax cap. You don't pay any SS tax above 180k ish, whi…
That isn't enough to solve the problem. https://www.crfb.org/socialsecurityreformer/
? the OP proposed raising the contribution limit & also hinted at some means testing "and you can't afford to live" -- which combined would absolutely be enough to close the gap depending on how aggressive you are with these changes.