Ross Perot is back, and he's got a bunch of charts showing how deadly serious the U.S. economic situation, re: indebtedness, is. It's really worth spending some time on this excellent site:
The United States faces large and growing budget deficits mostly due to an aging population and rising healthcare costs. Unless we solve the problems caused by entitlement spending, there will be little money left to do anything else in the future. Over time, our standard of living, our national security, our standing in the world and the value of our currency could all be threatened. The sooner we confront these issues, the better. This presentation explains the problems.
That last hyperlink is to a dynamic presentation on the Perotcharts.com site, sort of a summation of information there in a more detailed way elsewhere on the site. Reading these charts, it's shocking how disengaged the political class, and the news media, are from the crisis upon us. If you are under 50 and are expecting the government to be there to help you with retirement, it's time to start making alternate plans.
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I hear even the McCains have 250,000+ in credit card bills.
Scott Burns calls it "fiscal child abuse." Check out his book "The Coming Generational Storm" written in conjunction with Laurence Kotlikoff in 2004. It will scare the hell out of you. But in the last chapter, they give solid tips on how to survive the coming meltdown.
He who has ears to hear . . .
My guess is we'll see a rationing of both medicare and SS in the future: SS will be means tested to a degree - income earningers in the middle class will see little if any SS dollars. The retirement age will be raised to the mid 70's if not higher as well.
Medicare will be rationed in the sense elderly will be will be cut off from major operations at a certain age - if you're in your 80's and need a major operation you'll most likely be getting a bottle of aspirin instead.
Let's see, Bill Clinton put a stop on the raiding of the SS Fund and George Bush re-engaed us in the raiding of the fund for the "good of the Nation".
And whose to blame for the mess? The aging Americans? I don't think so.
Paul,
There never was a SS fund. Wake up. Even if the Clinton administration was a better manager of the government's funds, the "balanced budget" that they presented was based on using the funds coming in for SS. If they were to exclude the money that fictionally was supposed to be in a "SS fund" then they would have reported a budget deficit.
So technically, Clinton was raiding the SS trust fund. Problem is, SS is a pay-as-you-go system and there isn't and never was a SS fund to raid. So, what any of us will recieve in SS will depend on how much is in the fund in any given year. So, people who have the silly idea that there will be nothing are wrong also.
Now medicare (the really big problem) never even pretended to be a fund. It is strictly pay-as-you-go and when lots of people are old and require lots of medical care, you've got a big problem. Especially as more expensive treatments that improve quality of life become available. Everybody is going to want these treatments but it will be hard to afford them.
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