Austerity Britain and us

My big fear is that the government will print the money to meet its entitlement obligations and inflate away its debt at the same time.

As a saver this means I will be up the creek along people who didn't acts as responsibly.

I sense there is a general recognition that we need to act more responsibly and there is evidence that people are doing with less. But my frugality means that my neighbor may lose his job. Now he has to be really frugal so two more neighbors lose their job. None them can now contribute to either the savings rate or be taxed to retire the national debt, in fact they need to be taken care of.

Can this kind of collapse be avoided? How can a society be conservative in its use of resources and still provide full employment?

Has anyone written of this? Are there any answers?

Clearly y'all don't understand how Bush/Cheney is saving America from Socialism.

The Bush/Cheney administration intended, by design, to leave the government so debt-ridden that it could not afford to carry out its entitlement obligations. That's why "deficits don't matter" (Cheney) and the Social Security Trust Fund was dismissed as "... just IOUs that I saw firsthand.” (Bush). Medicare D doesn't matter, because there's no intent to fulfill long-term obligations. Piling a huge new entitlement upon the old just speeds the total collapse of what Bush called the "house of cards."

Or was that our economy he called a "house of cards?"

For the first time in American history we had a president and his party insist on large tax cuts during wartime, "nothing is more important" they proclaimed. This, too, was part of the plan. The larger the debt, the less we can afford entitlements. They wrecked the economy in the process, but at least the evil government won't be able to send money to the elderly. The Weathermen only dreamed of doing such damage to America.

My prayer is that all those aging boomers will have someone in their lives who is willing to take them in, whether a blood relative or not. It's not about what they deserve for the way they have lived, but what they deserve as human beings who reflect the image of God.

Well, that's nice of you, Meg, but pretty broad. And pretty condescending.

I'm not a boomer, being one year too old, but I don't see that "the way I've lived" merits anything less than support. After all, we've been there for you-all, in case you haven't noticed.

We've been married 42 years. We have four children, all adults now. One is seriously mentally ill, and we've been there for him. I shouldn't need to go into detail on that, but if you think that's been easy, you don't know much about it. One younger child cratered emotionally, and she moved in with us for two years after finishing her (very expensive) college education, all paid for by us, by the way. In fact, all college educations were fully paid for by us, no grants, and no one had to borrow a penny. That wasn't always easy, by the way. We didn't inherit money. It didn't fall out of the sky. We worked hard for it.

We lent our eldest money so he could buy a house. I do childcare for grandchildren.

So what exactly is it that I've done, in your estimation "not to deserve" help if I need it? What is this, all help is a one-way street? Your generation takes easily enough, I have noticed that part, but giving is something extraordinary?

If you don't get along with your parents, that's between you and them. But let's not broaden the brush on that, OK?

You do well, Maria, to be skeptical about easy credit. The same greedheads that have gutted America are always looking for new fools, er, customers to buy their innovative financial products, especially now that Americans are about tapped out. As our once-prosperous nation is rapidly transforming into a smoking crater of debt, the wonderful folks who brought us this exciting new world would be delighted to offer Russians the same opportunities.

Home values are crashing around us. Houses that would have been snapped up even two years ago have been sitting empty for over a year. We're seeing lovely old houses priced in the $40-70,000 range in some neighborhoods. If I had a penny to spare, I'd buy one and rent it out.

It is interesting that the financial services industry has invented 40 and 50-year mortgages, too. I hope people expect to stay in one house for life, like we have. How many years would it take to have any reasonable amount of equity?

Susan,

I am sorry I offended you. As I pointed out, one of my sisters has mental disabilities and the other is seriously depressed due to a tragic loss. It sounds as though you have done everything your children needed and well deserve help and support from them. That's not my situation. My parents helped me with college and I'm grateful to them for that -- but my sisters didn't receive their diplomas until many years after they completed their degrees, because my (divorcing) parents couldn't get their act together to pay their share (we all worked and borrowed for college as well). My mother drinks and my father carouses. I certainly have no claim to being a saint; it's very difficult for me to deal with my parents, and I'm sure I could do a better job. BUT I mail my mother money for food every month (in gift card form so it goes for food and not anything else, such as alcohol). I gave my dad his rent money a month ago because he owes money to the IRS and they finally got impatient and confiscated his bank account. When my parents move in with me, I expect to be dealing with all sorts of bad examples for my kids, including incorrect -- from my point of view -- answers to my kids' questions, delivered without shame or consideration for the values my husband and I are trying to teach. I am constantly walking the line between enabling and caring for them.

By boomers I am including myself. I meant more my peers than our parents' generation, as a general rule. I meant to state that all boomers (and other generations, as well) deserve help in old age, regardless of whether or not they have lived good lives! I am truly sorry that you misunderstood me so completely.

And to support that lifestyle they allowed the migraton of millions of non-Europeans. Granted they had some before, but it accelerated in the 1990s under Blair (lefties love immigration, its their best electoral weapon). Now London is less than half indigeneous British, probably less than half European. The Tube is creaky and dirty. The whole city and Island is crowded. Its awful

Scotch Meg,

What Old Susan said. My 75-year-old mom has a personality disorder. I will do whatever I have to do to see that she remains housed, short of letting her live with me. Her behavior is very similar to that of an active alcoholic - hostile, paranoid, no boundaries, etc.

Your children do not deserve the chaos that will ensue if you bring your destructive parents into your home. There are other ways to honor the parents without disrupting your home life. You may be responding to the codependent tug that all children of alcoholics feel. Pray hard for discernment before you let them in.