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The only "entitlement" is for the mega banks like their bailout. These attacks on unions and the social safety net are sickening since austerity is basically asking the poor and middle class people to pay for a economic depression that the mega banks and Federal Reserve caused. These debts went way up after the financial crisis that they caused. Basically point your finger directly at the large banks and the Federal Reserve and say these guys did it, they are the ones responsible for this depression therefore they have to pay for it. Austerity for the bankers in the form of a prison cell only.
Not even close.
People, taxpayers, haven't liked unions, social programs, etc., for a lot longer than the past few years.
This is nothing new.
It's just getting a lot more deserved attention...
You can stop right there, as it stands now SS and medicare have unfunded liabilities of 110 trillion. If they don't raise taxes by a penny to fund this it's still 110 trillion dollars and it goes up every year.
At some point in time the house of cards is going to collapse, what is going on in many of the states right now with unfunded pensions is the preview....
I think the biggest innovations from my generation, which we've, (X/Y), innovated a lot (Facebook and Google just to name a few). We've also started rolling the ball on revolutions abroad. The biggest rejection that we are seeing is a trend against the Bush Doctrine. The neo-conservative ideal that America should preemptively strike is costing us trillions. The total cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is now in the trillions (this includes positive and negative economic impacts of the war). The direct cost of the wars is nearly $800 billion. This is absurd. We're funding two wars that have proven to make us less safe and instead of trying to tackle this and end the war, we decide that social security, universal health, and other socially beneficial programs are too costly.
It is my hope that my generation has learned what it is like to suffer the burden debt. We didn't pillage our states and the middle class. Yet, we have the highest debt burdens simply because we went to college. I've read a lot of "well what about not going"? Do we really want a society that has a dearth of teachers, doctors, administrators, lawyers, engineers, etc.? Of course not.
It's not any one generation's fault. It is however a collective ideology that laissez faire capitalism should dictate public policy. We've come to a point in our history where we know that we need to balance the market with government (the will of the people). With that said, government should be tempered with capitalism (the aspirations of the people). A balanced system seems to be the best method.
Yet, culturally, we shy away from anything that is even remotely socialist. This is sad. Socialism is just as bad of a word as conservative; they are simply ideologies. If we reject the notion that all ideologies must be followed strictly and cannot be parsed then we can actually have some real change.
This is the hope for my generation. We should get over the polarization of our nation and take the best parts of each ideology.
Pipe dream? Possibly. Nonetheless, my generation should take up the old man's burden.
Yes .. They might actually have to get off of their dead asses and go out and "find a job"
Why are gen X's lumped into this? I find that it's the Y's that believe we need to serve them-and they are entitled tot hat 100K job right out of college.
Here's the way I look at it - SS and Medicare will never be completely broke because taxes will continue to be paid in. Nowhere near enough to pay today's benefits, but something will be there.
Contrast that with medicaid, which IS completely broke (and has been since day 1). It's not funded by any tax and there's certainly no "trust fund". But far from ending the totally unfunded payouts, obamacare will drastically INCREASE the cost of medicaid.
There is no money. Paying into social security was never a guarantee that you would receive a check. If there was an income guarantee there is no way that Bill Clinton would have allocated that money to other things.
But of course the government DID promise the social security check would be there - and that's how it's duped people into paying an extreme tax that destroys much of their income and ability to save the money themselves.
Whats really bad for those coming up now is that the government is still robbing them of their incomes but they will never see a dime back. They're still being told the big lies.
op is wrong. op is right that social security will run dry, but ss benefits will continue as ss benefits will be paid from income tax. after 2037, you will get 75 percent of your benefit. again, this is directly from the social security website, not from an idealogue.
All the money went down the toilets of Iraq and Wall St.
How did that serve the nation's best interest?
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Brilliant Policy Moves, part 1
