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Here it is the social security system that pays pensions, based mostly on contributions and a smaller share of taxes if necessary.
The pension and healthcare tsunamis in Euro-States leaves them with unfunded liabilities through 2040 that are economically devastating.
Britain is the best-situated at only 75% of GDP, while Italy has the worst position at 300% of GDP, which is an impossibility economically. The rest of the Euro-States fall in-between.
Pension cuts are coming, in addition to even higher taxes.
France slashed its pension from 50% to 37.5%, but that wasn't enough, so they raised the retirement age, but that still wasn't enough, so now everyone born before 1973 has to work 42 years get 100% of the 37.5% of their pension. Everyone born 1973 and later has to work 43 years.
Americans only have to work 35 years.
Still, France is at 85% of GDP and will most likely cut pensions again 5 points from 37.5% to 32.5% (or less).
I just can't get to every comment as I would like to but before I sign off now, real quick about yours...
Take up what authority the government does or does not have with the government and/or constitutional scholars and/or the supreme court, because unlike you perhaps, I'm not as well versed in these areas as these other people tend to be, and I'm not about to pretend I'm such an expert. What I know is what our government is involved in today, quite different for obvious reasons compared to back in 1776, but all constitutional far as I know until deemed otherwise.
I have paid taxes at the highest income levels of our progressive tax code and needless to say those tax dollars have gone toward welfare programs, education programs (federal student financial aid for example), and NASA, even not so far as it relates to national defense (nice one). If you can take your/our case to court and win, I am 110 percent behind you, because I'd love those tax dollars back. All this time unconstitutional you say? Where do I sign?
Meanwhile, please spare me the lesson on what is constitutional in the face of the reality we must all accept today. Fair?
You have your opinion, but you "don't get to decide" what is constitutional or not...
No, I do not, and neither does anyone else. Fortunately, that's exactly WHY the Constitution explicitly enumerates the limited powers of Congress in Article I Section 8.
Plus, the US is a tax haven, just like certain British islands.
If what you allege were true, how can I live in another US state or anywhere else in the world and by doing so avoid the responsibility of having to pay any US federal tax on my taxable income? Answer that question.
Last edited by InformedConsent; 02-25-2019 at 01:22 PM..
It's not a contract somebody has to sign just in order for it to apply to everyone. One is born into it, so to speak.
Based on what? According to the US Constitution, the US Congress has no authority whatsoever to legislate taxpayer-funded social welfare programs. US Constitution, Article I Section 8.
The pension and healthcare tsunamis in Euro-States leaves them with unfunded liabilities through 2040 that are economically devastating.
Britain is the best-situated at only 75% of GDP, while Italy has the worst position at 300% of GDP, which is an impossibility economically. The rest of the Euro-States fall in-between.
Pension cuts are coming, in addition to even higher taxes.
France slashed its pension from 50% to 37.5%, but that wasn't enough, so they raised the retirement age, but that still wasn't enough, so now everyone born before 1973 has to work 42 years get 100% of the 37.5% of their pension. Everyone born 1973 and later has to work 43 years.
Americans only have to work 35 years.
Still, France is at 85% of GDP and will most likely cut pensions again 5 points from 37.5% to 32.5% (or less).
But, keep talking.
France has been living beyond its means for decades. I find their radical yellow jacket protests odd. They are a bit spoiled there.
Basically I think it only makes sense to work longer as we get older and older. But it has to be done differently. I like the idea of gradually sliding into retirement, through part-time work.
I don't think people should retire at 60. I know of doctors who would like to continue to work, but are not allowed to because they exceed the retirement age.
In Germany they are discussing the introduction of a minimum pension that allows a dignified retirement and is independent of former contributions.
Personally, I would go even further, I think there should be a single, modest, standard pension (maybe two actually, an urban and a rural one) for everyone, regardless of former contributions. Anyone who wants more when retired, has to take out an additional private insurance, save, or whatever during their active lives.
No one has any idea what would happen if that conservative dream from who-knows-where should actually come to pass, but for the best guess I think you'd have to look back in time, like back to the Dark Ages...
And if it works?
Your solution of throwing money at the problem has never worked in history, isn't working now, and never will work, no matter how much money you throw at the problem.
Insanity is continually doing the same thing and expecting different results.
The Great Society legislation was intended to end poverty, but it only succeeded in trapping a large segment of the population into perpetual poverty.
It is a failure, always will be, and expanding it will only trap more people into perpetual poverty.
After 50 years of spectacular failures, it's time to try something new.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LearnMe
My focus is on how the more typical young American is going to manage a quality education today, not 15 years ago!
Except all the people with delinquent student loans have gone to school in the last 25 years.
If what you allege were true, how can I live in another US state or anywhere else in the world and by doing so avoid the responsibility of having to pay any US federal tax on my taxable income? Answer that question.
I don't know how it works, but obviously it does work... You would have to ask those companies how they do it...
I guess a lot of the objection here is based on a misunderstanding resulting from the thread title, closing the gap suggests everyone gets the same.
I think it would be enough to reduce the gap to a reasonable degree.
Size does matter. Take an economics course to learn how and why.
Population matters, too.
You cannot compare homogeneous populations with heterogeneous populations.
Because you've never been to a homogeneous nation-State, you'll never understand.
I've spent quite a bit of time in Norway and Denmark, and was in Denmark about 9 years ago.
One thing you'll see is unattended fruit and vegetable stands. The prices are marked and there's a coin-box. Take what you want, put your money in the coin-box, take money out of the coin-box if you need to make change, and go about your business.
See anything like that in the US?
Hell, no.
Why not?
I just told you why.
Which part of "homogeneity" do you not understand?
The populations of Scandinavian States are homogeneous, and so is their culture, which consists of certain values and mores and those values and mores say it's wrong to steal and you do not steal ever and stealing can never be justified.
Contrast that with the US where one culture among many cultures says it's okay to steal, and then another culture says not only is it okay to steal, but you should never be punished for stealing, and then another culture says not only can you steal, but it is your duty to steal, because you are "entitled."
The Scandinavian States are also largely Protestant, and the so-called Protestant work-ethic is pervasive.
Not so in the US, and even less so, since you have an entitlement culture.
The entitlement culture is diametrically opposed to the Protestant work-ethic culture.
So, something might work in Scandinavian States, but it only works because the people and their culture are homogeneous.
It will not work in the US, because the people and culture are heterogeneous.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neuling
Scandinavians are not protected by US taxpayers.
Yes, they are, but you wouldn't know, since you've never been there and know nothing of the military.
Norway and Denmark are NATO member-States, and US aircraft patrolled Scandinavian air space, while other US aircraft conducted anti-submarine warfare operations, and US naval surface groups patrol the seas around Scandinavia, and all of Scandinavia is under the US nuclear umbrella.
None of the Scandinavian States have blue-water navies. They're all brown-water navies: small coastal patrol craft.
US tax-payers subsidize NATO and non-NATO military training exercises in Scandinavia.
I could go on and on for days about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neuling
Regarding CEO's, it's not necessary to get the best ones.
Uh-huh...so, when you're the defendant in a criminal or civil suit, you're going to get the worst attorney available to defend you?
No, you're going to get the best you can.
Successful people do not tolerate mediocrity.
Mediocrity results in wasteful inefficiency and all manner of losses.
In my position in the military, to tolerate mediocrity means troops die or get injured.
In the business world, it means financial loss, loss of prestige, which results in further financial loss, and many other losses.
If you're going to do anything in this world, you go 110% balls-to-the-wall best you can do, or don't even bother.
I guess a lot of the objection here is based on a misunderstanding resulting from the thread title, closing the gap suggests everyone gets the same.
I think it would be enough to reduce the gap to a reasonable degree.
It would do nothing to that gap.
If two people are separated by $100,000 in net worth, and we call that "the gap" between them, and the government simply prints $10,000 for each of them and adds it to their respective net worth, what has happened, on net, to "the gap?" If you answered "it remains unchanged", then give yourself a gold star.
Since the thread asks "what can we do", the "we" is clearly Leviathan and is better asked "what can a government do to close a gap in net worth between the poorest and richest citizens under its rule?"
Well, what are government's powers, in general? Currency sovereign, monopoly holder on force/violence, and ultimate enforcer/maker/adjudicator of law. Thus, possible "solutions" for gap closing would be:
As currency sovereign, simply print more money and give it to the poor. Problem there is a vast increase in the money supply, thus pretty serious inflation. The entire basket of goods will go up in price, thus diluting how much additional purchasing power the poor receive from their newly expanded "income." Also lowers the value of the US dollar as a global currency, and that is never a good thing. But a currency sovereign can indeed print money whenever it wants, so this is a legit method to close a gap - print and then give money to only the poor.
As maker/enforcer/adjudicator of laws, as well as monopoly holder on force/violence, simply write laws that outlaw being rich, seize property/wealth, and then redistribute according to your "flattening" algorithm. Problem there is you have now discouraged success past whatever point you have marked as the line where that punishment process begins. If you say all wealth over $500k is to be seized, then no wealth over $500k will be reported. The reported gap may indeed be advertised as smaller, but the poor won't really benefit so much as be fed pablum/placebo to be made to feel better about a station/situation in life that hasn't changed.
Not much more government can really do. Wealth being an inherently individual trait and all. And no matter what they do, the gap doesn't really change.
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