Quote:
Originally Posted by Azred
I was telling Noty the other day that my belief now is that we are beyond the point of no return--no one's attempts to balance the budget or reign in spending will solve the overwhelming debt problem. In short, it is only a matter of time before the system crashes and burns.
The time to solve this stuff was 20 years ago, when solving it was still possible. At this point, either dramatic revenue increases have to be enacted--raising the taxes on all individuals and closing all corporate tax loopholes--or extreme cuts in spending, primarily on military and entitlements (no more Social Security) will have to enacted. Possibly both. The problem here is that no politician who wants to be reelected will do either of those things; thus, the problems will remain unsolved.
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The problem with Social Security is that I paid into the system to have that money when I retired. I said this in another topic, but go ahead and stop paying mine, right after you cut a check for what I paid in my whole working life, with interest, and do the same for everyone else that's paid in. Do this, and immediately stop pulling Soc Sec out of the workforce's pay. Do you see the problem here?
Social Security, as it was originally written up, is not an entitlement. Food Stamps for that 19 year old girl with 3 kids that simply can't keep her pants on, that's an entitlement. Paying her rent, even if she's living with her mother, that's an entitlement. Paying her health care is an entitlement. Paying money back to people that paid it to you in good faith as a retirement fund, that is not an entitlement, other than they are entitled to get the money they paid back.