I understand what this writer is saying, but he does not point to any single course of action as the necessary steps to right the ship. His conclusions about the need to transfer of resources to the public sector assume that Social Security and Medicare must continue in their current forms, and that is a conclusion with which I and many other people disagree. In fact, I would suggest that his conclusions about the level of funding needed to sustain these programs are based on faulty assumptions (and he noted something earlier in the article about the limits of statisticians making assumptions based on current evidence).
First, based on everything I hear from people in the biotech industry, I think there is a very good chance that, by the middle of this century, the average lifespan in the US could reach 95 or even 100 years. That shift alone will totally destroy the financial model underpinning the entire SS/Medicare system. Assuming that development, these programs are totally unsustainable in their current forms in the long term. The only thing that really would work is setting the age of benefits to the average lifespan so that only people who live past a normal lifespan would receive benefits - which was exactly how the system was originally designed. That one policy change would solve our budget problems in the long term, although I have zero confidence in the Congress to contain itself and not spend the savings elsewhere. Lastly, the author's principle argument is that the US should avoid a hefty stimulus because the price we will pay over the long term will be too high. I agree. I also think Congress will never do the responsible thing and that we are collectively screwed in the long term, which means that we ought to be building our own personal wealth as much as possible and spreading it out across different currencies and economies to hedge against the coming implosion of the dollar. On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Gruss wrote: > > > Jochem provdied a good like that sums it all up here: > > http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/01/can-the-us-economy-afford-a-keynesian-stimulus/ > > If you can get through it. The guy is a VERY dry writer. > > But I suggest you read it and maybe you too can drop your market and > political religions and start becoming practical. > > Because, seriously, there's not many choices here and none of them are > certainly very philosophical. > > So if you find yourself thinking this way, "the democrats ..." then > you're still a lost lamb. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:287687 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
