If we don’t fix the entitlement programs, we can’t control government spending. They constitute nearly 50% of federal spending now and they will increase markedly as the baby boomers retire. The question is whether the people have the political will to curtail these programs. I am pessimistic about that happening, especially when you have the party of free stuff, the Dems, demonizing anyone who tries to limit these programs. And notice that the Reps are going after the Dem cuts to Medicare.
“The question is whether the people have the political will to curtail these programs. I am pessimistic about that happening, especially when you have the party of free stuff, the Dems, demonizing anyone who tries to limit these programs. And notice that the Reps are going after the Dem cuts to Medicare.”
Good points. Sad, but true. American society doesn’t have much willpower these days, it seems. This is what we truly need a revival of. And before that faith in the efficacy of Jesus Christ.
But how do you get the Baby Boomers to accept social security cuts? Especially when you consider that so many lost their retirements in the crash.
That’s the problem we face. Which one can you cut that will have the lowest numbers of people out in the streets in mobs?
Now, if there was a way to increase the federal payroll by a certain percentage that would basically initiate enough demand to completely restart the old consumer economy you might could balance that off with major entitlement cuts and then overtime, a reduction in the federal payroll as the private economy became more able to absorb the people.
The problem we have now is that there is 20% real unemployment and that number would be higher if you cut the federal payroll.
There might be an inventive solution. I actually think there is some equilibrium point in which you could increase federal employment to the point that it would put enough money back into the economy through consumption to bring back the private economy and you could do that while reducing the number of people who are on entitlements. Of course, the problem with that is both the right and left will attack it. The right for putting more people on the federal payroll and the left for kicking them off entitlements.
Right now, when we're not in crisis (well, we are, but it doesn't feel like one)... no, there is no will to curtail them. We can still "afford" them all.
Come crunch time, though, it's going to be like choosing what you're going to save from the fire. Political will won't be nearly so hard to find.
Not sure I'm all that enthusiastic about some of the Triumphs of the Will that will come about as a result of the crisis, however.
Unfortunately, your pessimism is well-founded.
And here's another class of people rarely talked about who will greatly enlarge those beholden to Rat World: everyone who works in the healthcare industry. Think about it!
Hospital Administrator in NHS: my job is to get government sugahdaddy reelected.