In the past I have looked at private versus public salaries to get a sense for how private workers are subsidizing government workers. From a different lens, USA Today released its own study which shows that private sector pay has shrunk to the smallest share of personal income in US history, while government handouts from social security, unemployment insurance, food stamps, etc has risen to a record high.
This is quite an issue. Put simply, the math just does not work. Private sector taxes pay for government benefits and government salaries. Not only do we have a massive running deficit, massive total debt, massive growth in government jobs, but we have massive entitlement payments being made for the unemployed, retired, and poor. The immediate solution will be to raise taxes, but the long-term solution will have to be much more drastic. Always bet on the politically easiest to implement, which would be to freeze benefits and inflate the currency. If they are unsuccessful getting inflation sparked, we might have Greek riots in our future. With or without inflation, we have a lot of pain to deal with.
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We are trending European.
Retirement for SS and medicare must be pushed back. The boomer’s MUST continue to work. Problem solved.
I don’t know if you remember that story about the Germans abducting their financial advisor, but the elderly can get really surly when you take away or delay their retirement benefits… http://www.surlytrader.com/geritol-gang-abduct-financial-advisor/
Food Stamps are nice and handy if you want some fast meals.”“