| SamuelRSmith said: I personally think that Medicare/Medicaid (I don't know which one is for pensioners), Social Security, and all the rest of it, are in serious trouble. I read somewhere that if you take into consideration NPVs of all expected contributions, and all expected payouts of the schemes over the next few decades, there is around a $40 trillion deficit. That's a serious figure that needs to be dealt with immediately. Puts Stickball's $500bn of savings to shame (not that they shouldn't go ahead, but that they're nowhere near enough). |
You are correct.
I didn't go after them, because Richard was arguing about cuts that wouldn't hurt anyone - I went after the low hanging fruit. Obviously, if America wanted true debt reform, we would have to go after the unfunded mandates of Medicare and Social Security.
The problem with both systems is very simple: Neither system builds value as the money is given to the government. Essentially, when the systems were built, they decided that the monies earned from Social Security should not be invested in anything that would return cash value to the pensioners. Essentially, the money is given to the government, and the government keeps/spends it on itself as it wishes, and promises a disgusting 3% APR. For medicare, the issue is that health costs are rising, and it promises a standard of care....While requiring payments far below that from those that work (2.5% per paycheck).
I would love to see both systems aboolished by removing anyone 20 years from retirement from paying into the systems, while keeping those that are close to needing it, on the system. Both are horribly built systems that are the shame of FDR and Johnson. One may hate president Bush, but at least he realized this, and tried to reform social security (of course, he got blocked by Dems/angry old people).
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
