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no doubt that %/SHARE of TOTAL global output by already developed nations will decline. Isn’t that what is expected? What was all this free-trade global markets all about?
Should the massive populations (and growing) in ‘3rd world’ not become producers? Should their incomes and standard of living not increase?
My point was on the cost of social security, not whether it is solvent or not (the analysis of which depends on a lots of assumptions that can be skewed either way).
Also, this sounds like tin-foil hat talk:
“It needs more government bail-out and it wants your Social Security.”
benson’s right about a so-called SS “trust fund.” It only exists on paper.
Bxgrl;
That article you cited is unbelievable. There is no such thing as a SS “trust fund”, in the true sense of the word. The “trust fund” consists of the government using the proceeds of the SS intake and issuing IOU’s to itself (and of course, it promises to pay itself interest!!). Pure nonsense. If a private company did that with their pension fund, they would be in jail.
Kens- that’s exactly something my father would have said.
CGar- I love hairy legs on cats and dogs. Don’t mind it on men (sometimes) but on women? Nooooooooo. Worst is seeing unshaved legs in nylons. Ewww, ewwww and ewwww.
On insects- not so much. Don’t even show me a picture of a tarantula- cause for much shrieking and gagging.
Oh come on Kens, throw some gas on the fire!!! 🙂
Dave, he also said stuff about unions (since it was a union job) but I don’t want any additional fights. I gotta get back to my goat herding to make the cheddah. :o)
For all those who wish to create a European-style social democracy here, I cite the following passage from Mr. Manzi’s essay:
“But it is important to see that this robust growth means only that America has not lost ground in global economic competition, not that it has gained much. From 1980 through today, America’s share of global output has been constant at about 21%. Europe’s share, meanwhile, has been collapsing in the face of global competition — going from a little less than 40% of global production in the 1970s to about 25% today. Opting for social democracy instead of innovative capitalism, Europe has ceded this share to China (predominantly), India, and the rest of the developing world. The economic rise of the Asian heartland is the central geopolitical fact of our era, and it is safe to assume that economic and strategic competition will only increase further over the next several decades.”
From Lynn Parramore’s column:
“As economist Randall Wray explains, the Social Security hysteria is a big boon to banksters:
“This is to direct attention away from the true insolvencies — which is all of the major private banks. It is also designed to scare the population about Social Security: will I ever get my Social Security pension?…This is priority number one for Wall Street now, since it has lost trillions of dollars and is massively insolvent. It needs more government bail-out and it wants your Social Security.”
Newsflash: Social Security is not contributing to the deficit. It has a surplus, and it isn’t going broke. Responding to the recent explosion of nonsense, Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute noted that the Congressional Budget Office report, which was the source for the original story in the Associated Press, has reported that the trust fund for Social Security is actually still growing. The fund is projected to increase from $2.5 trillion this year to $3.8 trillion by 2020. Despite the fact that the fund will pay out more this year because of the massive job loss, Social Security gains interest income from Treasury bonds, so total receipts are still greater than payments.”