How bad will it get?

How bad will it have to get?

Reading the forum, the web and listening to pundits and politicians everyone has blinders on. President Obama and his band of merry men seem to think that our debt is not a critical issue. Politicians are scared out of their minds to act, and the public is blissfully ignorant as to the challenges we face.

If you suggest radical actual solutions to our debt, like abolishing Social Security, abolishing Medicaide and Medicare you are called heartless. We cannot afford these programs, they are going to destroy our government through fiscal collapse. That's just what is going to happen. We can fudge the numbers, hide the problem and punt it to the next election cycle but the end of the road is nigh.

No one wants to act because THERE WILL be problems. I'm not blind to that. There will be people that will fall “through the cracks”. There will be harm. But that harm pales in comparison if the dollar becomes completely worthless. That day is on the horizon, and we just ignore it.

If you bring up cutting these massive social programs the first retort is “Cut defense!!” well, that's a great idea if it made sense, but it does not. Are there areas of waste in the DOD budget, certainly. Can there be changes made. Absolutely. But let's be realistic. SS, Medicaide and Medicare take up around 65% of the spending by the government. Focusing on the Defense Budget is like agreeing to not eat out one time a month while taking vacations on maxed out credit cards.

It just doesn't make sense.

Politically, it's a horror. Too many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that they NEED these outlays, that without Government they are doomed. This is sad, but it's also not a shock when you consider that the New Deal and Great Society intentionally set up this dependency on the Government. We lost thousands of our hard earned dollars for what? Hope that we'll get it back when we are older? That is the great lie. Most of us between 18 and 40 won't see that money. It's gone. We just keep putting our hands over our ears and denying it.

Those folks that are on the cusp or are receiving the money don't want to lose what “we're owed” because they paid in their whole lives. I don't blame them for being angry, but it's their fault for not demanding the system work, and for trying to stick the young generations with the bill.

America is a great nation that allows people to succeed on their own merits, but we've forgotten that, we've become a nation afraid to allow people the right to fail. We've seen generations squander that freedom for the false blanket of “security” by turning to Washington instead of looking to ourselves.

It's time to face facts, and act before the damage is beyond our control. Better to fix it now, rather then wait for the anvil to hit us all. But we won't, sadly. Humans tend to make the most irrational choices based on Hope. Hope is a wonderful thing, but it has an inherent flaw; delusion.

No one wants to believe the worst, it's easier to ignore it. Throw in the political ignorance of the masses and we're good and truly hosed. We all know we need to act, but that action will be painful, so we'll wait till we must act, and the pain will be far far greater.

 

[EarlzP]

So with your solution we just cut these programs, after which you suggest we do what with the millions of people who will have no money, no health care and no chance to find employment?

How would you suggest that people making 7-10 dollars per hour save for their retirement for health care?.

You seem to have all of the answers to saving the economy for you so maybe you have all of the answers for those less capable of earning a descent wage

 

[ricksfolly]

Republicans have no passion for the poor and needy, and rationalize their belief by demonizing them as freeloaders, lazy, deadbeats that want something for nothing. Not true of course, 90 percent will work if there are jobs.

What Republicans and their corporation buddies fail to grasp is that cutting programs cuts jobs and cuts spending. So what if the national debt continues to rise, it has no effect on workers...

ricksfolly