| | | |  | Robbing Pee Wee to Pay Grandma
An interesting piece this morning from the Op-Ed pages of theWashington Post. Robert Samuelson says, "Shame on us. We are trying torob our children and grandchildren, putting the country's future atrisk in the process."
* At issue is Entitlement Spending, specifically for Social Security and Medicare.
* The implications are dire but, according to Samuelson, "On one of thegreat issues of our time, the social and economic costs of ourretirement, we have adopted a policy of selfish silence."
* The 65-and-over population will double by 2030 (to almost 72 million, or 20 percent of the total population), Samuelson notes.
* To put it in perspective, consider that on 2005, Social Security,Medicare and Medicaid cost $1.034 trillion, twice the amount of defensespending and more than two-fifths of the total federal budget.
* By 2030 that share is projected to be about three-quarters of the total federal budget.
* So, baby boomers are incredibly self-centered and lack a certainelement of... forward thinking. (Look, you don't earn a moniker like"The Me Generation" for selflessness.)Tell us something we don'talready know.
* Ok, how about this: You know that long-term structural shift wesometimes write about here - the secular transition from excessiveconsumption, ostentatious displays and accumulations of "things" to afocus on savings and on the accumulation of intangible "experiences"?
* What makes that transition secular, as opposed to something along thelines of a cyclical and temporary mean reversion away from buying moreand more stuff, is an underlying necessity.
* And how about this for a necessity?
* The next generation of income earners (including those of us under 40already in the workforce) are about to be saddled with an EntitlementSpending tax bill the likes of which have never been seen in thehistory of the world.
* Looking in the mirror, while we may not presently feel the need tocurb spending, reorder our priorities of "goods" accumulation andrethink our views of what truly constitutes wealth, the real elephantin the room is that the necessity is now upon us... whether we want toacknowledge it or not. | |
