Wealth, What is it?

[BigV]

must you poke?

I agree, good post, but I don't agree with the opening point: that no politician will let it fail. It's failing now--it just hasn't ground to a halt yet.

l123's post is excellent, and contains the best clearest point yet:

Eventually the government will have to step up and say, "the money is gone folks" and pull funds from somewhere. Better sooner rather than later as time will only make the shortfall greater.

sooner is better.

[tw]

Originally Posted by BigV

I agree, good post, but I don't agree with the opening point: that no politician will let it fail. It's failing now--it just hasn't ground to a halt yet.

It is failing only if rules of accounting are applied. Ross Perot was quite clear about this decades ago. Government routinely perverts responsible spending by numerous (previously cited) techniques. One reason why: government investment instruments always have a highest credit rating. If government defaults (goes the theory), then the entire economy fails. Therefore government can print as much money, investment grade bonds, and emergency spending bills as necessary. Any attempt to require responsible budgets are now subverted by Presidential signings (Cheney has the dictatorship he wanted). As bad as SS looks using accepted accounting standards, the reality is that attitude: "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter".

Such irresponsible spending (spending the SS fund, FAA Trust fund, Highway Trust fund, etc without leaving any IOUs) has depreciated the dollar to 60%. No problem, says this administration. This administration claimed a lower dollar is good for the economy. Recently, a change of heart. A lower dollar has radically increased cost of living (without a corresponding increase in core inflation). Techniques and symptoms that can protect the SS fund at the expense of other things now considered less important (including the nation's standards of living).

Money will never be gone (even though technically it was gone long ago). SS is the third rail that nobody will touch. Moreso, too many Americans don't have the necessary knowledge, responsibility, and desire to do as lookout123 has suggested. There is no viable replacement for SS for too many reasons. A program so necessary in America that we will undermine the entire economy to maintain that legacy system.

Greatest threat to SS and other national programs is wild spending even outside the budget. The $3trillion for "Mission Accomplished" does not appear in a budget. But we will run up those bills anyway using the same accounting techniques that also preserve SS. We can do this because nobody in government or the public seriously worries about massive deficits and creative accounting. Same games that also permitted Enron and current financial market meltdown.