Thursday, October 27, 2011

How many non-workers does a worker support today (vs. the past)? - implications and results: Economy, Politics Fan American Discontent - WSJ.com

Economy, Politics Fan American Discontent - WSJ.com

An interesting thought here might be the following - because clearly, while there are iPod, iPad advantages today, many people are looking back and saying they had it better growing up than kids and young people today (I particularly think how much more fun college was when the drinking age was 18!).

Notwithstanding, the economic robustness with which Americans came out of WW II and the 1950's had the US consuming a far greater percentage of the worlds resources than it does today. (Today, of course, it's still something like 25% and 3% last I recall.)

So, in a way, the US has been under-investing to maintain its economic prowess.

Here, it's clearly the liberal view that all should have benefits - not just those that earn them or receive them from private charity.

So, this gets us into the next issue, which is how many people each worker in the US now supports. A simple number to take would be to compare the number of workers per Social Security recipient.

Very blandly, this says each young person has to support far more 'others' than the young person of 20 or 40 years ago. Read into this what one will! (Note: there is no real social security or medicare trust fund where the US can just pull money out of a bank account. What the US has to do is take tax money to pay off the loans held by the trust. Again, a drain on the funds the economy would have for investment vs. consumption.)

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