Posted by
voice_of_reason on Thursday, May 06, 2010 4:54:01 PM
Does this timeline seem familiar?
* Politician offers 'generous' entitlements (or expands existing ones)
* Politician wins electoral support
* For a while, everyone is happy (particularly the politician) .. but
– the projected costs of those entitlements were flawed, due to ..um.. unpredictable, changing demographics
– the pvt sector market for the underlying commodity is destroyed
– entitlement spending (and borrowing) ravages the general economy by depriving it of capital
* Meanwhile, the politician is celebrated as 'the man who saved ___'
* the entitlement is part of the fabric of the country, and is, therefore, too big to fail
In the above, insert the name of any entitlement loving politician (.. FDR, LBJ, GWB, BHO ..) and your favorite entitlement as well. If you agree with the timeline, can you (honestly) support Universal Health Care? Or, even Medicare, Public Education and Social Security? If you disagree, prove that it is incorrect!
Since everyone is talking about Greece, some comparisons are worthwhile: our deficit-to-GDP (10%) is not that far behind theirs (13%). Our debt-to-GDP (85%, but heading up to 94% in 2010) is within reach of theirs (115%). We are growing our Govt, at a time when Greece is seeing the effect of decades of Govt-growth.
So, to those who support entitlements (even the so-called 'good' ones), get ready for our own 'austerity measures', when a future Govt can't meet its promises to you – and yrs of entitlements have killed the private sector. And, when more than 50% of Americans either work for the Govt, or derive substantial benefits at the public trough, get ready for some angst when 'austerity measures' (a nice word for 'rationing') go into effect.