>Robert wrote: >> The EU is a socialist mess and its bills are coming due. > >I hear people say this, but I always read the exact opposite in The >Economist. That's not to say the EU is set, but, from what I've read, >they're far better off than the US.
I disagree with their assessment. Check out this piece by Jose Pinero: http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj24n1-2/cj24n1-2-6.pdf >One of the largest reasons is that they are net exporters meaning they >need less from others than, say, the US. Put another way, they are >mostly self-sufficient. Ultimately the trade U.S. trade deficit will be corrected only after the Chinese float their currency. If they don't float their currency, we will never be able to sell goods to China and the trade deficit will become a dangerous burden. Ironically, if the deficit causes causes the dollar to collapse, the biggest loser would be China- left with its huge U.S. currency holdings that would become worthless, and forced to either free the yuan from the dollar or face total economic ruin. The Chinese know this, which is why I am confident that ultimately they will float their currency and the U.S. trade deficit will disappear. >> Their only alternative is to allow massive immigration >> to supply the workers needed to fuel their retirees benefits. > >They don't need massive immigration, just more, OR they need to admit >more eastern European countries, which they are doing. This will >cause many short term problems with arbitrage similar to what was seen >with the Euro, but it will solve their pension problems. The Ukraine >alone may be able to do that. Birth rates in Central Europe are no higher than in the European Union, and I don't see mass immigration from east to west happening - both because of xenophobia in the west and the growth of opportunities in the east. And the Central Europeans face pension issues of their own. For the U.S., however, there is a huge pool of people in Mexico yearning to escape poverty and corruption and find economic opportunity in the U.S., and I don't see that changing anytime soon. The Mexican government is totally corrupt and even with an outsider in the President's office, nothing has changed. > >> if we address Social Security and Medicare reform now >> will be much better off than either of them and Americans know it. > >Then they are ill-informed or fooling themselves. > >> Polls show that yong people overwhelmingly support reform, >> including personal accounts for SS. > >Personal accounts does nothing to solve anything - it's simply a >gimmick. The only part of Mr Bush's plan that does anything is >de-linking SS from wages which typically rise faster than inflation. >When that happens the result will be smaller payouts to future >pensioners. It saves money because it pays out less. It is hardly a gimmick. Personal accounts create a sense of ownership and give people a stake in the system. Clearly they are not the whole solution, and I agree that pegging benefits to prices rather than wages is another part of the solution. But Alan Greenspan seems to think that personal accounts are a good thing (although he worries about paying for them in the short term), so that's good enough for me. >Medicare is the thing we should be talking about, not Social Security. > However, since Mr. Bush likes to blow little things into big things >(*cough* *cough* Iraq *cough*), here's my question: > >Why have Social Security in the first place? > >The goal is to take care of poor people so why don't we just wrap it >into welfare and get the middle class off the rolls? If you've saved >for your retirement why should the government be involved with holding >your money and managing it so that Congress can squander it? > >Let's just drop SS for everyone that isn't destitute and, for those >that are, manage them via welfare. > >This eliminates billions in management costs and gets rid of a gov't >program that isn't needed for responsible savers. Then Social Security would cease to be a benefit and would become merely another form of taxation. The instant that happens the program is dead because taxpayers will not stand for it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:147628 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
