The big noises in conservative abysses (they call them think tanks) are those scary words “waste” and “spending”.
It’s really an exercise in advanced self-serving cluelessness. Politicians create these situations, then they want medals for “fixing” the problems.
Retirement and pensions are of course the main culprits. They generate big numbers in terms of payouts. This invariably means taking every opportunity to cut any sort of accrued financial entitlements of the public.
Now the brilliance sets in. If people didn’t retire, they wouldn’t need pensions. They’d simply remain in the workforce until they drop dead, while also obstructing others trying to enter the workforce.
If you cut pensions, you also remove the incentive to retire. They can be poor and employed, unable to buy much, and stuck with the genocidal cost of living most governments do nothing about.
These shameless criminals also pay taxes, unlike many conservatives, to generate multiple streams of revenue for governments. They fund everything because governments are too lazy to find alternate sources of revenue.
The idea to raise the retirement age to 70 has been around for a while . The response to that idea has been that nobody who’s ever done a day’s work in a real job would think of that.
The most remarkable thing about this Chuck Yourself In A Blender logic is the sheer dysfunctionality and disorganization of it.
Let’s try a simple model
Someone pays taxes for 40 years. They effectively pay for the government directly and indirectly.
They save for their super, which also pays taxes and generates a lot of equally revenue-raising business by investments. Superannuation is personal property. Probably shouldn’t be taxed either, because as free market capital, it generates a lot of revenue anyway.
They pay most of their own living costs overall at whatever level of difficulty.
You’re talking about tens of millions of people paying multiple thousands over decades.
Entitlements never have to be fully funded. They’re payable when due, and there’s no difficulty paying them.
Pension money goes straight back into the economy and generates more revenue. It’s really a subsidy for the whole economy.
…And somehow in this endless, nothing-but revenue-raising exercise there’s not enough money for governments?
Why not?
Costs are the main reason. These costs are the result of government’s total lack of comprehension of its role. A government is not a spreadsheet, a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or a license for nepotism.
You’d never guess, would you?
As we’ve seen from the catastrophic rise in the cost of living, governments don’t know when or even how to slam on the brakes.
Their job is to regulate. They won’t regulate.
They can control costs and freeze prices. They don’t.
They’ve allowed quality of life to simply fall to bits.
Health care has been allowed to become what it is, but the costs have spiked.
In the past, the world did very much better without all this utter drivel.
It was possible to raise a family and own a decent home on one income.
That was largely because smaller amounts of money require better management.
Try doing that now.
The rot has gone so deep that even the US is being compared to a Third World country.
Most of the West isn’t much better.
Governments don’t seem to understand anything at all about real life.
Any halfway literate person should be able to organize a stable revenue distribution.
If you spend your time micromanaging the minutiae you have no chance of macro-managing anything. You’re lost in the trivia, as usual.
My suggestions:
Stop pretending the lower income brackets have any money at all. They don’t, and historically never have, and thanks to you morons probably never will. Focus on a trustworthy revenue stream and stop babbling about costs you don’t have.
Lower the retirement age to 45. At that age, people are still pretty functional and agile. They have paid for themselves and any services they need. They’ll be more productive working for themselves. They have some capital and should be able to improve matters for themselves, too.
Manage cost of living. Stop charging a fortune for essentials and allowing ridiculous price rises for highly profitable businesses.
Allow people to create capital assets. That’s almost impossible now.
Manage housing so it’s viable. Never mind playing Monopoly forever.
Penalize excessive prices and rents. Preferably encourage the greedy parasites raising prices to emigrate to a black hole.
Rational economics will get you out of this mess. Learn how.
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
