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Harry 

On 7/19/10 12:51 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:14:03 -0400, Harry
wrote:

Nothing painful is popular, that is why we are borrowing 40 cents of
every dollar the federal government spends.
Unfortunately I don't have a good answer but there is going to be a
bad answer, forced on us by reality, within the next few years.
At a certain point, we may have a hard time finding people who will
loan the US money for an interest rate we can afford to pay.
Then we will have our "Greece" moment and a lot of the things we think
we are "entitled to" will go away. The open question will be whether
we will have the same street riots the Greeks had. It won't be exactly
the same since we are better armed.

Easy solution: draconian tax increases on individuals with more than
$250,000 a year in income, on that income over $250,000, no ceilings on
payroll taxes, stricter tax rules on corporations, especially on
overseas investments, et cetera. Oh...and cutting military expenditures
in half.

It is certainly a move in the right direction but it is not enough to
solve the problem.
The interest on the debt is almost as big as the pentagon budget and
it will pass it in the next year or two. SS/Medicare dwarf both of
those in the out years. (2016 and beyond)
They are both upside down already. I am not sure how much our kids are
willing to pay in payroll taxes when they figure out grandma is making
more money than they do. As a group, the seniors have more disposable
income than the people under 35.
That may not remain true when boomers who are still carrying huge debt
loads try to retire but I blame them (sorry Bob).
They should have listened to their depression era parents and lived
within their means.
I have always told people, if you can't afford to feed yourself, how
can you afford to feed yourself and a banker. That is what borrowing
is. Why do people always assume they will have more money later?

I'm afraid the only solution for this country will involve an entire
upheaval of society, towards a northern European socialist model that
helps rebuild a larger and stronger middle class that has options for
housing, good health care, good schools, and decent opportunities for
the future of its children. To get there will involve relieving the
wealthy of a good chunk of its holdings, regulations that favor
investment only in the United States, a demilitarization, and real Wall
Street, banking, insurance reform.