|
Inmate Central Inmate Central, where civil and family-friendly discourse about off-audio topics (other than religion and politics) is welcome. |
|
|
|
Inmate Central Inmate Central, where civil and family-friendly discourse about off-audio topics (other than religion and politics) is welcome. |
|
In Reply to: RE: And then there are those posted by Steve O on November 13, 2020 at 10:11:02:
Here my problem and it always has been, the government wastes too much money. Since 1990, US Budget has increased from $1.03 trillion to $3.71 trillion, about 4.5% every year while inflation has averaging around 2.5%.
While total revenues continue to increase, tax cuts and credits have pushed the income levels up to nearly $50K for a family before income taxes start to hit them. In essence, the Top 10% pay about 70% of income taxes and the bottom 50% pay about 3%. Yes, the tippy top can afford to pay more, but the reality is that the ultra rich will find ways to avoid taxes and even if you take all their money it's not enough.
Health care is the big driver of these problems. Unfortunately, ACA made it worse. The biggest issue is that the ACA Marketplace largely covers those with pre-existing conditions and the costs reflect a high risk pool rather than spreading the risk over a larger pool. A Medicaid option is a better idea for those high risk people or those that want to buy into a lower cost system.
Another issue is that the labor unions and public sector unions like and demand their private insurance plans. Many employers also prefer these even if they're a bit more expensive, so moving to a Medicare for All situation isn't going to fly for a large segment.
Another issue with ACA plans is that they are heavily subsidized and have high deductibles. Even if you get it nearly for free with big subsidies, it still costs about $12K in deductibles for a family before you get any benefits. Folks that pay the full cost are raped and that includes many small businesses. Our bill for a family of four was over $18K per year and we still had to pay deductibles before getting anything other than one annual physical and a colonoscopy for free.
Quite simply, the rich can't cover all of these costs. Everyone needs to pay which is typical for all countries with universal healthcare. Raising the Medicare tax to around 10% or maybe a little less would work, but everyone has to pay which is a big tax increase on the working class.
Retirement is another have and have-not problem. SS was supposed to help, but wasn't designed to replace your working income. Back then, extended families took care of the elderly and the elderly helped with raising kids and cooking or whatever. That's not the case today for the most part.
If you have a union pension or saved money in a 401K, you're likely in decent shape. But if you're a wage earner and haven't saved, living on a SS check of $1,200 a month is near impossible. Boomer poverty will be common place. I can envision older home owners taking in 2 or 3 or more renters to make ends meet for the group which isn't the wonderful golden years that most envisioned later in life.
Finally, the biggest long term challenge is the service industries. Thousands of small buesinnese will go bankrupt. A majority of restaurants will never come back from the plague. Likewise, major reductions in travel will decimate the airline, hotel and car rental businesses along with hundreds of thousands of jobs. You can create work projects which would help though I have my doubts considering how well the previous recessions 'shovel ready' jobs worked out. And how long can the government keep paying those workers on borrowed money before we go bankrupt? The only good solution is to get them back to work in their previous or similar jobs, but that's hard to do with the plague and the longer it lasts, the more difficult it will be.
-Rod
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- RE: And then there are those - Rod M 11/13/2014:55:10 11/13/20 (0)
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
