This blog is for young Americans who hate the fact that our futures are being sold by today’s politicians in exchange for campaign funding and votes from special interest groups (SIG’s). We believe these unscrupulous individuals have had enough fun, and it is time for them to pay for their fiscal and political orgies. If we sit back and do nothing, we will pay a hefty price because our leaders and their financial supporters intend to pass their bills down to us.
Let’s take a quick look at a couple problems that today’s (and yesterday’s) leaders have failed to address; as you will see, these issues will weigh heavily on our chances of living prosperous lives.
First up is the national debt. As of this post (April 14, 2011 ), our federal government has racked up an astronomical debt of $14.26 trillion (see: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/). This accumulation of yearly deficits is the result of decades of fiscal child abuse. For well over 50 years, our federal government has spent more than it has received in taxes (I will acknowledge that there are a few years when the government ran a surplus), thus leading to today’s huge public debt. Please take a look at the following graphs (courtesy ofwww.usgovernmentspending.com):
(Sorry about the grainy images. I haven't figured out how to properly put them on my blog posts).
As I stated, year after year, our rulers have demonstrated their willingness to spend more than they gathered in taxes (see: the graph on the left). As a result, our public debt (the accumulation of all of the deficits from previous years) has ballooned to horrendously large levels (see: the graph on the right). Specifically, between 1960 and today, the national debt increased from $287 billion to approximately $15 trillion! It would have been nice if the voters and politicians who came before us would have stood up and done something, but, they did not; they have instead decided to be bad citizens and pass their debts down to us.
Anyways, like all debt situations, the borrowers (our federal government agencies and “leaders” in this case) will have to repay their lenders. But, where will the borrowers get the funds to make these payments? Answer: your paychecks (through higher income tax burdens).
Now, let us turn our attention to Social Security. This year (2011) the first of the Baby Boomer generation (generally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964) will be turning 65 and retiring from their full-time occupations. That means, of course, that these individuals will begin collecting Social Security checks this year, as well.
How is this a problem for young people? Well, there are about 76 million Baby Boomers in this country (source: www.prb.org) and Social Security is not in good financial shape. According to a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report (see:http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=1498), the Social Security Administration will be mostly exhausted by 2039 (most of us will be getting ready to retire around 2050, so we will have just missed out on getting full retirement benefits).
Notice what is being asked of us here: we are supposed to pay into Social Security our whole lives in order to support our elders (the same elders who have screwed us over with poor fiscal management leading to a massive public debt that we are expected to help pay back); additionally, due to the massive number of soon-to-be retirees, our payroll taxes are likely to increase. However, shortly before we retire, the Social Security trusts we paid into our entire careers will be bankrupt. If that is not a cruel scam of the highest order, I do not know what one is.
And we are supposed to accept this arrangement while we are saddled with an average of $24,000 of student loan debt, rising health care costs, and middling job prospects (see:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40772705/ns/business-cnbc_tv/). This deal sounds reasonable, right?
Wrong. Screw this. Our countrymen have sold us out, and it is time for us to fight back. These people (some of them are Boomers, legislators, special interest groups, Wall Street bankers, parents and grandparents) should be forced to face the facts: they have screwed up and we are not going to clean up their messes.
