patrick.net

This will change some things?

What you mutts fail to realize is the endless bemoaning of your situation is caused by government/FED intervention in the economy. IOW the more inflation there is the more inequality there is.

If all else fails, in my best AF accent, Gen X face it is whats for dinner.

Yes. We need a modern day Teddy Roosevelt.

Read this to understand the short term solution.
http://patrick.net/?p=1240585

Short term is what we need, because population will level off before long,

Jojo is kind of OCD about these issues. There is a problem there. And it's not the fault of any particular group of people defined by the particular window of time in which they were born.

jojo says

Nice attempt to pass the buck. No one is talking about the fed. This is about Medicare blowing up.

Now listen circus boy or some boomer is going to have your face for dinner.

How the fuck do you think medicare costs have skyrocketed? Its inflation how does that happen? Because the government increases the money supply for that product. Same with student loans, same with housing, same with war machines, same with pharma, same with ethanol, so on and so forth.

indigenous says

How the fuck do you think medicare costs have skyrocketed? Its inflation how does that happen? Because the government increases the money supply for that product. Same with student loans, same with housing, same with war machines, same with pharma, same with ethanol, so on and so forth.

I disagree. But then I'm a mutt. What would I know.

I say the reason health care costs are out of control, is that there are too many corporate interests, basically pursuing rents in a sector of the economy that is set up completely wrong.

"Free market capitalism" doesn't make sense in health care. Supply and demand for health care, paid for by insurance ? If you were trying to set up a system that would have broken pricing mechanisms you could't do better than what we have.

Just look at what actually happens, and how prices are determined for health care, to understand the cause. It has nothing to do with the fed.

I guess it could be said that if we had gold back dollars and also if everyone was basically enslaved in a system where 90% of the people were extremely poor (that is if we hadn't had the huge growth of the middle class from 1940 to 1980), that then health care would have to be cheaper than it is now. At least the health care for the masses would be.

But so ?

jojo says

If that were true the inflation would be spread evenly across the economy. It is running rampant in medical services because of the outsized demand generated by your cohort without enough people coming up behind your generation to evenly distribute the demand to other areas of the economy.

That is the point inflation is NOT even

jojo says

but it is the fault of this particular for having not acted to clean this up

You assume that democracy has been working and that our govt is not corrupt almost beyond repair.

The root problem is deeper and the solution is to bring democracy back by taking the money out of politics, or at least find a way to put a reasonable cap on what it costs to get elected.

jojo says

Agreed. I think we should wait until indigenous is on his death bed and then negotiate a free market price for services. What do you think indigenous? No outside meddling, right?

Won't matter to you I will have eaten your face for dinner long before then.

humanity says

I say the reason health care costs are out of control, is that there are too many corporate interests, basically pursuing rents in a sector of the economy that is set up completely wrong.

Yes.

But if the FED did not print money out of thin air it would not matter.

Inflation is not caused by supply and demand.
Inflation by definition is an increase in the money supply. That is all you need to understand. The media has so confused the mutts that they get confused on this point. All you need to do is take the red pill, it will deliver you out of mutt land.

jojo says

you people get all angry and deflect with some nonsense.

Au contraire, I'm not angry, why would I be angry at my food?

Funny stuff you point to my ad hominem, once again projecting.

jojo says

Typical boomer response. I refer you to this simple questionnaire:

1. BUT ITS NOT THE BOOMERS FAULT, IT WAS __________ .

A. Republicans

B. Democrats

C. Communists

D. CEO's

E. Generation X'ers

F. Socialists

G. MTV

H. ALL OF THE ABOVE

I don't know which of my food is dumber you or a cow...

It boils down to government spending money.

They say that intelligence is the ability to determine differences.

You conflate everything to everything. WTF do you for a living that can afford such obtuseness?

jojo says

humanity says

Jojo is kind of OCD about these issues. There is a problem there. And it's not the fault of any particular group of people defined by the particular window of time in which they were born.

You are right . but it is the fault of this particular for having not acted to clean this up. The warning sirens have been going for 30 years and they have done nothing...

It sux when we look in a mirror & see who is the problem.

Since the early 80s how many Gen X & Y have registered/voted in a consensus to change things that BBs have screwed up?

I'm a BB & I say Fuck BBs for continually voting Dem/Rep.
Assholes All?

These people were given everything, everything was handed to them, and they took it all. - George Carlin

Millennial's idea of the American dream

1. Enough money to move out of their parents basement

2. A bus pass.

Baby Boomers idea of the American dream

1. A mansion

2. Two large SUV's

3. Second house just to get away.

4. Yacht

5. Vacation every year to somewhere exotic.

http://www.babyboomersruinedamerica.com/more-about-baby-boomers

Love this.

indigenous says

Inflation by definition is an increase in the money supply. That is all you need to understand.

I don't "understand" that. It's austrian dogma as far as I know.

Yes the fed has historically attempted to tweak inflation by increasing or decreasing money supply (at times when we weren't in a liquidity trap). But this is not a direct relationship. And at times such as now, with QE and other games being played, during a time when we might otherwise have deflation(that is when deflationary pressure occurs simultaneously with money supply increase (without velocity), such simplistic views make little sense.

Indiana Jones says

Baby Boomers idea of the American dream

1. A mansion

2. Two large SUV's

3. Second house just to get away.

4. Yacht

5. Vacation every year to somewhere exotic.

You have little comprehension of how many boomers are homeless, or how many boomers live in ghettos or trailer parks, or how many boomers are "middle class" with a McMansion and no retirement savings.

You also have no idea of how many boomers were living in their parents basement during the recession of 1980-81 or during provious "stagflation recessions. 1974 - 82 was no picnic

You're fantasy that the streets were paved with gold when boomers were coming up is more laughable than you can imagine. Just like now, they had tough times and uncertainty about the future. Is it tougher now ? Yes, because this recession is longer lasting. But it was never the piece of cake you imagine.

I feel sorry for people that are so quick to blame others for their problems. They have lives filled with so much unnecessary drama.

humanity says

You're fantasy that the streets were paved with gold when boomers were coming up is more laughable than you can imagine. Just like now, they had tough times and uncertainty about the future.

Boo Hoo! Poor Boomers!

sbh says

Well, I guess I should say "do you (bother to) get up in the morning?"

I just stare blankly at the ceiling dreaming of the day when all the Boomers are gone!

Indiana Jones says

Boo Hoo! Poor Boomers!

As I said, you have no clue.

It's actually a fairly severe pschological problem when a person is as deluded as you are about all your problems being the fault of others. My recommendation would be to read, the well known, "The Road Less Traveled," by Scott Peck.

He was a psychiatrist who discusses the differences between neuroses versus
character disorder. Most of us are viewed by some shrinks as being somewhere on the continuum of one of these. I for example am slightly neurotic. The neurotic personality blames themselves for things and therefore is better able to grow, and address their personal problems. The character disorder person on the other hand is a liar. To himself and to others. And the Character disorder person always sees others as wrong, and they blame others for all of their problems.

If you think about it, even when something is the fault of others, this is not a healthy frame of reference for dealing with ones situation.

In any case good luck. It's a shock if you read Peck, to learn that even though he was a man of science, he concluded the only hope for the character disorder personality type was exorcism. Seriously. He had little success with this type of person with therapy, and concluded they are basically evil. The lies take over.

I hope that you aren't too deeply stuck in that type of pattern. Look to yourself, and try to learn to be more honest with yourself. Blaming others is not the way to go, even when it is "their fault."

humanity says

My recommendation would be to read, the well known, "The Road Less Traveled," by Scott Peck.

I've read this. Maybe you need to reread it.

When there is no recourse, and you are backed up against the wall, call the other person "crazy". Another Boomer tactic. If the Boomers could have all the Gen Xers that are calling them out on their shite institutionalized, I believe they would.

humanity says

I don't "understand" that. It's austrian dogma as far as I know.

You have listened to too much Keynesian Kool Aid, you are not hearing what I'm saying.

It is really simple if you increase the money supply it causes inflation.

The Ks will say that inflation is caused by demand being greater than supply. This just isn't so as supply quickly catches up with demand. Examples would be the war effort in the 40s, Moores law, hulu hoops, aluminum (which cost more than gold in the late 1800s but was reduced in price because of technology to what $1.5), cars, etc. The way this does not happen is when the government increases the supply of money as with student loans, healthcare, housing.

Why did the cost of college skyrocket? It was not because education all of a sudden became more expensive.

Why did housing skyrocket in the 2000s? It was not because housing became more expensive to manufacturer. It was because Greenspan made more money available for housing. Not to mention that in Calif they regulate how many houses can be built.

Why did healthcare skyrocket? If anything technology has reduced the cost of healthcare. It was that medicare makes money available for healthcare.

Do you see that?

Indiana Jones says

Another Boomer tactic. If the Boomers could have all the Gen Xers that are calling them out on their shite institutionalized, I believe they would.

More fancy ways of blaming of the other guy for your problems.

I make no retarded generalizations about all people in a certain age group. I'm only talking to you, who do in fact do that. It says everything.

Be more specific. And don't include me your stupid generalizations. Yes, the country is messed up in so many ways. And yes the ones in power now are boomers. But do you really know so little about logic ?

Why is it that we don't think all germans are evil (like Hitler)?

Why is it your generalization stops with a certain age demographic ? Why don't you claim that all Americans a fucked up, or perhaps even all humans?

Maybe you could have chosen white men as the group to blame. Isn't it white men that have fucked things up ?

You could have blamed Christianity couldn't you? Hasn't it alway been Christians in power? Or people who say that they are?

Or maybe Zionism. We have another wacko on here who thinks everything is the fault of the Zionists.

Which is it ? Are you just a troll ? Or are you really as stupid as you want everyone to believe?

Indiana Jones says

When there is no recourse, and you are backed up against the wall

Yeah you really have me backed up against a wall with your flawless logic.

The fact that there are millions of poor boomers and hundreds of thousands of homeless boomers, and so many millions of boomers with problems far greater than yours, who aren't looking for stupid generalizations to explain their situation, is still totally lost on you.

The real trouble is also medicare fraud, brought to a fine pitch by private hospitals and not a few doctors.

For example, "Renting" Wheelchairs for 13 months at $100 a month, making a $500 wheelchair (full retail price) cost Medicare $1300. The government should be paying $350 for the same wheelchair via bulk contracts and just give it to the medicare user.

Chances are, if you're over 65, if you get a wheelchair, you'll be using it again. This is just one example of Medicare overpaying by law.

It boils down to excessively reducing the tax rates of the rich, no more and no less.

jojo says

HEY YOU says

I say Fuck BBs


Assholes All?

Well said.

So would you mutts forego personal computers, cell phones?

justme says

It boils down to excessively reducing the tax rates of the rich, no more and no less.

Bullshit.

jojo says

it is the fault of this particular for having not acted to clean this up. The warning sirens have been going for 30 years and they have done nothing...

That's a lie: http://www.ssa.gov/history/greenspn.html

jojo says

Medicare Plans Fail to Figure on Baby Boomers

Medicare is not SSA. The boomers prepaid their retirement, 1990-2010 thanks to ~$1.5T of excess FICA taxation that went into US government bonds (Treasury has printed another $1.2T of interest on these bonds giving us the $2.7T in the SSTF).

$2.7T over 20 years is a ~$100B/yr pay down non-FICA payers in the near future (say 2015 - 2035) owe the FICA payers of 1990-2010.

In 2035 the baby boom will be aged 71 to 89. Between now and 2032 the dependency ratio (working-age to retired-age) will fall from 4 to 2.5, and that's the demographic bubble the SSTF was intended to bridge.

Of course, to "bridge" this transition, we need to actually monetize the trillions n the SSTF, and that requires raising taxes on somebody.

oh noes!

The population is going to increase by at least 100 million from immigration, technology will have a huge impact on the cost of healthcare as it will on education.

But there will be a huge correction at 2030.

jojo says

Medicare is not a savings account. People will extract far more than they paid in.

gee, I wasn't talking about Medicare.

Clearly 130M employees now paying 3% on a median of $32,000 -- $1000 each -- isn't going to pay for 50M people costing $10,000 each now and $20,000 in the not too-distant future (~2025) when the boomers start turning 70 instead of 60.

Medicare taxes are going to have to double, and it's wrong to just soak the rich for this, since Medicare is supposed to be -- or at least *should* be -- a self-funding program.

We need to soak the rich to pay off the Iraq war cost 2003-2010, the bailout cost 2008-2011, and liquidating the SSTF 2015-2035. Each of these are around $2T or more in additional taxation for the foreseeable future.

While the top 10% clear 40% of the AGI, this isn't an infinite pot of money, and in our corrupt system they can fight to keep their money better than anyone for that matter.

indigenous says

But there will be a huge correction at 2030.

I agree! 2030 is going to be a real stress point for our socio-economic situation.

The boomers are going to be age 66-84 -- maximal retirement population, with the older half into their late 70s, and Gen Y is going to be fully supporting their own progeny by then (Gen Y will be age 30-48).

2030 will be at the end of the transition phase from 4 working-age per retiree we have now to ~2.5.

This is a large part why I want to GTFO of here when I have the chance. Our demographics SUCK, they look more like Nigeria and Pakistan's than a developed nation.

http://geography.about.com/od/lists/a/2050pop.htm

But a reduction in the cost of healthcare through technology will be huge. A population that will increase by 1/3 minimum will have a huge effect as well.

BUT the main point is that the voters have got to smell the coffee and not allow the politicians to prevent the market from clearing. This is the MOST important point of all.

The future is hard to predict, the economy always grows in new ways that were not foreseen. This can only occur if the market is allowed to clear.