Spends or Returns?

"The data going in suggested that the results would be dramatic. The U.S. is now home to 39 million people over 65, or nearly 13% of the population. That's a big patch of gray, and it's getting bigger fast. In 2011, the leading edge of the 76-million-strong baby-boom generation - born from 1946 to '64 - will cross the line to 65, and they'll keep coming until 2029. Already the government spends $600 billion per year in Social Security payments for people 51 or older, and a staggering $1.3 trillion when you include Medicare, Medicaid and disability benefits."
The way this bit reads, it makes it sound like the old are a liability. The crushing irony is - social security is money that was taken from the folks and is now being given back to them. Saying "the government spends $600 billion per year in SS payments for people 51 or older" is factually accurate, but conceptually dishonest. "SS returns $600 billion in confiscated funds per year to the people from whom it was taken." This is much or honest. Why don't we talk about it like that?

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1963392_1963366_1963382,00.html#ixzz0h9IApp9u

Classic Quotes, Mencken

"The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic."

The Case for High-Deductible Health Insurance

The Case for High-Deductible Health Insurance

An essential part of any approach to reduce health care 'costs' - whether that's in Federal deficits or personal insurance premiums - is to change our model from a 'pre-paid service plan' to 'insurance.'

Thumbnail Essay on Public Schools

My friend, a budding politician, asked about schools. My response follows:
Here's an inspiring story.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2010%252F02%252F23%252Fopinion%252F23herbert.html%253Fref%253Dopinion&h=7c437b527c50a3eda79eafadee79c688&ref=mf
She's succeeding by getting out of this disaster: http://www.thecartelmovie.com/
There's only one way you could double real (inflation adjusted) spending over 30 years while generating a lower quality product but not fear the loss of customers - that's if you have a coercive government monopoly.
The Federal govt is in a fiscal death spiral due to the realities of demographics and the foolishness of building medicare/medicaid/social security on the assumption of an ever increasing population. State and local governments are in a fiscal death spiral (references avail on request) due to obligations made to state/local workers - we've promised, no matter how much it hurts the decreasing pool of productive citizens - to protect former state employees from uncertainty (no matter how poor the economy runs, or how high their health care costs, your work will secure their futures).
Shouldn't one be able to get an excellent education for $10,000/kid/year for K-12? What if, instead of pumping these billions in a coercive government monopoly, we could transform education into a system that is focused on teaching kids instead of providing for the secure futures of teachers who are not accountable for success or failure? Don't get me wrong, the teachers that sustain their passion and help kids in a system like our are heroes. But those are the minority, and the ones who are not pulling their weight get just as much pay and their lifetime benefits. It's an abomination.
Charter schools? Heck yes. Anything that decentralizes, anything that makes education accountable to educating kids vice getting politicians re-elected for keeping unions happy.
Step one - demand a system to measure the improvement in knowledge across a school year for every student. Teachers who's students improve the least should be required to change grade levels, get more training/mentoring, or get another job. We're giving them our financial futures, they should be required to meet a standard of performance - they should prove they can teach.

Classic Quotes - Mencken

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." H. L. Mencken.

Steyn on Big Fat Greekamerican Tragedy

"Unfortunately, Germany is no longer an economic powerhouse. As Angela Merkel pointed out a year ago, for Germany, an Obama-sized stimulus was out of the question simply because its foreign creditors know there are not enough young Germans around ever to repay it. Over 30 percent of German women are childless; among German university graduates, it's over 40 percent. And for the ever dwindling band of young Germans who make it out of the maternity ward, there's precious little reason to stick around. Why be the last handsome blond lederhosen-clad Aryan lad working the late shift at the beer garden in order to prop up singlehandedly entire retirement homes? And that's before the EU decides to add the Greeks to your burdens. Germans, who retire at 67, are now expected to sustain the unsustainable 14 monthly payments per year for Greeks who retire at 58.

Think of Greece as California: Every year an irresponsible and corrupt bureaucracy awards itself higher pay and better benefits paid for by an ever-shrinking wealth-generating class. And think of Germany as one of the less profligate, still just about functioning corners of America such as my own state of New Hampshire: Responsibility doesn't pay. You'll wind up bailing out anyway. The problem is there are never enough of "the rich" to fund the entitlement state, because in the end, it disincentivizes everything from wealth creation to self-reliance to the basic survival instinct, as represented by the fertility rate. In Greece, they've run out Greeks, so they'll stick it to the Germans, like French farmers do. In Germany, the Germans have only been able to afford to subsidize French farming because they stick their defense tab to the Americans. And in America President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are saying we need to paddle faster to catch up with the Greeks and Germans. What could go wrong?"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/26/our-own-greek-tragedy//print/

Trust

One of the casualties of the consistent displays of incompetence by politicians in general is that when they ask for our trust on an issue which the citizenry might actually need their competent decision making - we just don't trust them.  Would you trust these clowns with $4 trillion?
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/the-mother-of-all-bailouts-to-come-85760442.html