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Originally Posted by kscarrol
Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree... But no economic growth has its own issues. Look to Europe or Japan, aging populations demand more and more support (read government spending) with smaller and smaller young populace to support the system. We are seeing it here in the US as well. Fewer and fewer folks paying into Social Sec. so now the system is headed towards bankruptcy... So no growth is what leads to that collapse. It's coming whether we want to see it or not! I fear for my kids future...
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Yup, thats a problem for sure. Dont recall the exact numbers, but I read in the 1950's, there was something like 4.x working taxpayers, contributing to soc security, for every retired person. Today I think it's closer to 2.x, and dropping.
So, how do you sustain that, long term? Even if people started to breed like mad to get the numbers back up near 4.x, it would still be worse than the 50's cause the retirees live longer today, and consume social security twice as long, on average as they did back then. Certainly NOT suggesting it's bad that people dont die before 70, but the raw demographic numbers dont lie. The money has to come from somewhere.
To get to the same fiscal sustainability as then, and compensate for the longer drain on the pot of money, you'd probably have to get up to 6.x workers per retiree, or higher. If you started growing like that, I really can't see how to possibly make the resource creation curve catch up, as it's behind already today.
I dont have the answers, but I do know this: If you find yourself in a deep hole, first thing you should do, is stop digging !