Let's Stop Fooling Ourselves: Americans Can't Afford

[denjohn]

The American spirit is rooted in the belief of a better tomorrow. Its success has been due to generations of men and women who toiled, through both hardship and boom times, to make that dream a reality.

But at some point over the past several decades, that hope for a better tomorrow became an expectation. Or perhaps a perceived entitlement is more accurate.

It became assumed that the future would be more prosperous than today, irrespective of the actual steps being taken in the here and now.

And for a prolonged time – characterized by plentiful and cheap energy, accelerating globalization, technical innovation, and the financialization of the economy – it seemed like this assumption was a certain bet.

But these wonderful tailwinds that America has been enjoying for so many decades are sputtering out. The forces of resource scarcity, debt saturation, price inflation, and physical limits will impact our way of life dramatically more going forward than living generations have experienced to date.

And Americans, who had the luxury of abandoning savings and sacrifice for consumerism and credit financing, are on a collision course with that reality. Like the grasshopper in Aesop's fable, they have partied away the fair seasons and winter is now on the way, which they are not prepared for.

The prudent thing to do here would be to have an honest, adult-sized conversation with ourselves about our level of (un)readiness and how best to use the resources and time we have left while the system still works more or less the way we're used to. There are certainly strategies and steps we can take in the here and now to best match priorities to needs, and meet the future as prepared as possible.

But you won't find this discussion in the national media. Our politicians insist on charting a course of more of the same, no matter how unsustainable, adamant not to touch any political third rails – for fear of not pleasing the electorate and/or donors. Major media outlets have abandoned the investigative journalism that once held the mirror of truth up to power, and instead, run superficial puff pieces that conclude with platitudes – for fear of not offending viewers and/or sponsors. The message is clear: The future will be better as soon as economic growth returns. Or oil prices come down. Or the iPhone 6 comes out. Or whatever the magic bullet du jour.

So it's up to the concerned and critical-thinking among us to look at the math, the hard data underlying the headlines, and construct what we can best calculate to be true.

And the truth is: The three adult generations in the U.S. are suffering, and their burdens are likely to increase with time. Each is experiencing a squeeze that is making it harder to create value, save capital, and pursue happiness than at any point since WWII. At that point, we were a creditor nation with an economy exploding into dominance on the world stage. Now, however, the U.S. is the largest debtor nation and our economic hegemony is increasingly at siege across a number of fronts.

A continuation of the status quo is a decision to sleepwalk face-first into the constraints hurtling towards us.

Instead, shouldn't we stop fooling ourselves and ask: What should we be doing differently?

We'll address that after we walk through the numbers.

The rest of the article can be seen at:
http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/8119 ... ord-future

[Amskeptic]

The American spirit is rooted in the belief of a better tomorrow. walk through the numbers.

The rest of the article can be seen at:
http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/8119 ... ord-future

We have to assume our rightful place in the American Civics conversation. That would be in the street.
Colin

[Bleyseng]

Which Americans are you talking about? The remains of the middle class and the poor? or the "Rich" who in the last 30 yrs have seen unbelievable wealth accumulation. The "Rich" certainly can afford the Future and don't plan on any changes other than to continue this accumulation of wealth! Screw the rest of us as we are the unseen masses of sheep who do their bidding in service at McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Hotel Staff, restaurants across the USA.
This New Budget from Ryan is the same old "smoke and mirrors" budget he has been trying to get passed to really hold our feet to the fire for the next 20 years. Lower taxes for the Rich! Lower taxes for Corporations! plus tax the sheep until their last breath! fools....

" these wonderful tailwinds that America has been enjoying for so many decades are sputtering out. The forces of resource scarcity, debt saturation, price inflation, and physical limits will impact our way of life dramatically more going forward than living generations have experienced to date.

And Americans, who had the luxury of abandoning savings and sacrifice for consumerism and credit financing, are on a collision course with that reality. Like the grasshopper in Aesop's fable, they have partied away the fair seasons and winter is now on the way, which they are not prepared for."

I disagree with the author as we have had unprecedented worker productivity gains in the last 20yrs but no increases in wages following this. Corporate greed with CEOs paying themselves and their fellow board members huge salaries, fees, stockshares and bonuses is where the gains in profits have gone. All the while cutting pensions, health insurance and profit sharing with the workers. Look at the stock market today as its at record highs daily but its not driven by the middleclass and their consumerism. The Economy is not recovering like usual as the historical consumer buying leading the way to recovery is not there. The middle class is nearly tapped out as the financial collapse and following housing market collapse sucked the remaining financial footing from them.

His statement that we acted like the grasshopper in Aesop's fable might apply to a few but most people I know acted through this last decade financially responsible saving what money they could into 401's and some stock. I question his bias and statements that we are the grasshopper as GOP conservative drivel so we take our collective "eye off the ball" of going after those that have scamed us, "the Rich".

"Seniors Woefully Unprepared for Retirement" Well, why is this? If wages had followed growth of wealth/profits then Seniors would have had the resources to put away more money in savings and 401's. Wages have stayed nearly flat since Reagan! So of course Seniors are not prepared from retirement as costs of living have continued to increase mostly in Health Care Costs and housing. So this is the time to cut Medicare and do away with Obamacare? This is the time to cut Social Security benefits? (SS is paid for by employer/employee taxes on wages as is not a entitlement program).

The GOP with their new budget again attacks those that are "takers" but in reality it attacks the Seniors and poor, those that need it the most. We can afford it "IF" the wealthy are again taxed fairly as in the 60's and 70's and corporations pay their fair share without loopholes, subsidies etc and and support the government with a steady stream of revenue. The corporate handout known as Defense is 25% of the Federal Budget now and must by cut to no more than 10% of the budget. This is the "entitlement" that the GOP refuses to discuss and is the real budget problem besides the wealthy paying realistic taxes.

The deficit can be paid down in a realistic timeframe by returning a steady stream of revenue via returning taxes to previous levels and returning Defense to sane levels of spending. With a net surplus of revenue vs spending the deficit will be gone and paying down the $16 trillion in debt can begin.

I hate bullshit articles like this!

[Amskeptic]

Which Americans are you talking about?
I disagree with the author as we have had unprecedented worker productivity gains in the last 20yrs but no increases in wages following this.

The GOP with their new budget again attacks those that are "takers" but in reality it attacks the Seniors and poor, those that need it the most. We can afford it "IF" the wealthy are again taxed fairly as in the 60's and 70's and corporations pay their fair share without loopholes, subsidies etc and and support the government with a steady stream of revenue.

The deficit can be paid down in a realistic timeframe by returning a steady stream of revenue via returning taxes to previous levels and returning Defense to sane levels of spending. With a net surplus of revenue vs spending the deficit will be gone and paying down the $16 trillion in debt can begin.

I hate bullshit articles like this!

=D> . This is the conversation we have to promulgate past the insane noise of the status quo defenders, the ones who have couched their terms in scurrilous suppositions of how lazy and parasitic we 47% are.
Yes,
Colin