Glenn Beck: The $53 trillion asteroid

Glenn Beck: The $53 trillion asteroid - CNN.com

This article is well worth the read, as are a number of books on the subject - "The Coming Generational Storm", written in 2004 is one that I found to be very solid on the subject. I suspect that few are going to listen, so "what happens will happen" in the future. Some of my thoughts on why this is so:

• It is a bi-partisan problem at this point. FDR put us on the path of the government funded pot of gold at the end of the retirement rainbow. His intent of course was that nearly nobody would ever collect, and he envisioned an ever increasing workforce. Both assumptions are now radically wrong, so we have a radically big problem, but it has been the "third rail" for a long time. Both parties have bought into the madness.
  
• Everyone loves rights and entitlements, nobody likes waiting, working, responsibility. There is an endless supply of people who want someone else to solve their problems, and are willing to vote accordingly. On an individual basis is there is no cost to vote irrationally.
  
• People who have more have more options as well (at least perceived) - more talent, more intelligence, more health, more money, more wisdom, etc. than the people that have less. Christ was right when he said that "to those that have, more will be given, and to those that don't, even that will be taken". It is easy for God to understand how the universe works--if you are certain that you have little, and no options and the only chance you have for success is for things to be given, you will lose what you have (since clearly, you are not even aware you have it). If you are certain that you are blessed with a lot (maybe even more than you deserve), you will see the blessings continue to flow. So the general population is voting to lose what they have. Those that have more will be better off, but the whole will lose a lot.
  
• The idea of "retirement" is generally bad for healthy people. Not surprising that government would be encouraging it and going broke while doing it. Sort of like the free cigarettes given to the soldiers in WWII. Big win for government and tobacco companies. Not so big a win for the soldiers.
  
• Government has been using FICA as a giant extra tax and spending all the money-which is always what was intended. FDR just wanted to increase the government take and buy votes. He did it the old fashined way ... he created the worlds larges ponzi scheme, now the $53 trillion bad debt is coming our way.