re: What are realistic solutions to fixing our fiscal issues?

quote:

---

It's a retirement plan administered by the government.

---

That was just the sales job they used to sell the program to the public.

It's always just been a regular tax used to pay a regular entitlement. There's nothing special about it other than that there is a discreet fund for it, but it's not your money that you get back, it's someone else's money that is paying you those benefits.

Let's try it this way.

SS started in 1935. The first payments were made in 1937.

So if you got payments in 1937, was that YOUR money you were getting back after it grew and grew over...two years? Or was that someone else's money who was paying into the system in real time?

Obviously it had to be the latter.

This idea that if we hadn't done this or that or the other thing along the way, SS would really be your money that was collected, put in a lockbox, and returned to you starting at age 65, is demonstrably false just by observing how the program was rolled out. It would never have been "your money" regardless of what we did or didn't do along the way. It couldn't be, and you know that by how it was rolled out.

For it to have been "your money," the rollout would have to have taken place decades in the future. We start collecting taxes in 1935, but only from people who are 30 or younger, and we only start paying benefits when that cohort reaches age 65. For it to be "your money," that's what the rollout would have had to have looked like.

Obviously it has to be a system in which someone else pays taxes that pay your benefits just like your taxes went to pay someone else's benefits when you were working. Just. Like. Any. Other. Tax. And. Entitlement. Program.

quote:

---

It's OUR money.

---

Only in the sense that every penny the federal government collects in taxes is your money. It's not different from any other money they collect from you.

Prioritize human-capital & training (regional approach).
Major, sustained federal funding for community college-led apprenticeships, portable credentials, and regional “invisible infrastructure” (civic capacity, employer partnership programs) to deploy training where job growth is happening. Evidence shows inclusive regional capabilities translate public investment into broadly-shared growth. This raises worker productivity and reduces structural unemployment over time.

Targeted industrial policy and supply-chain resilience.
Incentives and procurement to reshore/near-shore critical manufacturing (semiconductors, batteries, pharmaceuticals), strategic stockpiles, and logistics upgrades. Tie incentives to domestic workforce and environmental standards. Recent global disruptions and changing trade patterns make resilience a competitiveness priority; targeted support yields long-term strategic returns while protecting jobs. IMF analysis also recommends pairing trade diplomacy with macro policy for stability.

Pro-growth tax and regulatory reforms that are equitable
What: Broaden tax bases (reduce narrow preferences), sharpen R&D and investment tax incentives, and simplify compliance for small businesses; eliminate inefficient subsidies. Protect low-income households via refundable credits and targeted supports. well-designed tax changes can raise revenues with less economic drag and encourage productive investment without widening inequality. Fiscal space can be directed to infrastructure and programs that raise potential growth.

Restore policy predictability — trade and monetary coordination.
Stabilize tariff/trade policy, pursue clearer multilateral trade understandings, and coordinate macro-policy signals (Fed’s inflation goal The IMF highlights large gains from resolving trade and policy uncertainty and returning to more predictable trade rules. Monetary credibility reduces inflation expectations and stabilizes markets.

Strengthen competition policy & small business support.
Enforce antitrust more vigorously in digital and concentrated industries; support small business access to capital and broadband.
Greater competition raises productivity, reduces consumer prices, and expands opportunity for smaller firms to scale. This helps wage growth across sectors.

quote:

---

Defense spending is 850 billion. We could probably cut that by 50 billion and freeze spending increases for 10 years. 

---

Like it or not, the AI Generation has us building Skynet. If we don't build it first, they will. And if they build it first, they take over EVERYTHING.

This is the modern-day arms race. Whoever wins, is going to most influence and control of anyone on earth. No, I do not think it's a good idea for the corrupt US Gov to have that ultimate control, but that's the best we can pray for.

quote:

---

Run for office.


Bet you get your butt kicked.

---

And that's the problem, innit?

This whole "democracy" thing has a fatal flaw in it.

The citizenry will not support initiatives that are unpleasant but necessary and the politicians won't implement the necessary changes because they are afraid they will get voted out.

Both will only act selfishly, so we just keep our foot on the gas as the edge of the cliff approaches.

And it's getting closer every minute.

quote:

---

Social security eats up 1.5 trillion a year.

---

Payroll tax revenue is approximately $1.7 trillion per year. Social Security still pays for itself. The problem is not Social Security. It’s the other non pay for spending programs. One of the biggest being foreign aid. Im sick of paying for other country’s programs.

Are you that insulting that you know nothing about a Republic versus Democracy, Socialism and Communism?

That screams uneducated and incapable of debate.

What was the first government attempted in the New World? You don’t an answer what it was or why it failed. Until you look it up. What was the first colony?

Who supposedly educated you? Until you realize that most teachers and professors, started in school. Continued in school. Stayed in school and not qualified to start a business or technology of their own….being stuck because…..they fail to grow with students entering their classrooms…..tells me they can’t recognize failure because they are exactly what can’t grow from.

You are not ready for this debate…..some idiot that never left a classroom convinced you to carry the banner of their failure.

Trump began this term with “reasonable” solutions that do not include taxation…DOGE cuts, tariffs, and NATO and other international spending agreements…..

and what happened???

Sky screaming unlike ever before.

You don’t have any ideas other than taxation. And neither does 99% of the country’s representatives. But when one guy comes up with something everybody cries.

No American dollars should go to anyone but American citizens. More taxation is not reasonable. We have been robbed, our future has been sold off by politicians for decades. Something needs to happen that doesn’t burden us further. If you’re not pissed off you’re paying enough attention.

I noticed the OP didn't mention all the deadbeats milking the system and collecting all kind of entitlements so I can't take him seriously.

And I still wonder how much time he spent on Discord in the days leading up to Charlie Kirk's murder

Another round of DOGE now that the left and media are castrated would probably do even better than the first one in this regard.

On SS, I think ultimately some form of privatization, with a phased out, means tested, increased retirement age transition to minimize the pain on older folks. Raise the SS tax rate marginally, and raise the income limit (fricking myself here). For anyone over a certain age, say 40, those funds would be directed to a fixed rate low risk private account. The rest would get the same, except they'd have the ability to direct their assets and investments.