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Thursday, February 6, 2014

Who is the forgotten man in the US today? The working man that's who!



If person A and person B get together to help out person C and take the resources of person D to do it then person D is "the forgotten man." And now that the government is making leisure more lucrative with every new policy and statement they make (see yesterday's take of the NY Times to the employment effects of Obama Care), soon the only suckers left will be the working stiff who keeps paying the tax bill.

What is not discussed enough for me is the enormous implied future taxes that are positively the consequence of debt accumulation and permanent increases in government spending. Who is going to pay them? You and especially your children with higher marginal tax rates and other confiscatory policies to take your resources from you to fund the common good.

However, you baby boomers don't despair. Your children will have much more leisure than you did in your working life. So they will be able to be with you, and to spend all that time you feel guilty about not being with them when you worked. They will be with you in your retirement. And you'll have your son's girlfriend and child along for the company too since they neither can find a career nor have any desire for matrimony, nor feel as if working is "worth it."

You may want to ask you financial adviser if you can put an additional on the old ranch so junior has a place to stay. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you agree with balancing the budget every year? I have had a few econ professors tell me debt is not that bad as long as the gdp growth rate increases faster than the pace of debt payment. This is not discussed enough.

Randall Parker said...

There is no doubting the correctness of this argument. The problem is the denominator of that fraction is pathetic and the numerator more and more is catatonic in its flexibility with an ever increasing share becoming mandatory, i.e., entitlements.

Anonymous said...

"Your children will have much more leisure than you did in your working life. So they will be able to be with you, and to spend all that time you feel guilty about not being with them when you worked. They will be with you in your retirement. And you'll have your son's girlfriend and child along for the company too since they neither can find a career nor have any desire for matrimony, nor feel as if working is 'worth it.'"

Watch the suicide rate for the children of the baby boomers rise.