Check out this article from renowned economist, Greg Mankiw. It is a very insightful commentary about the economic problems this country will face in the near future. Dr. Mankiw is an economics professor at Harvard, and he served as head of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Bush. He has also written numerous textbooks on Economics.
7 comments:
Wow! I'm the first person!=)
anyways, i think he had some pretty decent opinions that made sense- after all, how in any way is it fair that we have to pay massive amounts of money to support all those baby boomers? I definitely think that with all this early-retirement craze, the biggest thing we need is a way to keep old people busy! OK, that sounds harsh, but what I mean is, they stop working at, say, 65, then supported some kid flipping burgers has to donate his pennies to support them for the next thirty years. Maybe if we had some way for them to keep contributing, like "fun jobs for retirees!" where they come in when they want and do stuff we need done. Or something like that...
he did make some points that I've heard time and time again. People are always talking about how the Social Security is gonna dry up and not leave anything for my generation when it retires. The perfect plan to solve this? There is none. Everything has a bad side. People could retire later, but then they may skip out on things they have wanted to do when they retire. We could put more money from our checks in, but...well that speaks for itself. We could limit people to using only the money they put in, but that's not fair to those who worked min wage all their lives compared to the multimillionaires.
This problem is gonna be hard to solve, but the person who does is gonna be rich. (haha)
My first thought: if this article was not prefaced with all of the mumbo jumbo about this guy's credentials and "respected" status, how would people react? I always find it interesting when statements are prefaced by explanations for why the person is qualified to be making the statements in the first place...as if the statements would have no real merit otherwise, or we should perhaps trust them implicitly simply because they are "qualified"...But I digress...:)
Aside from periodically being distracted by his minor (glaringly obvious) grammatical errors and some syntax awkwardness...the article was good. I definitely agreed with his final statement:
"My birthday wish is for all of us to stop asking what the government can do for us today. Instead, we should focus on what we can do together to prepare the economy for our children and grandchildren."
Social Security was never meant to be a long term program. We continue to try to extend its life and maintain solvency, when perhaps it would be better to simply let it die. I agree that trying to maintain solvency is going to be a huge burden on our generation. It seems the benefits of Social Security are no longer outweighing the costs and consequences. Social Security is *not* a necessary program, nor is it particularly effective anymore. So why not do away with it entirely? Investing in retirement funds, encouraging more saving and planning for the future, and cutting taxes for lower-paid workers would be more effective in the long run.
Social Security is an outdated program. It's time to think realistically about the future--*our* future.
The overwhelmingly disheartening fact here is that there is no sensible solution for the Social Security crunch that looms in our future.
The problem is that we've perpetuated FDR's idea that was pertinent to the citizens suffering during the Great Depression; now, over 70 years later, we're left to fund the antiquated ideal that beaurocracy should to take care of something that we, as individuals, should be responsible for taking care of.
i agree so much with all what this guy is talking about, i mean the news is making such a big deal about how the US is going into recession, oh no!! but like this harvard guy says, this so-called "recession" will be a minor blip that no one will really remember after its gone. also, all these promises going around with the presedential candidates about cutting tax rates and such are going to do nothing but hurt us in the long run, i mean i really would not mind an increase in tax rates because i know that it will eventually be beneficial, and before long it will be inevitable. overall, im pretty scared about my adulthood because who knows what our economy and country are going to be like with this baby boom generation reaching retirement and such.....
Though he may raise the valid point that a more independent populace aware of the constraints upon the common good is a goal for the ages, how would such an end be achieved? Though we employ leaders to check that society's desires are being met, the fact of the matter is that we are often our own largest antagonist to these goals. Though we may complain endlessly about the rising energy and fuel costs, when Jimmy Carter indicted the populace as the catalyst of these perpetual harms, we shunned his statements and his good reputation. Thus, we must first realize the egotistical complex that we have as a whole before any goal of abolition of some sort of crutch, such as Social Security, may be realized.
After I read this article I felt better about the future. His humor makes me feel like problems in our future will resolve themselves out. I think he was trying to say we are better at adapting than we think we are, we just like to complain about it a lot which makes everything seem tragic (the news). I personally fear the huge college expenses I will have to pay in the future. But I just have deal with it as it comes, and things will work out in the end.
Post a Comment