In a new article entitled “Drowning in Debt: What the Nation’s Budget Woes Mean for You”, Devin Dwyer, writing for ABC news, takes a look at how our massive national debt threatens the financial health of the entire nation. Dwyer quotes former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as saying “Within 12 years… the largest item in the federal budget will be interest payments on the national debt. [They are] payments for which we get nothing.”
Some of the other predictions for America outlined in the article are:
Substantially lower standard of living
Inflation, which would erode our savings
Higher interest rates
Stagnant wages
Fewer jobs
The article hints at what is almost certain to come along with the above list, higher taxes, but what is not mentioned is potentially as devastating as what is. Dwyer limits his examination of economic woes to those on the Federal level and fails to look outside that sphere to what is happening on a state and local level.
Tami Luhby, senior writer for CNN Money fills in some of the missing parts of the picture in her article “States short $1 trillion to fund retiree benefits”. David Nicklaus of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch adds another piece in his column, warning on Feb 12 of the increased pressure in the City of St. Louis from the soaring cost of retiree pensions (a tenfold increase in 10 years). Imagine a government (or company, for that matter) that has to lay off current workers to pay the retired ones!
The picture doesn’t look good at any level, but one thing is a certainty; it is much less bad right now than it could be thirty years from now. Thirty years seems like a long time (I was married thirty years ago this coming August) when you are looking forward, but looking back gives an entirely different perspective. I’ll be 85 in thirty years (and maybe finally eligible to collect Social Security retirement under the new rules). I want to be known for standing up in America’s current time of difficulty and taking action. I want to be known as a friend of the ordinary person. My dream is a big one; that one average guy can reach out to other average people and put together a coalition that isn’t afraid to tell it as it is, and is willing to go out to stop the 12 trillion pound offensive tackle headed our way. How about you? Do you want to be part of the solution, or are you content to be part of the problem?
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