Aetius wrote:And this is what happens when you try to support a large group of people with a small group of people in the case of social security.
How is it possible for the population today to be fed when the numbers of persons working farms is vastly smaller than 80 years ago? How is it possible that the baby boomers were supported through around a dozen years of public education?
Farmers get paid. It's an economic activity, not a handout. You can't compare the two.
The problem is not a lack of resources... the problem is that those resources are currently being allocated to those who do not require them in reward for activities that produce little.
Well, you're right about that. The real question is whether or not you think you can allocate resources better than a true free market. So far, the answer is an unequivocal no, but people keep trying.
Conglacio wrote:The problem is not a lack of resources... the problem is that those resources are currently being allocated to those who do not require them in reward for activities that produce little.Well, you're right about that. The real question is whether or not you think you can allocate resources better than a true free market. So far, the answer is an unequivocal no, but people keep trying.
I think the free market just proved that it actually isn't so great with allocating resources. We've effectively taken over Wall Street, the engine of the free market, because they over leveraged themselves and we're bailing out the auto manufacturers because they managed to misallocate resources into products people don't want. And all this is on top of bailing out the airlines after 9/11 because they failed to change their business structure years before to account for changing consumer habits.
What's it going to take to end the assumption that the free market is somehow always infallible when the evidence shows they continually make stupid decisions.
I think the free market just proved that it actually isn't so great with allocating resources. We've effectively taken over Wall Street, the engine of the free market, because they over leveraged themselves and we're bailing out the auto manufacturers because they managed to misallocate resources into products people don't want. And all this is on top of bailing out the airlines after 9/11 because they failed to change their business structure years before to account for changing consumer habits.
People who over leverage themselves should go bankrupt, not get bailed out. The auto and airline bailouts are the same way - these are misallocations of capital that have been created by repeated and sustained government intervention. The only problem here is repeated and sustained interference in the economy by our government to "make things better".
What's it going to take to end the assumption that the free market is somehow always infallible when the evidence shows they continually make stupid decisions.
You are confusing the market with the people in it. The people in the market make stupid decisions all the time. And they lose money doing it. Those that make too many stupid decisions go out of business. The market does not reward stupidity. What we're doing right now is transferring the serious stupidity of a few people onto the backs of all of us. The market isn't going to reward that stupidity either. The more we try to fight it, the worse it is going to be.
In a hundred years, people will live a lot longer than 100. Our system will have to radically change.Oh? There was some scientist on TV that said within the next 50 years we will have the technology to extend life to the 150-200 year range. Are there any more credible resources or studies along these lines?
Having the technology that 0.00001 % of the world's population can afford doesn't do many people much good (DNA repair, organ tissue growth and transplantation come to mind as necessary). Maybe in 100 years the tech will be cheap enough for 50% of the population. I hope to be alive when people can complain about 40 yr olds still living with their 120 yr old parents, who are running a triathlon next week. 
Double digits here in Michigan: 10.6% for December!
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