inquisitive
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2008
- Messages
- 223
I'm pretty shocked by the responses in the thread below on the national debt. Maybe I am more financially illiterate than I thought, but it seems to me that the national debt does affect us and early retirement significantly.
Well over $200 billion is spent in our taxpayer dollars/year to finance the debt. As the debt increases, more and more money, as a percentage of the federal budget, goes to pay the debt. Tax rates, before deductions/credits, ranges in the 30-50% and higher range for most Americans (not easily seen because 7.65% is taken off as a payroll tax before the employee sees it, and another 7.65% is taken off the employer side, which is actually a de facto tax on the employee, plus state income taxes, not to mention other taxes). This problem becomes worse year after year, in that government spending on public goods and services must continue to decrease. There is no shortage of problems that these funds could go to instead.
I do not see a "collapse" of the economy as someone speculated, because this is a long-term problem that is going to manifest in gradually worsening conditions over a very long period of time.
Also this signifies an inability of the congress to be financially prudent in that the only reason the debt increases is because spending is more than revenue. During the government shutdown, federal employees were laid off for 2 weeks, but after a resolution occurred, all these employees were paid for 2 weeks of not doing anything. I admit it was a nice vacation for them, but this was a significant amount of money that is coming out of taxpayer dollars, and extending the time until retirement for everyone.
We also do have significant power to change the situation. There is no shortage of highly qualified candidates who run for office, but mediocre candidates are consistently elected, which is the fault of the American people who voted these candidates in. Also there is poor voter turnout at the local, state, and federal levels, and so today's mediocre candidates at the local level become the state mediocre candidates and finally reach the federal level in 20 yrs and ppl wonder how it happened. Third party candidates have historically gotten fewer than 1% of the national vote in presidential elections, and it is obvious that the democratic and republican candidates are not 40-50x as qualified.
Well over $200 billion is spent in our taxpayer dollars/year to finance the debt. As the debt increases, more and more money, as a percentage of the federal budget, goes to pay the debt. Tax rates, before deductions/credits, ranges in the 30-50% and higher range for most Americans (not easily seen because 7.65% is taken off as a payroll tax before the employee sees it, and another 7.65% is taken off the employer side, which is actually a de facto tax on the employee, plus state income taxes, not to mention other taxes). This problem becomes worse year after year, in that government spending on public goods and services must continue to decrease. There is no shortage of problems that these funds could go to instead.
I do not see a "collapse" of the economy as someone speculated, because this is a long-term problem that is going to manifest in gradually worsening conditions over a very long period of time.
Also this signifies an inability of the congress to be financially prudent in that the only reason the debt increases is because spending is more than revenue. During the government shutdown, federal employees were laid off for 2 weeks, but after a resolution occurred, all these employees were paid for 2 weeks of not doing anything. I admit it was a nice vacation for them, but this was a significant amount of money that is coming out of taxpayer dollars, and extending the time until retirement for everyone.
We also do have significant power to change the situation. There is no shortage of highly qualified candidates who run for office, but mediocre candidates are consistently elected, which is the fault of the American people who voted these candidates in. Also there is poor voter turnout at the local, state, and federal levels, and so today's mediocre candidates at the local level become the state mediocre candidates and finally reach the federal level in 20 yrs and ppl wonder how it happened. Third party candidates have historically gotten fewer than 1% of the national vote in presidential elections, and it is obvious that the democratic and republican candidates are not 40-50x as qualified.