Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Category: Social Security

  • Wait: Maybe Europeans are as Rich as Americans

    I’ve pointed out multiple times that despite Europe’s big, supposedly growth-strangling governments, Europe and the U.S. have grown at the same rate over the last 45 years. Here’s the latest data from the OECD, through 2014 (click for larger): And here’s the spreadsheet. Have your way with it. More discussion and explanation in a previous…

  • New Year’s Tax Wishes: If I Was Dictator of America

    Based on the notions of economic efficiency that I laid out here, if I could do whatever I wanted I would make the following changes over a ten-year period. (Some faster, some slower, some phased in, some implemented instantly on a given date.) The appropriate amounts in each case require a better calculator than I…

  • This Isn’t Really Complicated, Is It?

    Obama went after the elephant in the room, at huge political cost. Say what you will about his political savvy, the way he went about it, or the reform’s likely (as opposed to hoped-for) effects, but it makes pretty clear who’s the adult in the room. Related posts: It’s The Health Care Costs, Stupid David…

  • Did I Mention That It’s the Health Care Costs, Stupid?

    Via: Medical Billing And Coding Related posts: What’s Wrong with Vouchers? “Usual and Customary”: Macro Effects? Do We Need More Doctors?

  • The Best Line of the Week…

    Is actually from thirty years ago. Speaking of Social Security: “It’s not the third rail,” cautioned Ken Khachigian, a speechwriter for Reagan, “until you touch it.” 30 years of deficit talk, but little to show for it | Deseret News/New York Times News Service Related posts: Mea Culpa: Rivlin-Domenici Needs Work Who’s Fiscally Responsible? Koch…

  • Government Consumption Spending Revisited

    I really love it when somebody points out that I’m wrong. (At least, when they’re right that I’m wrong.) Jazzbumpah in an email pointed out a whopper of an error in a previous post, in this graphic: The blue slice is State and Local. The red slice is Federal. Here’s the real picture: (Expenditures: NIPA…

  • Tyler Cowen’s The Great Stagnation: Government Spending Section

    I’m quite taken with the central notion of Tyler’s new mini-book — that America has been picking the economic low-hanging fruit for decades or centuries, and that there’s a lot less of it around over the last three to six decades. Before I get to the parts I like, I have to instantly respond to…

  • Two Thirds of Tea Partiers Want to Raise Taxes on the Well-To-Do

    …rather than increase the retirement age for Social Security. Somebody just asked them. See Question 11: Would you rather have people pay social security taxes on salaries above $106,800, or would you rather see benefits cut and the retirement age increased to age 69? Self-identified tea party members:* 67%: Raise taxes 20%: Cut benefits, raise…

  • What Conservatives Should Ask Themselves Every Day: What Would Dwight David Eisenhower Do?

    These posts by Arnold Kling and Will Wilkinson prompt me to write up a post I’ve had in mind for a long time. I don’t want to write a history paper here, so I’ll just share a few facts, and some quotes from Wikipedia to highlight the differences between Eisenhower’s prudence and responsibility,  and the…

  • It’s The Health Care Costs, Stupid

    Get this straight: If health-care costs were rising at the same rate as inflation — even with our aging population — we wouldn’t have a budget problem. Congressional Budget Office: The red line is what Medicare plus Medicaid would look like in that scenario. So, for all you Democrats whining about how Obama should have tackled…

  • The Sky Is Falling

    According to the Congressional Budget Office, non-interest federal spending was 18.8 percent of GDP in 1980. In 2020 it is projected to be 18.6 percent of GDP. David Brooks is Upset that the Politicians Are Listening to Voters | Beat the Press. Related posts: Yowza. Now Even AEI is Dissing Austerity. Fed today: “fiscal policy is restraining…

  • Where Did Our Debt Come From? – James Fallows – Politics – The Atlantic

    Just another reminder: Where Did Our Debt Come From? – James Fallows – Politics – The Atlantic. Hat tip to my sis. Related posts: Embarrassed Republicans Admit They’ve Been Thinking Of Eisenhower Whole Time They’ve Been Praising Reagan “You Deserve It” Part 243 Taxes: Obama vs. McCain The Macroeconomics of Chinese Kleptocracy Who Owns Congress?…

  • Bleg: Why Hasn’t Europe Caught Up?

    (For blog non-cognoscenti: that’s a combination of blog and beg.) I’ve pointed out with tiresome regularity that since Europe got back on its feet after World War II,  even with its higher taxes, larger social support systems, etc., it’s grown just as fast as the U.S. But the champions of our smaller-government system have a very…

  • Is the Welfare State a Free Lunch?

    We know that prosperous countries with bigger governments (mostly as a result of larger social support systems) don’t grow any more slowly than those with small governments. How can that be? The deadweight loss from those additional taxes should hurt national GDP growth, right? Answer: there are many economic effects that are exogenous to the…

  • Trickle Down: Here’s How It Happens

    Our country’s 40-year experiment in trickle-down Reaganomics has shown us one thing: left to its own devices, a free market pumps the money to the top. It’s the nature of the beast, an inherent property of the system. Despite wild-eyed assertions to the contrary, trickle-down doesn’t happen unless we make it happen. Here’s further demonstration…

  • Have Domenici and Rivlin Been Reading My Notes?!

    Their proposed deficit/debt reduction plan is here. They’re chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Deficit Reduction Task Force. Here are the notes I jotted down this morning for a planned “If I Were Dictator” post. I was planning on adding, explaining, changing, organizing, etc., but I’m simply pasting them here, unedited and unsorted. Eliminate the mortgage…

  • I Balanced the Budget!

    I cut the 2030 deficit by $2 trillion! Or by $1.4 trillion — balancing the budget — without resorting to death panels or touching the Medicare budget that Republicans are fighting so hard to preserve. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=d3b306qv Your turn. Related posts: Pubs: You Had a Blank Piece of Paper for Eight Years Tea Partiers: Old, White,…

  • Krugman on Raising the Retirement Age: Janitors vs. Lawyers

    So you’re going to tell janitors to work until they’re 70 because lawyers are living longer than ever. Here. He’s got the numbers here: since 1977, the life expectancy of male workers retiring at age 65 has risen 6 years in the top half of the income distribution, but only 1.3 years in the bottom…

  • Is the Social Security Trust Fund a Liberal Own-Goal?

    The Social Security trust fund is one key rhetorical crux of our budget debates. (I’m punting on Medicare here for the moment; it’s obviously the elephant in the room.) Liberals think of the trust fund as a big national savings account. They point to the trust fund’s promises to future retirees, their multi-decade contributions to…

  • Republicans on Entitlements: Don’t Cut Benefits, Don’t Raise Taxes. Hmmm.

    71% of ‘pubs don’t want to raise taxes to pay for those ebil entitlements, and 59% don’t want to cut the benefits that those ebil entitlements provide. And they think Democrats are fluffy-headed utopians? Americans Disagree on How to Fix Entitlement Programs. Related posts: Two Thirds of Tea Partiers Want to Raise Taxes on the…

  • The Party of Prosperity? The Seven Reasons that Democrats’ Policies are More Economically Efficient

    Or: The Seven Habits of Highly Efficient Economies Republican economic policies are widely perceived (especially by Republicans) as being pro-growth and pro-prosperity, even though All. The. Evidence. Demonstrates. The. Opposite. (How dare they call themselves “conservatives”?) Even the rich get richer under Democrats — though not at the expense of the poor and the middle…