4 ms·

At this point I just want the debt incurred by the electoral decisions of the last fifty years paid off. If that means retirement gets pushed back, well, shrugs

At this point I just want the debt incurred by the electoral decisions of the last fifty years paid off. If that means retirement gets pushed back, well, shrugs.

reactordev 1y ago
I think they reverse mortgaged it.
- lenerdenator 1y ago
  More-or-less, but... It's not just the age at which the government lets you claim OASDI and Medicare. It's also the fact that in the US at least, we've basically set up the entire economy around the idea of paying retirement/pension funds first and foremost, C-suites second, and the people creating the actual value third.
Buttons840 1y ago
Why do you want the debt paid off? The debt has been growing for 50 years, has life gotten worse during those 50 years? What happens if we don't pay off the debt?
- missedthecue 1y ago
  Eventually the interest payments crowd out most other government spending, or require significant across the board tax increases to maintain current levels of spend. The US is currently at $1T+ a year in tax revenues that instantly go right out the door toward paying bond interest. It will likely be $2T within 10 years, even fewer if rates don't come down in that time. It's compounding and therefore exponential. Situations like Japan are even more dire. A small increase in the interest rate results in a HUGE increase in interest expense at 260% debt to GDP ratios. Worse, their population is naturally shrinking a million people a year on account of their decades-long birth rate implosion. Hard to outgrow that.
  - maxerickson 1y ago
    It's more fun to think that it's the deficit that is going to the interest payments.
  - Buttons840 1y ago
    So lets raise taxes now and pay it off. Who should we tax? Should we squeeze blood from stones and try to get the poor to pay more taxes, or should we tax the wealthy? Who am I kidding. The current administration showed us--what was it? last week?--that they prefer cutting taxes for the wealthy and increasing the deficit. Republicans ALWAYS increase the deficit. Democrats usually do, but not always. It looks like we'll probably let the generation that created this mess retire like normal, and instead try to fix it by making their children and grandchildren work until death.
    - WalterBright 1y ago
      Tax cuts for the wealthy were not in the BBB.
      - maxerickson 1y ago
        If the baseline is whatever you say it is, what's the point of discussing it with you?
        WalterBright 1y ago
        The baseline is the current tax rate.
        maxerickson 1y ago
        The current tax rate for 2026?
        WalterBright 1y ago
        The tax rate for the wealthy is the same in 2026 as in 2025 as in 2024.
nradov 1y ago
The retirement age has already been pushed back about as far as it can be, barring major advancements in medicine. Maybe some of us will still be fully capable of doing software work at age 67 but those who have spent their lives doing manual labor have usually accumulated some significant disabilities by that age. They need a break.
- BLKNSLVR 1y ago
  Interesting that the current President is 79 years old (and will be 82 by the end of his term) and he took over from someone who was also 82 at the end of their term. Given that, software work at 67 should be well within cognitive limits. (I'm actually not sure if I'm being sarcastic)
  - RickJWagner 1y ago
    If we put our senior devs on it, we can finally beat Medicare!
  - Qem 1y ago
    They have lots of supporting staff, mostly younger than themselves, to do the heavy lifting. Some politicians developing dementia while holding office must practically be puppeteered through term by their staff. See https://theintercept.com/2023/09/12/national-security-dementia-mcconnell-feinstein/ https://theintercept.com/2023/09/12/national-security-dement...
    - BLKNSLVR 1y ago
      Good lord. Depressing. There's no way they should be holding such positions of responsibility.
- defrost 1y ago
  Hell of trope there. I live in a rural community filled with farmers and FiFo workers (fly in | fly out mine and rig workers) with a median age of ~ 60 years. My father has worked hard manual labour his entire life, he only recently stopped splitting wood and climbing ladders. He was born in 1935. He's not unusual here, many 60 and 70 year olds, 80 year olds even, are still active on the land here. Rephrased, it's just as problematic, albeit with a kernel of truthiness: Clearly some of us are still fully capable of doing manual labour at 67 but those who have spent their lives doing software "engineering" have usually accumulated some significant mental burn out by that age. They need a break.
jmyeet 1y ago
The debt has ballooned because massive tax cuts have been given to the already ultra-wealthy. In the most recent bill, the rules for writing off private jets changed such that you can take the entire write-off in one year instead of over the life of the plane. This alone is set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars [1]. Of the ~433T in debt over the entire life of the US, ~$8T of that came from Trump's first term [2]. Some people physically break their bodies and risk their lives doing necessary but relatively low-paid work. But telling baggage handlers, construction workers, agricultural workers, firemen, commeercial fishermen and agricultural workers that they need to work to 70 instead of 65 so the debt doesn't balloon while allowing Jeff Bezos a much bigger tax break in buying his 3rd private jet is utterly bananas. [1]: https://inequality.org/article/the-big-beautiful-bill-would-subsidize-the-billionaire-private-jet-class/ https://inequality.org/article/the-big-beautiful-bill-would-... [2]: https://www.crfb.org/blogs/how-much-did-president-trump-add-debt https://www.crfb.org/blogs/how-much-did-president-trump-add-...

At this point I just want the debt incurred by the electoral decisions of the last fifty years paid off. If that means retirement gets pushed back, well, shrugs.

reactordev 1y ago

I think they reverse mortgaged it.

lenerdenator 1y ago
More-or-less, but... It's not just the age at which the government lets you claim OASDI and Medicare. It's also the fact that in the US at least, we've basically set up the entire economy around the idea of paying retirement/pension funds first and foremost, C-suites second, and the people creating the actual value third.

Buttons840 1y ago

Why do you want the debt paid off? The debt has been growing for 50 years, has life gotten worse during those 50 years? What happens if we don't pay off the debt?

missedthecue 1y ago
Eventually the interest payments crowd out most other government spending, or require significant across the board tax increases to maintain current levels of spend. The US is currently at $1T+ a year in tax revenues that instantly go right out the door toward paying bond interest. It will likely be $2T within 10 years, even fewer if rates don't come down in that time. It's compounding and therefore exponential. Situations like Japan are even more dire. A small increase in the interest rate results in a HUGE increase in interest expense at 260% debt to GDP ratios. Worse, their population is naturally shrinking a million people a year on account of their decades-long birth rate implosion. Hard to outgrow that.
- maxerickson 1y ago
  It's more fun to think that it's the deficit that is going to the interest payments.
- Buttons840 1y ago
  So lets raise taxes now and pay it off. Who should we tax? Should we squeeze blood from stones and try to get the poor to pay more taxes, or should we tax the wealthy? Who am I kidding. The current administration showed us--what was it? last week?--that they prefer cutting taxes for the wealthy and increasing the deficit. Republicans ALWAYS increase the deficit. Democrats usually do, but not always. It looks like we'll probably let the generation that created this mess retire like normal, and instead try to fix it by making their children and grandchildren work until death.
  - WalterBright 1y ago
    Tax cuts for the wealthy were not in the BBB.
    - maxerickson 1y ago
      If the baseline is whatever you say it is, what's the point of discussing it with you?
      - WalterBright 1y ago
        The baseline is the current tax rate.
        maxerickson 1y ago
        The current tax rate for 2026?
        WalterBright 1y ago
        The tax rate for the wealthy is the same in 2026 as in 2025 as in 2024.

nradov 1y ago

The retirement age has already been pushed back about as far as it can be, barring major advancements in medicine. Maybe some of us will still be fully capable of doing software work at age 67 but those who have spent their lives doing manual labor have usually accumulated some significant disabilities by that age. They need a break.

BLKNSLVR 1y ago
Interesting that the current President is 79 years old (and will be 82 by the end of his term) and he took over from someone who was also 82 at the end of their term. Given that, software work at 67 should be well within cognitive limits. (I'm actually not sure if I'm being sarcastic)
- RickJWagner 1y ago
  If we put our senior devs on it, we can finally beat Medicare!
- Qem 1y ago
  They have lots of supporting staff, mostly younger than themselves, to do the heavy lifting. Some politicians developing dementia while holding office must practically be puppeteered through term by their staff. See https://theintercept.com/2023/09/12/national-security-dementia-mcconnell-feinstein/ https://theintercept.com/2023/09/12/national-security-dement...
  - BLKNSLVR 1y ago
    Good lord. Depressing. There's no way they should be holding such positions of responsibility.
defrost 1y ago
Hell of trope there. I live in a rural community filled with farmers and FiFo workers (fly in | fly out mine and rig workers) with a median age of ~ 60 years. My father has worked hard manual labour his entire life, he only recently stopped splitting wood and climbing ladders. He was born in 1935. He's not unusual here, many 60 and 70 year olds, 80 year olds even, are still active on the land here. Rephrased, it's just as problematic, albeit with a kernel of truthiness: Clearly some of us are still fully capable of doing manual labour at 67 but those who have spent their lives doing software "engineering" have usually accumulated some significant mental burn out by that age. They need a break.

jmyeet 1y ago

The debt has ballooned because massive tax cuts have been given to the already ultra-wealthy. In the most recent bill, the rules for writing off private jets changed such that you can take the entire write-off in one year instead of over the life of the plane. This alone is set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars [1]. Of the ~433T in debt over the entire life of the US, ~$8T of that came from Trump's first term [2]. Some people physically break their bodies and risk their lives doing necessary but relatively low-paid work. But telling baggage handlers, construction workers, agricultural workers, firemen, commeercial fishermen and agricultural workers that they need to work to 70 instead of 65 so the debt doesn't balloon while allowing Jeff Bezos a much bigger tax break in buying his 3rd private jet is utterly bananas. [1]: https://inequality.org/article/the-big-beautiful-bill-would-subsidize-the-billionaire-private-jet-class/ https://inequality.org/article/the-big-beautiful-bill-would-... [2]: https://www.crfb.org/blogs/how-much-did-president-trump-add-debt https://www.crfb.org/blogs/how-much-did-president-trump-add-...