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I don't know enough about food, water, antibiotics etc. but I do know a lot about finance, especially US based finance. Here are the issues that will be hugely

I don't know enough about food, water, antibiotics etc. but I do know a lot about finance, especially US based finance. Here are the issues that will be hugely pressing and very difficult to solve in the next 10 years. 1) Retiring baby boomers have no savings, retirements and no plan for retirement. Over the next 10 years, a lot of people will be entering retirement age in the US with no plan for surviving. Demand for government services will increase dramatically, many people will be very upset when they find out that they barely have enough money to eat. 2) Student loans should cause a drag on the economy as many, many young Americans will be pressured by paying nearly 10% of their income (which represents a much larger percentage of disposable income). Savings rates will be negatively impacted as well. These two issues have no known solution and will both be huge underlying issues facing Americans in the next 10 years. They are certain, not hypothetical.

maxerickson 13y ago
The internet says there is about $1 trillion in outstanding student loans. If you assume that they are repaid fairly quickly, that means something like $2 trillion of payments. That's enormous, but only in the ballpark of $15,000 per working person in the U.S. Spread it over a decade and it's still not a payment I would wish on anybody for no reason, but entirely manageable (and presumably only a portion of the payment represents an actual economic drag, some people get quite some benefit from schooling).
- wtvanhest 13y ago
  1. Why would you assume they will be repaid fairly quickly? 2. $15,000 per working person in the US is a massive number of dollars per person. The medium US income is only about $50,000. Even if you spread the number out over 10 years (which would of course also increase the total interest paid), you are talking about $1,500 a year, which would be roughly 100% of people's discretionary income. 3. The number is growing and will continue to grow forever which means that the drag increases overtime, not that it gets paid off. 4. The student loans any individual borrows may individually benefit them relative to others, but there is no reason to believe that the total revenue (salary) grows at the same rate as the drag caused by the increase in debt service on a macro scale. Its $1 trillion + interest that will drag on the economy for many, many, many years. You can't look at the trees in the forest to rationalize away the problem this huge debt load will have on the economy.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    Well, I didn't worry too much about that aspect of it since you had already said 10% of income towards them. But now you are complaining that $1500 is too much.
    - wtvanhest 13y ago
      The bottom line is that a trillion dollars and growing is a massive drag on the economy. There is no way around it. As the number grows it becomes a bigger and bigger problem. We need to fix our college education system to make it much, much more affordable.

maxerickson 13y ago

The internet says there is about $1 trillion in outstanding student loans. If you assume that they are repaid fairly quickly, that means something like $2 trillion of payments. That's enormous, but only in the ballpark of $15,000 per working person in the U.S. Spread it over a decade and it's still not a payment I would wish on anybody for no reason, but entirely manageable (and presumably only a portion of the payment represents an actual economic drag, some people get quite some benefit from schooling).

wtvanhest 13y ago
1. Why would you assume they will be repaid fairly quickly? 2. $15,000 per working person in the US is a massive number of dollars per person. The medium US income is only about $50,000. Even if you spread the number out over 10 years (which would of course also increase the total interest paid), you are talking about $1,500 a year, which would be roughly 100% of people's discretionary income. 3. The number is growing and will continue to grow forever which means that the drag increases overtime, not that it gets paid off. 4. The student loans any individual borrows may individually benefit them relative to others, but there is no reason to believe that the total revenue (salary) grows at the same rate as the drag caused by the increase in debt service on a macro scale. Its $1 trillion + interest that will drag on the economy for many, many, many years. You can't look at the trees in the forest to rationalize away the problem this huge debt load will have on the economy.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  Well, I didn't worry too much about that aspect of it since you had already said 10% of income towards them. But now you are complaining that $1500 is too much.
  - wtvanhest 13y ago
    The bottom line is that a trillion dollars and growing is a massive drag on the economy. There is no way around it. As the number grows it becomes a bigger and bigger problem. We need to fix our college education system to make it much, much more affordable.