The Entitlement Debate

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Colonel Sun]

Before this thread experienced an outbreak of mutual teabagging, my question was to be the following:

Germany.

Social spending as share of GDP: 21.6%

Debt / GDP: 78.80%



France.

Social spending as share of GDP: 22.5%

Debt / GDP: 83.50%

Canada.

Social spending as share of GDP: 26.3%

Debt / GDP: 34.00%

USA.

Debt / GDP: 58.90%



So are Germany and France going to precede the US into bankruptcy? German bond yields seem to indicate that the expectation is otherwise.

If the US is heading into bankruptcy, then why are US yields on the long end not giving Ireland and Portugal stiff competition?

And what's up with Canada? Eh?

[Mr. Perfect]

Why is % of GDP the standard here?

Why is higher % of social spending considered good?

I'm not following this.

[Apollonius]

[Tinker]

Colonel Sun The line at many of the progressive events I attend is that, "The Government is not actually broke.", the reasoning essentially is that tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy have made us unable to fund the programs that we have. If we were to remove only the tax breaks, we would be able to afford the programs.

[Demon of Undoing]

[Tinker]

The bottom line is that it's defense. I rue the day that the War Department became the 'Defense Department'. There has not been a war in the defense of the American 'Homeland' since World War II where we were bombed.

[Demon of Undoing]

Aggression is Defense. Debt is Treasury. Prison nation is Justice.

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

[monster_gardener]

[Mr. Perfect]

The fact that there has not been a "war" for the defense of American soil since WWII is actually a tremendous accomplishment and a defense of the status quo, although those on the left will either never see it or never admit it. To the political benefit of the GOP I might add.

[monster_gardener]

[Mr. Perfect]

And they had to resort to the tactic of the desperate loser, ie terrorism.

[CgDs]

[lzzrdgrrl]

The sense of entitlement does not have its origins in social programs. It comes from people's perceptions of reality and what counts as an adequate response to it. Americans have always been status-conscious and tic life's milestones and achievements with markers. Thus, being middle class is not about having certain habits, attitudes and values - it's about having a house, a fairly new car, a degreed education at a prestigious school - in short, prestige......

Not having those things, may leave you feeling less than whole and having different standards for better off and poor is classist and unegalitarian. Assuming the poor lack those things because of personal attitudes and values would gin up the game, as well as those who could achieve the markers of middle-class success but elect not to because of different priorities. Social planners cannot direct in chaos, so they have to pick an agenda and hope it works - most of the time. Vance Packard knew what he was .......

[crashtech]

Comments on the OP:

The two articles linked do not agree on the US's position in re social spending, this undermines their credibility.

Canada has no defense budget to speak of in comparison to the US. It would be nice to see Canadians pay their fair share, but of course they don't need to, as Canada's proximity makes their defense a priority for the US, regardless of willingness to share the cost.

Greece and Portugal are in the top 15 according to one of the linked articles, not exactly models of sustainability.

[Alph]

Federal Medicare and Medicaid spending are $800 billion. Federal Social Security spending is $700 billion. That's $1.5 trillion, or 10.7% of US GDP. That alone is larger than the 7.2% figure, and does not include even state spending on these three programs, much less the rest of the social service spending in the US. This makes me think that the figure, and the study it's based on, are silly.

[Simple Minded]

[Ibrahim]

[lzzrdgrrl]