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Originally Posted by tarcone
I get the government isnt the way to go for things. But, damn, what is the answer? Who can we count on to take care of US? The back bone, the drivers of the economy, the blue collar guys and the cops and the teachers and the fire fighters and the nurses and and and?
Capitalism is what it is, but the is a government for the people, by the people .
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Government can be the way to go, I just think it's important to understand what that means. It means higher taxes on everybody including the middle class, and more loss of freedom. A steadily increasing number of people are in favor of that. The key point though is that it's not going to happen for a 15-20% flat tax. It would have to be a lot higher than that.
The other option is that people and communities can take responsibility for themselves. That means living on less than their means and investing for the future. That's well within the range of anyone in middle class or above; a lot of the poor can't do it because there's only so much you can cut costs, but there's no good reason why most Americans can't be millionaries or better by the time they retire with the investment options available with a modest amount of regular, consistent saving throughout their working lives.
The final piece I would refer back to is perspective. It is a happy anomaly in the human experience to even have such a thing as retirement and be considering how best to handle it, having high-quality health care available at any price, etc. This is still something only available as a consideration in the richest countries in very recent modern history.