“Ever since the days of Henry Ford, the Economic Elite have needed a thriving US middle class to increase growth and profits, but now, in the global economy, they view the US middle class as obsolete. They increasingly look globally for profits and they would rather pay cheap labor in countries like China and India.”

…David DeGraw

So much for basics. Our government, in its wisdom, continues to purposely reduce revenue, and the only “serious” answer is to eliminate those programs that favor or benefit the untouchables of our neo-Galtian empire.

When a job paying $20 per hour in the U.S. is transferred to China at $1 per hour, the last thing looked at is the loss of revenue via payrol taxes. Keep this up for 25 years while extolling the virtues of the FIRE economy (h/t to Mr. Nemo) and voila!, the nation is going broke. This is the current conventional wisdom, and very very few reap the benefits of this arrangement.

As regards the preposterous expense of Medicare, I witnessed first-hand the abuses of the system last year with the death of my father. Long story short: my father had congestive heart failure; he was 86. A cardiologist told both my father and me that he was in the “end stages of congestive heart failure.” Hospice anyone? NO. More tests, more visits, 3 weeks in a nursing home. I yanked Dad out of the nursing home primarily because they screwed up his medicine 3 times and aside from putting him through misery, what little life he had left was diminshed.

Only after a shouting match with his “doctor” (who also was the medical director of said nursing home) my father was finally referred to Hospice, where he was treated with the utmost dignity until his death three weeks later.

I think about the tens of thousands of dollars deliberately milked from Medicare by these thieves i see red. The mindless greed is unfathomable, with no thought of what is just and decent for a dying human being. If I should find myself in the same situation, I hope indeed there is some kind of “death panel” to stop such abuse and turn me over to Hospice, where whatever dignity I have might be retained up until my death.

My father served his nation as a juvenile delinquent in uniform ( a fighter pilot) and now raises hell in the Army Air Force Heaven. At the very least he is no longer at the receiving end of the so-called “professionals” who rob the treasury while robbing patients of their dignity.

They have to address future benefits and that will happen about the time the next ice age rolls around.

Carl Nemo **==