What is greatest contributor to our deficit?

[Tupac Shakur]

You really aren't a very insightful thinker.

[giblets]

Yeah, so you should have a response prepared

edt: Or you can just continue whining about how a generation that was less well off than you didn't leave you with more toys

[Hauldren Collider]

You really aren't a very insightful thinker.

I think he's just defensive. Until just around the elections he actually made perfectly intelligent posts. Think there's a connection?

[DaShi]

No offense (by which I mean, you should probably take offense), you're in no position to criticize.

[Hauldren Collider]

You've insisted that just about everyone who disagrees with you on this board except KH and Drake are tools. So I'm going to discount your opinion.

[DaShi]

Nonsense, Drake and KH are tools too. But you're record is no better the gribbler's, if not worse. Part of it might be your blind idol worship of DD, but you come up with enough unsubstantiated rightwing claims of your own.

[Tupac Shakur]

Yeah, so you should have a response prepared

I would first need to make sense of your puzzling argument that technological advancement somehow justifies the selfish behavior of Baby Boomers that has weakened the stability of the American welfare state. That might take a while.

[giblets]

I would first need to make sense of your puzzling argument that technological advancement somehow justifies the selfish behavior of Baby Boomers that has weakened the stability of the American welfare state. That might take a while.

Technological advancement makes future generations richer than previous generations. One of the premises behind welfare states is to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, so if present generations get to consume more by leaving the richer future generations with debts to pay off then the welfare state is achieving one of its purposes.

[Kuciwalker]

Technological advancement makes future generations richer than previous generations. One of the premises behind welfare states is to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, so if present generations get to consume more by leaving the richer future generations with debts to pay off then the welfare state is achieving one of its purposes.

The kind of intertemporal wealth redistribution you describe is impossible.

[Kuciwalker]

More precisely, there are strong limits to society's ability to defer consumption in the aggregate.

[giblets]

The kind of intertemporal wealth redistribution you describe is impossible.

On a national level?

[Kuciwalker]

To the degree that we are genuinely shifting aggregate US consumption in time, it is by redistributing goods from poor Chinese laborers to rich American retirees.

On a national level?

Yes.

[Tupac Shakur]

One of the premises behind welfare states is to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor

If you would think this through, you might question why you're defending Baby Boomer actions that have resulted in more money taken from the less wealthy young and given to the wealthier old...

[giblets]

To the degree that we are genuinely shifting aggregate US consumption in time, it is by redistributing goods from poor Chinese laborers to rich American retirees.

But aren't we expected to shift goods from Americans to Chinese people in the future? So it's like goods are being shifted from future to present Americans and from present to future Chinese people. And it's none of my business if Chinese people decide to go along with that.

[Kuciwalker]

But aren't we expected to shift goods from Americans to Chinese people in the future? So it's like goods are being shifted from future to present Americans and from present to future Chinese people. And it's none of my business if Chinese people decide to go along with that.

Assuming that the claims on future production we give to the Chinese in exchange for present consumption will actually be honored AND will actually be worth (in present value terms) the price paid, then the net redistribution of resources is as follows: poor current Chinese get less, rich current Americans get more, rich future Americans get less, not-quite-as-poor future Chinese get more. How is this a good thing?

(Not to mention that the assumption is pretty ridiculous.)