Elon discovers the constitution

[Jolly]

Party pooper.

[xenon]

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

Wait 3 years. The average maturity of our debt is 6 years. Interest rates started climbing three years ago. Half the debt will need to be refinanced at today’s rates.

And the house is planning to add 4T more debt in the next 2+ years too.

It’s pretty scary.

This is the annoying part. Spend all the time talking about the <1% line item of federal personnel, while cranking the debt up to 11.

Nonsense. We’ve become an unserious people and deserve whatever is coming.

[LuFins Dad]

@xenon said in Elon discovers the constitution:

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

Wait 3 years. The average maturity of our debt is 6 years. Interest rates started climbing three years ago. Half the debt will need to be refinanced at today’s rates.

And the house is planning to add 4T more debt in the next 2+ years too.

It’s pretty scary.

This is the annoying part. Spend all the time talking about the <1% line item of federal personnel, while cranking the debt up to 11.

Nonsense. We’ve become an unserious people and deserve whatever is coming.

I don’t have any problem with cutting the waste now and addressing the tax cuts and Trump’s additional spending individually after we address this first.

I personally don’t believe that we can address reforming the entitlements without showing an extremely earnest and honest attempt at trimming the fat first. Once you can show that we’ve trimmed $————- Billions, then you can show the American public how far away you are from fixing the budget unless you reform SS and Medicare WITHOUT REDUCING BENEFITS!!! Then you can remove the cap or at least adjust it upward. Maybe raise FICA by .5%.

Now, do I trust them to do so? Not at all, but you can’t do so without taking this first step.

[Jolly]

@xenon said in Elon discovers the constitution:

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

Wait 3 years. The average maturity of our debt is 6 years. Interest rates started climbing three years ago. Half the debt will need to be refinanced at today’s rates.

And the house is planning to add 4T more debt in the next 2+ years too.

It’s pretty scary.

This is the annoying part. Spend all the time talking about the <1% line item of federal personnel, while cranking the debt up to 11.

Nonsense. We’ve become an unserious people and deserve whatever is coming.

The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.

You know, in a previous life I worked with government employees and 457 accounts. I had clients that made in one year what you probably make in a month.

So, how do you get people who are barely scraping by, to invest?

I'll tell you...We had an extremely low buy-in and a ridiculously low management fee. $20/month or $10/paycheck to start and a management fee maximum of $100/yr for self-directed accounts.

If I could get somebody started, most of the time when they got their yearly step increase, I'd hit them up for two or three dollars/check more. If they got a promotion, maybe I'd shoot for $5 or $10/check.

My goal was $50/month. If I could get them there and they did that for 30 years at 5%, they'd have a bit over 40 grand at retirement. Combine that with their DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Program) money, and you could have a patient aide retire at 55 with $100k (not counting taxes) and a $2000/month pension.

Now to you, that's peanuts, but to that demographic, that's like winning the lottery. It would allow them to get debt-free, at an age where they could still work ten years.

It all starts with $10/check and a shift in mindset.

We (the U S.) must do something. Right now, we must take the first step, then another and then another. So what if we begin with 1%. Maybe we can get another 0.5% here, 1% there or more. Some beats the sugar out of none.

The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.

[Mik]

It's not just the personnel costs. They're going after a lot of spending. Ask any CEO if they'd like to reduce spending 1 or 2%.

[jon-nyc]

That might be reasonable to say if they weren’t simultaneously making a positive decision to add 4T to the debt in the next 24-30 months.

[Horace]

According to Robin Hanson, all the available data shows that we could cut about 50% from our health care spending and achieve the same results. Just by not doing a lot of it. The easiest way to do that would be by nationalizing the whole project, but there are also steps individuals can take to minimize their own health care consumption, safely. But respect for the magical black box of mainstream medicine is probably an even tougher nut to crack than respect for formal education. People may die, after all.

[jon-nyc]

Socialized systems spend half-ish what we do and generally have better outcomes.

[Doctor Phibes]

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

Socialized systems spend half-ish what we do and generally have better outcomes.

They also suck, but in different ways, in my experience.

[jon-nyc]

Sure. But if the goal were to have similar to better outcomes at half the cost maybe we could change the precise mix of suckage we’re used to having to deal with.

[Copper]

We go to a lot of doctor's offices now. The doctors are outnumbered by staff at least 5 to 1.

If we spend 2 hours at an office visit, we might be with a doctor for 5-10 minutes.

[jon-nyc]

If you saw Epic’s headquarters you’d understand why.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

If you saw Epic’s headquarters you’d understand why.

Praise be to Obama!

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

Socialized systems spend half-ish what we do and generally have better outcomes.

All revolves around the ability to say "No".

[jon-nyc]

We say no differently. Ever met a middle aged adult with no insurance?

[Jolly]

EMTALA.

[jon-nyc]

COVFEFE

[jon-nyc]

EMTALA helps when you’ve had a car accident. Hard to control your asthma that way. Or get the precancerous growths on your scalp removed. Or manage the debilitating pain when you need a knee replacement, or….

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

EMTALA helps when you’ve had a car accident. Hard to control your asthma that way. Or get the precancerous growths on your scalp removed. Or manage the debilitating pain when you need a knee replacement, or….

BS. Walk through any big city ED and watch how much everyday (unpaid) medicine takes place.

[LuFins Dad]

Even austerity measures aren’t going to balance the massive problem from the entitlements. But you can’t fix those without a good faith effort to fix elsewhere. And institutions