I don't disagree. But I think eliminating raising the cap is possible, and might solve the problem or at least push the crisis down the road while we work on your option.
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If we are going to break the compact between taxation and benefits, that is the more you put in, the more you get out, might as well do means testing too. That would buy a few more years, but the demographic problem of fewer payers supporting more payees seems intractable.
They don’t exist, not compared with the number of people leaving the workforce. Baby boom versus baby bust was decades in the making, so you will have to wait for death to restore equilibrium, maybe thirty years. Except the national debt will $60 trillion or so by then.
With an unemployment rate of 4 percent, labor participation is 62 percent. Idiot nativist cruelty is not the root cause of the problem. It’s too many older people rightfully wanting benefits the system is unprepared to pay out.
I would not automatically object to means testing. But I don't see the current situation as intractable -- unless you define immigration as a problem, instead of part of the solution. I live in a working class community where most of the residents are immigrants, or grown children of immigrants.
Immigration as a mitigating strategy for increasing payroll taxes is out for at least the next four years. That will put us five years from Zero Day, though I think it will be closer to three. The “solution” will likely be tax increases and benefit cuts at the last possible moment.
If you could show me the numbers that indicate I'm mistaken, I would be grateful and relieved. I doubt you can, so I will comply with your request. However, for those who are interested this link is as good any to understand the depth of the problem. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59899
Again, that breaks the social compact that the more you pay, the more is paid out to you. It will be a tough sell. If you are going to do that—and I am all for it—you might as well do means testing too. That will buy you a few more years, but it won’t solve the problem.
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Think a little harder.
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59899