Re:To Understand Rising Inequality, Consider Janitors
by roenxi on Sunday September 03, 2017 @06:06PM
(#15164204)
This doesn't quite go to the substance of your question; but it is relevant. At this point the US debt is pretty staggering at both a personal and national level.
The 'average Joe' is, by the numbers, consuming more than they are producing. There are two ways this can be sustainable:
1) Transfer from economically productive to economically unproductive individuals
2) Net economic consumers become net economic producers. In practice, this would almost certainly look like spending less and investing more.
The argument of my grandparent seems to be that incentivising the _reverse_ of (2), ie net producers to become net consumers, is a terrible idea that will make the fundamentals of the problem worse. That argument is good as a matter of principle. It is particularly relevant in the current context of America.
The 'average Joe' is, by the numbers, consuming more than they are producing. There are two ways this can be sustainable:
1) Transfer from economically productive to economically unproductive individuals
2) Net economic consumers become net economic producers. In practice, this would almost certainly look like spending less and investing more.
The argument of my grandparent seems to be that incentivising the _reverse_ of (2), ie net producers to become net consumers, is a terrible idea that will make the fundamentals of the problem worse. That argument is good as a matter of principle. It is particularly relevant in the current context of America.