While the news has been covering the problems with the Greek government's fiscal blowout and the US Debt is discussed fairly frequently; the 800 pound gorilla in the room (as if debt that equals the GDP isn't a big enough beast!) is the future outlays for all of the United States promises to pay retirement, medical care and all the other benefits which politicians seem to use as dangling carrots to keep us re-electing them even when we all think they are doing a horrible job!
Some reports show over $60 Trillion (that is four times the national debt or roughly $200,000 for every man, woman and child in the US! Think about what you could do for your own financial security with that amount.
Digging up an article from back in 2009 yields a prediction upwards of $100 Trillion. Check out this passage:
In 1966 the feds estimated that the cost of the Medicare program by 1990 would be approximately $9 billion dollars/year; the actual cost was $67 billion dollars/year.
Talk about the expansion of programs!
Look here to see the scale of what the future liabilities really look like; the element on the right is not a skyscraper it is a stack of $100 bills representing the obligations of public benefits.
Please read more in detail about the graphic here.
Oh yeah, don't forget to add your local and state plans to the numbers above. Unless you are confident that future costs are already accounted for in your locale.
While the topic of government is not the key focus of this blog this fresh video of economist Walter E. Williams speaking at Villanova University connects the personal and societal factors of government policies on taxation and rights.
A great look at how economics matters when it comes to government and your life!
Jan Helfeld is known for interviewing a lot of our public servants on his program The Bottom Line. This week he makes our list of Econ videos for a great discussion with Wyoming Representative Cynthia Lummis on opportunity cost, import/export factors and competition in the economic climate around the globe today.
And for those who have been scratching their heads on the latest unemployment chart we have Jodi from Economists Do It With Models breaking down the BLS groupings of unemployed people in the labor force. And you thought U2 was an Irish band or an airplane until now.
Well if you're like me you got your W2 form this week (that yearly reminder that the federal government gets its share of your earnings first), or you are expecting it any day now so you can submit your tax return or if you owe more, how long you can delay the agony.
The best video we found this week pays homage to none other than the overseer of all spending of tax moneys: Barrack Obama.
Our apologies to The Beatles
The average American has a tax rate around 25%. It's easy to see why some people are just counting down the days until they have worked off their annual burden.
But don't celebrate Tax Freedom Day just yet; You may need to factor in state income tax, sales tax or local property taxes! Then there's the federal tax on every gallon of gas you buy (18 cents per gallon), while we're looking at your car you probably shelled out enough to buy a nice dinner for two just so you can drive the car on public
roads for a year. Extra fees for fishing, taxes on hotel rooms for
your business and vacation travel, the list goes on and on and on!
If it drives you to drink... well you know they taxed that too. My state even tried taxing illegal drugs just to snag more revenue from people they caught, it worked for a couple of years. And it wasn't the first time some drugs have been taxed.
We hope you enjoyed the video. You can breathe easy now, there's no tax on air yet.
Now some insight into how Warren Buffet's talk about taxes still barely affects him, meanwhile his company doesn't seem to be taking the high road and paying it's taxes.
