Declining birth rates.....

kidfury

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Oct 14, 2017
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Perhaps it's a crisis because it signals an increase in mental health issues in the younger people.
 

StuAzole

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Jan 22, 2016
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I'd consider Social Security the best example. The first round of beneficiaries didn't pay in; it was a transfer from young to old. You will need a base of a pyramid to continue paying the benefits at the top. As constituted today, it doesn't seem feasible if you had 1:1 contributors and beneficiaries.
pyramid And ponzi schemes aren’t the same thing.

also, a Ponzi scheme involves fraud and promised huge investment returns - neither of those are present in social security. At worst, your description just shown one generation got it better than the rest.

I get that there is a lot of concern about how to fund ss, but the system is hardly a fraudulent scheme.
 
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Sharkbiscuit

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pyramid And ponzi schemes aren’t the same thing.

also, a Ponzi scheme involves fraud and promised huge investment returns - neither of those are present in social security. At worst, your description just shown one generation got it better than the rest.

I get that there is a lot of concern about how to fund ss, but the system is hardly a fraudulent scheme.
Okay pyramid being a more accurate description than Ponzi, well said.

The broader point about funding the senior citizen social safety net still stands.
 

Pig Benis

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Oct 16, 2002
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Because Millennials are the largest generational group in the U.S. ever and they are suddenly realizing that they need a populous tax base of worker bees to support them in their old age.

I think the best solution is to set up something like The Purge. Only it's for Millennials. The Millennial Purge. Every March 4th you can kill as many Millennials as possible. No bag limits. Keep America beautiful. Kill a Millennial. Starts now. GO!!!!
 
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hal9000

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pyramid And ponzi schemes aren’t the same thing.

also, a Ponzi scheme involves fraud and promised huge investment returns - neither of those are present in social security. At worst, your description just shown one generation got it better than the rest.

I get that there is a lot of concern about how to fund ss, but the system is hardly a fraudulent scheme.
yes. that’s what I meant. Pyramid scheme. I mix those up
 
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Sharkbiscuit

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false, capital markets are also dependent upon growth at all costs

the entire system is dependent upon growth at all costs
Can you expand on this? I don't understand how capital markets cease to function in the absence of economic/population growth. But I can certainly come up with how a beneficiary/contributor idea like Social Security does.
 

enframed

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Apr 11, 2006
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Why is it a crisis?

Every thing is a “crisis”.

Overpopulation - crisis.

Declining birth rates - crisis.

Warming planet - crisis.

Cooling planet - crisis.

Not enough rain - crisis.

too much rain....

Crisis at the border
healthcare crisis
Housing crisis
homeless crisis

I hope you learn from this.
Oh there's not doubt we're a country that loves stupid and unnecessary drama. I'm numb to the word.
 

StuAzole

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Jan 22, 2016
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But what does it really mean?

...plenty of other distractions or just a decreased zest?
It means that we're having fewer kids and that the only way to keep our economies going is by more immigration.

Women have careers and less time for babies. Medicine is better so women can wait longer and have fewer kids. Sperm rates are decreasing in many areas too.

The issue isn't really that there won't be enough people - it's that there won't be enough of the right "kind" of people (read, white Christians) to sustain what the Pilgrims started a few hundred years ago.
 

mundus

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It means that we're having fewer kids and that the only way to keep our economies going is by more immigration.

Women have careers and less time for babies. Medicine is better so women can wait longer and have fewer kids. Sperm rates are decreasing in many areas too.

The issue isn't really that there won't be enough people - it's that there won't be enough of the right "kind" of people (read, white Christians) to sustain what the Pilgrims started a few hundred years ago.
The story of mankind is migration and population replacement and interbreeding.