Okay, the title may be an exaggeration, but a recent Gallup Poll (hat tip Naked Capitalism) shows how the concerns over the growing level of federal debt has moved to the forefront and to a similar level by quantity of people (perhaps not level among them) to terrorism. Yves details the opportunity for change this brings:
It would appear the ground has been laid rather effectively for (among other things) an assault on Social Security and Medicare. As we have pointed out before, Social Security is not under any immediate stress, and it would take only some minor tweaks to alleviate the (well off in the future) strains. And contrary to popular perception, the reason Medicare spending will get out of hand is due to projected medical cost escalation, not demographics.
Source: Gallup
My wiseacre son, while still in high school, asked: "How many people have to share an opinion before it becomes a fact?"
ReplyDelete"None," he answered. "It never becomes a fact."
A poll may show growing concern, as you say; but it offers no basis to suppose that it indicates an appropriate fix for the problem.
You seem to indicate that fact is what drives political decisions... I'd argue opinion completely drives politics.
ReplyDeleteSorry... I was trying to be cryptic. I guess it worked, huh? Opinion polls only show opinion, not fact; that was my thought.
ReplyDeleteIt must be obvious by now that policy-makers have their facts wrong. By the time it becomes obvious that the popular criticism is also wrong, our economy will be beyond help.