首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Economic Death Spiral Just recently the trustees of Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports on the programs
Economic Death Spiral Just recently the trustees of Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports on the programs
admin
2013-07-11
34
问题
Economic Death Spiral
Just recently the trustees of Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports on the programs’ futures. Here’s one startling fact: By 2030 the projected costs of Social Security and Medicare could easily consume—via higher taxes—a third of workers’ future wage and salary increases. We’re mortgaging workers’ future pay gains for baby boomers’ retirement benefits.
This matters because Social Security and Medicare are pay-as-you-go programs. Current taxpayers pay current benefits. Future taxpayers will pay future benefits. Baby boomers’ retirement benefits will come mostly from their children and grandchildren, who will be tomorrow’s workers. Consequently, baby boomers’ children and grandchildren face massive tax increases. Social Security and Medicare spending now equals 14 percent of wage and salary income, reports Elizabeth Bell, a research assistant to Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute, Washington, DC. By 2030, using the trustees’ various projections, that jumps to 26 percent. Of course, payroll taxes don’t cover all the costs of Social Security and Medicare. Still, these figures provide a crude indicator of the economic burden, because costs are imposed heavily on workers via some tax, government borrowing and cuts in other government programs.
It can be argued that the costs are bearable. The wage gains in the trustees’ reports could prove too pessimistic. Like all forecasts, they’re subject to errors. Even if they come true, they assume that tomorrow’s wages will be higher than today’s. Productivity increases; wages rise. In 2030, under the trustees’ " intermediate " assumptions, workers’ before-tax incomes would be about a third higher than now, says Tom Saving of Texas A&M University. What’s the complaint if workers lost—through steeper taxes—some of that? Why shouldn’t they generously support parents and grandparents? Well, maybe they will. But there are at least two possible flaws in this logic.
The first is that, on a year-to-year basis, wage gains would be tiny—less than 1 percent. When they’ve gotten that low before, people have complained that they’re "on a treadmill" and that the American dream has been withdrawn. Even these gains might be diluted by further tax increases to trim today’s already swollen budget deficits. The second and more serious threat is that higher taxes would harm the economy. They might dull economic vitality by reducing investment and the rewards for work and risk taking. Productivity and wage gains might be smaller than predicted. Then we’d flirt with that death spiral: We’d need still higher taxes to pay benefits, but those taxes might depress economic growth more.
One way or another, workers may get fed up with paying so much of their paychecks to support retirees, many of whom were living quite comfortably. So we ought to redefine the generational compact to lighten the burden of an aging population on workers. The needed steps are clear: to acknowledge longer life expectancies by slowly raising eligibility ages for Social Security and Medicare; to limit future spending by curbing retirement benefits for the better-off; to keep people in the productive economy longer by encouraging jobs that mix " work" and "retirement".
To avoid a dismal future of the retirement programs, maybe we could______.
选项
A、acknowledge generational conflicts
B、raise the retirement age by several years
C、impose a heavy tax on rich people
D、encourage early full retirement
答案
B
解析
本题考查具体细节题。文章末段提出减轻劳动者经济负担的三个方法:提高社保和医保的最低年龄;控制富裕人士的退休金额;鼓励延长人们的工作年限。可见,[B]为正确答案。[A]、[C]是分别利用该段出现的词语generational compact(代际契约)和the better-off(富裕人士)制造的干扰项。[D]错在“完全退休”,该段末句提到的是一种“部分退休形式”(mix“work”and“retirement”)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Cq4O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
FredericChopinwasborninZelazowaWola,Poland,onFebruary22,1810,toaFrenchfatherandPolishmother.Hisfather,Nicho
AimlessnesshashardlybeentypicalofthepostwarJapanwhoseproductivityandsocialharmonyaretheenvyoftheUnitedStates
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbookthatattemptstohowevenatidy【M1】______so
Ifitwereonlynecessarytodecidewhethertoteachelementarysciencetoeveryoneonamassbasisorfindthegiftedfewandt
Americanthisyearwillswallow15,000tonsdrugsofaspirin,oneofsafestandmosteffectiveinventedbyman.【M1】______
Americanthisyearwillswallow15,000tonsdrugsofaspirin,oneofsafestandmosteffectiveinventedbyman.【M1】______
Teachersandotherspecialistsinearlychildhoodeducationrecognizethatchildrendevelopatdifferentrates.Givenanythingt
Teachersandotherspecialistsinearlychildhoodeducationrecognizethatchildrendevelopatdifferentrates.Givenanythingt
Duringtheearlyyearsofthiscentury,wheatwasseenastheverylifebloodofWesternCanada.Peopleoncitystreetswatched
CriticalThinking&InnovativeWritingI.Heateddiscussionaboutthe(1)_____ofEng-lishteachingandlearning.1)bottle-nec
随机试题
2011年3月1日,A公司与B公司签订了100万元的展览设备买卖合同。该合同约定:A公司于3月10日向B公司签发一张金额为人民币15万元的银行承兑汇票作为定金;B公司于4月1日交付全部展览设备;A公司于B公司交付展览设备之日起10日内付清货款。3月10日
我国中小学德育的基本方法是_______。
肠瘘患者最常见的电解质紊乱是
四环素牙中的四环素沉积在哪一层
齿燥如枯骨者,属()
沥青混合料按结构可分为( )。
下列情况中不能申请财政复议的有()。
ABC会计事务所的A注册会计师首次接受委托,负责审计上市公司甲公司2014年度财务报表。相关资料如下:资料一:上期财务报表已经由XYZ会计师事务所审计,A注册会计师拟查阅前任注册会计师的工作底稿来获取有关期初余额的审计证据。资料二:A注册会计师在审计
2002年12月3日,在摩洛哥蒙特卡洛召开的国际展览会第132次大会上,确定2010年世界博览会举办地为()。
VBA支持的循环语句结构不包括()。
最新回复
(
0
)