Our spending habits are unsustainable. The biggest reason countries are continuing to buy our currency is so that they won't lose value on the money they've already plunked down. Some countries like China and Japan are beginning to shift their reserves towards other markets for bigger returns. It'd be catastrophic for everyone involved if there was a panic driven sell off by national banks, but right now, the last thing in our policymakers' mind is to increase the value of the dollar. Weaker dollar presumably means cheaper exports...unless other nations are pegged to it. As the debt doesn't seem to stop growing and our spending seems to be just as wild, we're going have to spend a lot on interest alone. Everyone is assuming the dollar will still be the unofficial currency of the world because the alternative is so ugly it's unspoken. Hundreds of billions of dollars in value kept in foreign bank reserves would vanish overnight. That situation would be on top of the reason why other countries would stop buying our debt, that the US economy isn't strong enough to pay off its previous debt commitments and is borrowing uncontrollably to sustain its current standards. Then in an attempt to accomplish solvency, big programs like SS and Medicare would be marginalized or scrapped. Student aid, welfare, and social services would all feel the tightening belt. Oh and we still have that trillion dollar effort in Iraq and possibly another trillion for Iran. Plus the hundreds of billions engineers claim is needed for our highways, ports, and rivers. Health related entitlements has always been a major issue, but we've assumed that it'd be dealt with one at a time.
I think to the general question "is no lower class possible?" this is the case. While I think everyone should have equality under the law and access to opportunity the truth is that not everyone is equal in ability and ambition and there will always be a segment of any population that isn't as successful as some other part. What this discussion though seems to be getting at is how to deal with that institutionally. I think this isn't an issue of trying to instill some sort of communist utopia but instead of finding a way where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and at the sametime isn't going to end up homeless or starving in the street. The idea of giving aid to the poor I don't believe is so much about trying to do away with class as it is whether our society should tolerate having people suffering basic deprivations and lack of opportunity due to poverty. So there will likely always be the equivalent of Bill Gates and trailer parks but the question is whether the people living in the trailer parks will be well fed, healthy and have access to jobs and education.
I disagree with some of the second full paragraph; I think the poor and rich are much more interdependent upon each other than you state. But overall, this looks pretty well thought out. I think the best part is actually the sentence below....
life isnt fair. some people get born into rich families. some people are smarter or more resourceful. in general, we should handle our own financial responsibilities. but to say that we should remove all government assistance is plain foolish. what happens when there is a natural disaster, what if there is an economic recession and you get laid off, how about a single mother who wants to get a college degree so she can better her situation... i think the doctors son needs a reality check. these safety valves are set in place to keep our society civil. without them, we would revert back to something like the dark ages where the rich get richer, and the poor are forever locked into poverty with no opportunity of getting out of the economic basement.
I think he would change his statement if he heard something like this. He would probably say something like well there needs to be limits on this aid or the people that use the aid abuse it. I believe there are already limits on aid and although some people do abuse the system I don't know if the majority of them do.
i believe there are limits now. but people will always find loopholes to abuse the system. but to use those people as examples as a reason for abolishing goverment aid is over simplifying the issue. i still believe that the majority of americans are hard working and hate taking handouts (i hope im not too naive about this). i dont know your friends entire situation but he should "look at the plank in his eye before he points out the speck of sawdust in others eyes."
