Covid didn’t hurt our economy. Our response to Covid hurt our economy and the stimulus made it even worse because we spent way too much even under Trump.
Immigration has always been needed because our reproduction rate is only 1.1 and a growing economy needs it to be 1.2 plus. That said, AI and robots could kill this argument as GDP could jump significantly when major jobs can be handled by automation. Democrats like immigration because the majority of immigrants vote Democrat because they come from socialist countries.
High taxes won’t stop the government from over spending. Heck, it took a Republican Congress with a Democrat President to get higher taxes and lower spending in the late 90s for the 1-2 years of deficit reduction. If the government can do that for 4-5 years, I would be ok to see marginally high taxes.
As for SS, 100% needs higher ages.
As for wealth paying more, I don’t see the logic of why there is an upper end cap on SS. I guess wealthy don’t use SS benefits or only get so much so they see a drop off in the benefit of trying to get SS funds above $160k. With inflation running hot, I have a feeling a larger percentage of people now make more than $160k. I don’t consider them wealthy by the way. Wealth isn’t income, it is assets. A large percentage of the same people making >$160k per year aren’t wealthy and live paycheck to paycheck.
While many people are pointing figures at the government for over spending, we the people have a large amount of blame. Government and the FED are handcuffed because so many people over spend leaving them unable to withstand recessions because they live paycheck to paycheck. When I use to have 4 rentals in my 20s, I was blown away at how many tenants had nicer cars, full cable TV packages for nfl, nba, mlb… bigger TVs than me, etc. I made a lot of money but controlled my spending knowing long term I would be wealthy with assets to live off of. The average American is financially illiterate and just hopes the 401k will save then if social security isn’t enough. Government for its part (controls public education) pushes the narrative of working to 65 at a good paying job to retire and spend 10-15 years enjoying the golden years. What I figured out early: people that solve problems (increasing productivity) and own assets become wealthy. Very few others make it from average job to wealthy.
