We are all victims of Otto Van Bismarck.  Who's that you ask?  He was the Prussian politician who invented the Entitlement State, or in other words, the system where a politician promises future benefits to get elected, which are completely out of line with the willingness of the population to pay taxes.  Using our own system of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid the current unfunded liability that will begin showing up in 7 years is according to the Congressional Budget Office 100 TRILLION DOLLARS.  Yes, that's what they estimate.  100 trillion dollars.

That is 70 times GDP.  In other words, there is absolutely no way on God's green earth that we can pay this.  Again.  There is no chance of this ever being paid.  The jig is up.

And Europe, the home of Bismarck, is where you are seeing it come unraveled now.  By joining in a common currency, the Euro, countries can't do what they have always done in the past and devalue their currency to inflate their way out of immediate trouble.  That is what Greece would be doing now if they still used the Drachma.  Instead the Germans and the French are going to put a band-aid on the problem but that will only kick the can down the road. They have an even bigger Entitlement State than we do and starting with Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and soon France the problem will end up in Germany.  There is no way out in the current system.

And we have no way out either.  Well, except one.  We could chuck the Entitlement State, tell old people the truth, abandon Social Security and replace it with a private account system like the one they have in Chile where people save 10% of their own pay into an account that they own and therefore create NO public debt whatsoever. This, along with a safety net for the truly poor (in the US about 10% of the population),would do wonders.  This would involve a transitional period where we would keep the current promises for the currently old and phase in the private system over time thereby changing the paradigm from entitlement to saving up for your own old age.  It is the ONLY way out. It doesn’t matter what your wants and desires are to save the current system; it is impossible.

 Impossible!  Am I saying this clearly enough?

Otherwise the Entitlement State will destroy our culture without a shred of doubt and soon.  If you actually believe that we are too big to fail, well, that's what the Romans thought.  All things come to an end and in our case we are doing it to ourselves.  For me it is hard to watch.