Presidential proclamations aside, affordability is Priority One with consumers, i.e., voters. Consumer protection laws don’t do much good if no one can afford to buy anything, or if everyone is so strapped for cash that they’re basically hunkered down hoping things will turn around.
And maybe they will, now that voters have shown they are alert and aware and also mad as hell. They don’t like being lied to, don’t like seeing their friends and neighbors mistreated, impoverished and imprisoned and they don’t like government that doesn’t do its job.
Mortgages are over 7%, cars cost more than $50,000, health insurance premiums keep climbing and Social Security, the world’s simplest and longest-running fallback resource for seniors, is in trouble.
None of this should have happened, and it didn’t need to. It can all be fixed if the new Congress gets to work to fix what’s broken and doesn’t get lost in a swelter of who-did-what-when retribution that wastes time and money while the customers (us) look on in dismay.
Asocial insecurity
Social Security is the sorriest example of government neglect and purposeful ignorance. Everyone — literally everyone — has known for decades that the system will need periodic adjustment to keep up with demographics. Yet both parties decided long ago to take it easy and simply demagogue the issue, pushing it down the road to the next gang of elected emperors who enjoy their own splendid health care and retirement systems.
A simple and quick way to get Social Security back on its feet is to remove the limit on taxation. Currently, when a taxpayer’s income hits $184,500, that well-compensated soul is free and clear: no more FICA is taken out of their paycheck for the rest of the year.
This issue immediately gets fogged up when warring parties start yelling slogans about taxation, benefits and oligarchy. Yes, FICA is a tax and yes, Social Security payments shouldn’t really be called benefits, even though they’re beneficial. And yes, it is unfair to let top earners get off nearly scot-free.
This is not even worth arguing about. It’s time to fix it. Removing the cap on earnings taxation is a simple first step. The next steps can then be taken in a calmer manner.
To make sure this happens, every new and returning Congress member should take an oath that they will not make political hay on the backs of frightened seniors. “Just shut up and do something” is a good working principle for emergencies.
About 30 years ago, the Outraged Consumer was working at a D.C. lobbying powerhouse when we became involved in an effort to get Social Security fixed while there was still time. A prominent retiring Republican senator and a prominent retiring Democratic senator agreed to co-chair a special commission to get it done and prestigious corporate sponsors signed on to throw in a few million to get it rolling.
It went nowhere. The prominent senators had the unfamiliar experience of not getting their calls returned. No one wanted to touch the fabled third rail of American politics, fearing correctly that those on the other side would crucify them as villains out to poison the elderly. The retiring senators, seeing this sorry outcome, retreated, retired and that was that. Many other efforts have ended similarly.
It’s time to stop this foolishness. Perhaps someone who is already retired and has the courage to take a position that opens them up to criticism could take this on and get it wrapped up in 2027 so that the 2028 election can proceed in a more sensible fashion.
Are you listening, Barack Obama? You fixed health insurance (for a while, anyway). Now your country needs you again.
About those Chinese cars
The Chinese are said to be making electric cars that are a dream to drive, cheap to buy and just all-around excellent. They’re said to cost in the mid-$30,000 range and to have digital controls that a normal human can actually understand and use on a daily basis. They are sweeping the world and lapping at our shores.
They’re also a mortal threat to the established auto empires of North America, Western Europe and Asia. If these cars are so great, everyone will buy them as soon as they can, leaving GM, Toyota and VW to rust.
This would be generally good for consumers. They would get better cars for less money. It would be bad for many consumers too. Those who work for automakers and their suppliers, dealers and glad-handers would maybe lose the jobs they have now, although they might well get a better one somewhere else.
One thing’s certain. Chinese cars are already selling big in Mexico and are lapping at the shores of Canada, two countries that no longer much care what we want them to do. So, soon, Americans will find ways to get Chinese cars from Mexico and Canada on the black market. Did whiskey become extinct during Prohibition? Did marijuana dry up and blow away over the last few decades?
Chinese cars are coming, one way or another. Government needs to manage it in an orderly manner and do what it can to be sure that everyone is treated properly, including those who lose their jobs. Not, however, those car dealers who have to find a different way to wax up consumers. They’re smart, sort of. They’ll manage.
This is an important point: Consumers are everybody. What is good for consumers is good for the country, even if it’s bad for selected segments. What’s good for business is not necessarily good for the country, no matter how many millions a given business has spent to curry favor with the entrenched powers.
A healthy country
Humans don’t come with a warranty. Everybody gets sick now and then and everybody needs to be able to get humane and effective care when they need it. That’s really all that needs to be said about healthcare. It’s up to the geniuses selected by our elected managers (we really should stop calling them leaders because mostly they’re not) to figure out how exactly to do this.
So go figure it out and come back and tell us what you find. Inside voices, please. No nasty names.
A healthy country is also a well-educated country. Schools need to mold good humans who will select the nominally priced vocational or higher-education options that will enable them to pitch in and get things done.
A safe and prosperous country
The country needs to be safe. It needs to defend itself so that it is able to do the bare-minimum things listed above. It needs a military capable of defending our shores and occasionally lending a hand somewhere else. It needs to not start wars elsewhere. The money saved on military adventurism can be used to help fund education and health care.
Our elected managers have a contract with America, as Newt Gingrich once put it. It is to manage these projects in a sensible and economical way and to report back at the end of their term. If they get a good performance review and haven’t reached the mandatory retirement age, they get to go back and work another few years to tie up any loose ends.
Oh, and lest we forget, the money being wasted on political campaigns is a cancer on society. Bribery is a crime and its definition needs to be ever so slightly expanded to include giving money to aspiring and established office holders.
That’s it. The Outraged Consumer has been fulminating about this for too long and is going to take his own advice and withdraw one of these days.
Not quite yet though.