>>>>>>Solution: Vote!
>>>>>He did
>>>
>>>Yep. With all respect to Bill: the Gerontocracy always votes, which is why rationalization of Ponzi schemes like Medicare is so difficult. The same people who deliberately underfunded the scheme that now benefits them will vote en masse to ensure the cost is borne by somebody else, meaning that chaotic collapse or revolution are the likely outcomes.
>>>
>>>BTW, not sure whether I told you I was in Coppell earlier this year. Very likely we'll grab a place and come stay for a while next year. Gotta say: real estate in Dallas is marvelous value... this is what we're used to over here: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/288724/average-auckland-house-price-nears-$1m ... If you want a place with a bit of lawn in one of the good school zone suburbs you're looking at $1.7M average. Even apartments in Auckland have an average cost of $660K (US$400K-US$560K in the last year depending on exchange rate)
>>>
>>>Gotta be worth a LOL that if you sell a shack in Auckland and emigrate to the US you can buy a great place and be mortgage free, while these days only the 1% can afford to move to NZ. The world is going crazy.
>>
>>Yep, yet we consider our housing prices out of control, and some of them are. What I find really out of whack is that very few builders are building 'starter homes' any more so houses that those 1000-1200 sq ft houses that used to sell in the mid-70's to mid-90's (thousand dollars) are now well into the 130's. Another reason why younger folk can't afford to buy a house.
>
>a hike of only 45 to 90+% in 45 years? I am pretty certain that loss of buying power was much higher, at least over here - but we did switch to the €.
>A new Rabbit was about 8000DM (~4100€) back in mid-70ies, which in 2012 prices had a buying power of over 10000€

Medicare (begun during the 1960's) was predicated on the assumption that wage inflation (as it had since the end of WWII) would outstrip non-wage costs, and as wages increased, so would contributions.
Of course, the reverse happened.
Wages stagnated and health costs exploded.