Civilization matures, the foundational economics change, this is the result. Past performance does not guarantee future returns [1]. We can't rip the bandaid off because there are still too many people desperately clinging to a model of growth and wealth that is running out of runway. The bandaid will be ripped off for us. How many of those over 55 are likely to keep their jobs through this economic contraction [2] [3]? 48% of those folks (55 years old and older) in the US have zero retirement savings [4], and will rely entirely on Social Security (which will exhaust its trust fund in 2035 [5], reducing benefits to 75%; Social Security keeps 15 million seniors out of poverty at current entitlement levels [6], not to mention over 1 million children). 10k people a day turn 65 in the US. This, fortunately, entitles them to Medicare, but their consumption pattern will be reduced for the remainder of their lives and our Medicare costs are going to skyrocket.
You need leadership, political and monetary, that will attempt bold changes to accommodate these realities. The longer we wait, the more radical the measures will need to be when the time for implementation is at hand. Change happens slowly, and then all of a sudden.
[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/700-year-decline-of-interes...
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/03/30/disabled-o...
[3] https://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/
[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/05/these-people-are-on-the-verg...
[5] https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/policy-basics-...
[6] https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/social-securit...
These changes should have happened decades ago. Every day we delay is another day picking the edges of the bandaid while the wound beneath is septic.
I can suggest my ignorant idealsof potential solutions and delve into the weeds over things but that's a waste of effort. The people have spoken, and they are saying they would rather suffer more than consider how else the country could function.
