In my opinion, democracy is the best form of government. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be working very well right now. It was made to allow the citizens to rule, and is based on a system of checks and balances to prevent a loss their influence. However the citizens seem to have little control over the elected officials who are making poor choices that drag the country down. The United States of America is in a decline, and little action is being taken by the government to stop this. The conditions that already exist are problematic while the government is creating new complications.
An older conflict that we have been living with for a while is Social Security. The key problem with Social Security is that too much money is being spent. Social Security was a good idea when it was created. However, people live much longer because of the new medicines and treatments which force Social Security to pay out longer. Social Security also has to pay for more people because many of those who would have died before collecting money can now survive way past that age. Adding to their spending, they are not making enough to cover the costs. The tax percentage they receive from citizen’s income is 6.2%. They also charge employers 6.2% per person. While that is a high amount, it isn’t enough. Social Security will soon be bankrupt. Many citizens who paid for this program will never get to receive the benefits. Would you like to have money you earned taken and given to others but never receive anything? It is ridiculously unfair and so I believe that paying for Social Security should be optional, or Social Security should be ended completely.
Our government has one massive problem that they continuously agitate. This would be the deficit. The United States federal government had $1.42 trillion in deficit in 2009. Deficit is the amount of money spent that exceeds the amount of income. The government lost $1.42 trillion in that one year. They have one option, since they refuse to cut spending, taxes must be raised. This makes the economy even worse, and expands their already wide range of issues. High taxes can decrease the money that citizens could be using too fuel the economy. They should just get rid of the many useless and inefficient programs that they have created over the years. In my opinion, this would be ideal, mainly because there are so many things they have developed that seemingly have the express purpose of wasting money.
Our government just created another new problem. I’m referring to Health Care Reform. It is just making the money pit (also known as our government) even larger. Its main problem is the fact that only a few people needed it. Only 7% of the population couldn’t get health care before but can now receive it with the reform. Somehow the government felt this was a dire emergency and needed to be fixed right away. I don’t see how it could be that important since so few people needed it. Either way, they are now throwing too much money into another miniscule cause. And I call it useless because we pay extreme amounts of money for health care and our life expectancy is still low compared to other countries. Citizens spend about $4,500 per person for health insurance, yet our life expectancy remains at 77 years. Many other countries spend less but have longer life expectancies. This shows that having the government spend this money is a waste. It doesn’t just lose money directly; it kills our wallets in the long term as well. As stated earlier, Social Security is losing money because of the extended amount of time it has to pay out. These people living longer are going to raise our taxes for Social Security.
In case you’re thinking, “Social Security is helpful. Why would we get rid of it?” I’d respond, “Well it’s helpful when you receive the money, not when you pay it, and soon, many people who paid will not have the chance to get anything. Is that’s fair?” You may also want to confront me with, “The Health Care Reform is helpful too, why do you think it’s so bad?” I would say multiple things. I would begin with how health care is not a necessity or a right, it’s something you earn or pay for. No one should get it for free. I would then discuss how it’s unfair for almost all of the population to have to earn it when some can get it for free or for a lower price. (And hey, majority rules in the United States. That’s why we vote!)
Obama campaigned with the word “change” and that’s what should be happening right about now. Things seem pretty bleak for America; the government appears incapable of solving their conflicts. They should stop fooling around and get their priorities straight. It’s obvious that what they are doing isn’t helping, so I don’t understand why they won’t turn it around. With the way things are looking, they should just speed up the process and begin taking all of our income.
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/taxRates.html
http://www.mrc.org/bmi/articles/2007/Health_Care_Lie__Million_Uninsured_Americans.html
http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/spend.php
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate
