Follow up to Earlier Post and Comment

In a comment on today's earlier post, I optimistically referenced a portion of a referenced article in which a woman is interviewed about the possibility of losing benefits that are currently promised to her husband and her.  This is the referenced excerpt:


Ms. Pisacreta, a 36-year-old drug-company representative who with her husband earns about $200,000 a year, isn't banking on Social Security and Medicare. "I just assume things will be taken away and I just assume I'll be paying more," she says.


The earlier post and linked articles make a clear case for the inevitability of the participation of the "middle class" in the mix of additional revenues and reduced spending the government must find in order to find a sustainable fiscal path.  Another "middle" group, the independent or "swing voters," the name the comedian in the attached video uses, will likely determine the chosen balance between spending reductions and additional revenues.

As the comedian in the video observes, the "swing voters" make up the great majority of the "political spectrum," just as the earlier post observes that the "protected" economic middle class consists of the great majority of voters.  Obviously, a many swing voters belong to the middle class, the same middle class that will ultimately bear much of the burden of providing the revenue to operate its government.


I hope the swing voting middle class chooses to serve its fellow citizens through predominantly local, private methods, rather than centralized, public structures.  People will take better care of those they know and love and those with whom they share community bonds.  As with any private endeavor, doing a better job will mean doing it in a less expensive, more sustainable way.  Ms. Pisacreta's quote and the Stand Up Economist's assessment of the "clueless" swing voters suggest that we will reject the fantasy of the current path, one awakening, currently clueless, swing voting member of the "politically protected middle class" at a time.


Note:  The video was discovered from Greg Mankiw's blog by an Augusta Metros student, Matt Miller.