How big is this monster?
Just How Much Do the Unfunded Liabilities Amount To?
As we know, the unfunded liabilities monster is composed of three main components. Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid.
There are various calculations of the size of each component, with the total size of the Monster ranging from $22 tr to $118 tr (when including Medicaid).
We are now going to present the various calculations.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) - $30 tr plus Medicaid
Board of Trustees of Social Security and Medicare - $18 tr plus Medicaid
National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) - $107 tr plus Medicaid
USDebtClock.org - $114 tr plus Medicaid
Richard Fischer - $99 tr plus Medicaid
So we see that the calculations for the size of the unfunded liabilities monster are quite varied. The monster's size ranges from $18 tr according to Board of Trustees of Social Security and Medicare, to $114 tr according to the USDebtClock.org. As an average, we can say that the monster is either around $30 tr or $100 tr.
Considering the two sources that present relatively low totals of unfunded liabilities are government agencies and may therefore be inclined to downplay the significance of negative numbers through complex calculations or misleading appearances, I prefer to cite the unfunded liabilities monster to be around $100t big or more.
What we also see is that not one of our sources present figures for the unfunded Medicaid promises.
Why Is Medicaid Often Not Included in Calculations of Unfunded Liabilities?
Here's why. There are three main reasons.
Medicaid is considered a social welfare program whereas Social Security and Medicare are considered social insurance programs. For our purposes and for what it means to your pocket and financial security, as well as the potential financial destruction of this country, the detailed differences between social insurance and social welfare - Medicaid and Social Security, Medicare - are unnecessary. You still pay for them through taxes. People are still expecting that money. There still is not nearly enough money to pay them.
To simplify the difference in two words, the difference between social welfare such as Medicaid and social insurance such as Social/Security is that social insurance is much more of a perceived entitlement and is thus much more guaranteed.
Again, we have only learned the differences between social welfare and social insurance because although Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security combine to form the big three of the Unfunded Liabilities Monster, in your research you may find only Medicare and Social Security presented as unfunded liabilities. We have learned why.
The most important point to note furthermore, is that the detailed differences between the basic types of these social programs are unnecessary information for our purposes. Social welfare and social insurance are both social programs.
It's Almost A Fictitious Number
Once again, these social programs, these debt-financed promises, these unfunded liabilities - are big beyond comprehension. As Matt Allen, the Director of IRA Lending for publicly traded bank told me, "It's almost a fictitious number."
Jelani Asar invites you to prepare yourself with shocking interviews for the economic nightmare of the Unfunded Liabilities Monster at http://usUnfundedLiabilities.wordpress.com. Call for a free income protection quote in Atlanta, Georgia today.
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