“They’re breaking down crying, people say the same thing, ‘I’m one disease away from the end’"

[Warpy]

5. Cutting the cost of those two items isn't really possible

Raising wages is the answer and always has been. Wages have never caught up to the purchasing power we all lost during the oil shocks of the 1970s.

Raising wages will shore up Social Security as more money is paid in premiums. It will increase national revenue and cut the deficit as more income tax is paid. It will allow people to start to pay down their debt without near starvation, cutting the number of bankruptcies. Most of all, it would give people more money with which to demand more goods and services, and that would cut unemployment.

Unfortunately, the conservative mindset can only see austerity as the road to economic stability, trying to starve people and institutions into fiscal responsibility and prosperity. It is preposterous to think it would ever work, but they've managed to sell many on the idea around the planet.

What we need is the reverse.