Who will swallow the Corona virus debt?

Well first of all, define what you call greatness. I can remember when America was great. It was when the steel mills ran 24 hours a day.

If you don't see that as greatness, then why are the Chinese building heavy industry, as fast as they can?

They are building dams too, so maybe they have a better idea of greatness than you do.

So if building dams is great, we are aspiring to be beavers?

As you say, its all a matter of definition. Once defined, I assume each aspires to "achieve" it, country or individual person.

Not sure I'm looking to build a dam or revive all the local manufacturing plants that have disappeared from my area over the past 50 years or so. This despite seeing the effect redundancy had on my father, knocking a lot of the life out of him.

Steel mills were running 24/7
USA was scared of Russia and China so they started the cold war
Which lead to China rising to become an industrial peer
For in your own words:
"Yeah, that worked out well"

So is that is when we were great - when we were scared of Russia and China, or is that a hint of sarcasm?

I've considered this for years and at the square root of necessity for the tax system I've found that, without a tax system, people can form constituencies and shut out others for their politics, religious beliefs, cultures, don't vote for the same football league etc.

"Jo Blow doesn't have funds because he doesn't bother to work"
Says all of the employers in Joe's area who won't employ him because Joe stands up for homosexuals and non-Caucasians (who also *mysteriously* can't find or keep jobs).

The original estimates of deaths of people over 65 from coronaviruse was 80%.

us population approx 330 521 892
source https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/

percentage of us over 65 16.9% projected 20.6% in 2030
source https://www.statista.com/statistics/457822/share-of-old-age-population-in-the-total-us-population/

percentage of GDP for social security and medicare 10% ( ss 5.8 - mc 4.2) projected 12.4% in 2030
source https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/66826/900273-The-Economic-Impact-of-Trends-in-Retirement-and-Expected-Life.pdf

percentage of covid deaths over 65 80%
source https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/488305-cdc-80-percent-of-us-coronavirus-deaths-are-people-65

us expected infection rate 70-150 million - median 110 million
source https://www.axios.com/congressional-physician-predicts-75-150-million-us-coronavirus-cases-fec69e77-1515-4fbc-8340-c53b65c22c53.html

gdp in 2019 $21.2 trillion
source https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp

math
330,521,892 x 0.169 = 55.858,200 people over 65

110,000,000 x 0.034 = 3,740,000 over 65 infection rate

3,740,000 x 0.80 = 2,992,000 deaths over 65

2,992,000 deaths/ 55.858,200 total = 0.054 or 5.4% of total over 65 population reduction

$21,200,000,000gdp x 0.10 = 2,120,000,000 or $2,12 trillion current cost of elderly on gdp/year

0.054 x $2.12T) = $115B in savings on soc security for the first year

as number of people retire and % effect on gdp goes up and gdp increases, over the next 10 years that savings will increase with the gdp and the percentage expected (12%) in next ten years. It's an integral if someone wants to sum it all up

Try to be just a little more specific....

1. f*** the old people because they cost too much.

2. We must save the old people.

3. Something else.

Well, the savings on social security over the next 10 years would be approximately 1.4 trillion. That's a "would be" because the initial assumptions turned out to be incorrect. 110 million did not get the virus. 80% of those who did over 65 did not die. But that's the math on it based on the original metrics when the whole thing started.

So, you are saying f*** the old people.

I am reminded of the book and move "Logan's Run".

Right on brother!

Yeah I agree it is pretty creepy. But, while they were figuring out the numbers they realized the financial saving was going to happen because of the covid virus. Why not use it to offset part of the stimulus? It makes sense and is not necessarily as crass as it sounds. What else could they have spent the money on?

A wall the will never be built.

f*** the old people and collect the inheritance tax!

Win-Win!!

They outsmarted the U.S. for sure.

When a nation works hard to dumb down their population, even the teachers and experts get dumbed down.

Regards
DL

Ain't it the truth, the planners and plotters, always get trapped in their own deviousness.