PSA: The System in the USA is Rigged

I am middle class, 27, and worked B4 Audit in California and have many acquaintances in high finance and other respected careers. Mostly all of them and their friends working (long hours) in major metros are not on track to marry, have children, or own homes to meet the timeline of our parents' generation who grew up in simpler times.  Quarantine has given me and my friend (banking) the time to model out the economic reasons why. The numbers are daunting and from it, I summarized a list of personal thoughts as to ways the system is rigged against even the middle and upper classes from achieving a happy future. Keep in mind, this is just my opinion and is based on free-market (non-Keynesian) political ideology. Feel free to critique. 

TLDR: The government has rigged the economy through over-taxation to the extent that millenials cannot remotely finance the family lifestyle they'd expect from their respective career.  The American Dream is literally just a dream. 

Millenials can't afford homes or children in CA:

⦁    The system is dysfunctional. It advantages politicians and ultra-wealthy, overtaxes the middle & upper classes, and prices-out the lower class through overregulation by government.
 
⦁    Taxes are so high that millenials in most careers can't build the savings to start a family without depending on subsidy from parents. We modeled all the #'s as proof.

⦁    The effective tax rate in CA is ~32%+. Why is noone protesting for their own life? The USSA is bankrupt so it can bankrupt you?

⦁    Misspending taxes cripples a nation's standard of living & social mobility.
87% of taxes finance highly unproductive & insolvent programs (war, FICA, ZIRP, interest from deficit spending)
13% of taxes only finance direct public goods (food, infrastructure, transport, energy)
25% of GDP is taxed (i.e. US is 25% socialist). This # is likely understated like U3 unemployment

⦁    Personal income tax deductions are too low and fail to match one's expenses with the income they generate.  

⦁    Paying one's debts before income tax in a debt-based monetary system should be legal.

⦁    Progressive tax disincentivizes career success. You're taxed higher on each marginal $ you produce.  This punishes career achievement in your 30s-50s with 150K+ salaries.

⦁    Why are homeowners taxed on the full assessed property value when having partial equity?  Property tax crushes homeowner's  liquidity & solvency. There should be a tax-break proportional to the equity built. Stop nationalizing real estate.

⦁    Welfare or wealth redistribution by the IRS to bailout others' insolvency exactly is extortion. 

⦁    Welfare mismanages risk in society. It transfers the risk to and the wealth from the taxpayer enabling speculative behavior of the receipient. It's called "moral hazard." Google it.

⦁    Raising a family is an opportunity to be earned through responsible decision-making and building of savings, not an entitlement to be financed through welfare by the taxpayer.  The middle-class pays by delaying childrearing into 30s or foregoing altogether.

⦁    Why does the onus of immigration always fall on the US and not on the the country from where the immigrant fled? Or on the 193 countries of the UN?

⦁    There needs to be a baseline level of competence required to vote and be elected.  The law should require a license earned by answering a one question exam:  "What are the only two ways the government generates capital?"

⦁    Having worked a long-term job in the private sector should be a legal requisite for becoming a politician.

⦁    Pelosi/McConnell are 80 years-old from the Silent Generation. They can't Excel a grocery list yet manage our country's finances. Gen X, get your ass in Congress before we enter the Dark Ages.     

⦁    FCPA should apply to politicians. How are Pelosi/McConnell worth $20M+ and salaried $170K+? They don't produce anything.  They manage insolvent programs. Cronyism and special interest.

⦁    Why do we pay billions to force children to sit silently in school for 17 years so they can overleverage on $50K+ of subprime federal student loans to work at Starbucks?  If everyone's in higher education, then it's not "higher" education. Credential inflation.

⦁    Why are education & student loans socialized? They should be privatized to synchronize the job market.

⦁    The economy needs car mechanics, welders, & plumbers too. School should not be a socialized legal mandate.

⦁    Public school and prison are the only institutions with a forced performance obligation and no consideration in return. Most humans cannot effectively learn with misaligned incentive.

⦁    How do kids go 13 years of public school and twerk but not be taught a credit score?

⦁    College tuition is in a bubble bc the government issues subprime federal student loans.  No private bank is stupid enough to lend at this level of risk. Colleges are laughing to the bank.

⦁    How do politicians not know that minimum wage is bad?  It's the textbook definition of a price floor that causes a massive surplus of unemployment, homelessness, and inflation. This is a 9th grade basic concept. They don't teach this in public school?

⦁    Most CA taxpayers can't distinguish capitalist vs. socialist.  For example, the wealth gap is blamed on capitalism but is caused by zero interest rate policy, a government price control, which is socialist.

⦁    Rent and housing are expensive and in a bubble bc of ZIRP. Price ceilings on interest rates also fueled the Roaring Twenties, dot-com, and 08 housing bubbles.

⦁    We live in a debt-based monetary system.  Literally called "fixed-income markets." How does a country that's shutdown pay fixed payments on bonds when it's not generating revenue? The Fed will just buy the bonds with printed money to prevent economic collapse?

⦁    Why do we let banks lend money that they printed out of thin air only for them to ultimately repossess our assets upon inevitable default? This exactly is counterfeit.

⦁    People have bills to pay and mouths to feed. Long-term shutdowns force people into unemployment, poverty, homelessness, drugs, & suicide.

⦁    Quarantines at this point should be mandated only for at-risk people and their coinhabitants.

⦁    Government requires the doctors, dentists, & pharmacists to indebt themselves $300K+ and sacrifice their youth to practice. And we wonder why health care premiums are so high?

 

(Not american btw)

The only thing part of this i feel comfortable talking about is the Taxes.

OP, those are going up indefinitely for the foreseeable future at least in the US. You guys are running a monster of a deficit and debt and no one is going to touch the spending cause it will be political suicide. Add the fact that younger people in the US are seeing all the free shit in europe and frothing at the mouth over it and you'll realize it's going to happen whether or not it's a good or bad thing.

So I'm not sure you can put taxes being to high in that list as the people voted for it and will continue to vote for it till kingdom come.

 

Aperiam rerum in excepturi. Fugiat nobis ut nulla eaque perspiciatis sed. Velit maxime et numquam quam quo soluta qui. Autem qui facilis provident quas repudiandae dolores quae tempore.

Hic vel et illo. Consectetur quaerat vel est incidunt optio eveniet voluptatem. Quo aut facere distinctio recusandae et. Omnis iusto quaerat occaecati aut. Neque ut qui veniam est eum possimus. Consectetur magni sint dolor et explicabo magni debitis. Alias voluptatibus iusto excepturi cum dolorem possimus.

Career Advancement Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. New 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (145) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”