I might be willing to bet that in 10 or so years there will be no government benefits until 401ks and assets are spent down to zero. I couldnt blame a younger generation coming into power to implement this as a response to the stress the baby boomers retiring will place on the system. Off shore 401k's for the middle class? Unlikely. More likely under the mattress or " buried out back" near the mean dogs house.
Not a political bitch... don't really care about the politics. Why would our Govt want a higher minimum wage for govt contractors? http://news.yahoo.com/obama-sign-order-federal-minimum-wage-hike-wednesday-110247693--business.html
Contractors are officially part of the private sector, so shouldn't the same arguments, pro and con, hold for them, as they do for the non-government-contractor, private sector businesses? If you conclude raising the minimum wage is good for the economy, then I suppose you have to conclude it is good to require government contractors to raise their minimum wage. Many States have already legislated a higher minimum. We might see more pressure now to raise the minimum in the hold-out States, or Congress may wise up and just legislate a higher minimum. You can make strong arguments in favor of raising the minimum based on the true cost of labor and the desirability, in a capitalist economy, of holding in check tax dollar subsidies to private employers. History does not support the argument that raising the minimum to something near the true cost of labor will cause net unemployment to increase significantly.
That would encourage hiding of assets. Probably a better and simpler way to go is for Congress to enact the Social Security Trustees recommendation which is based on the S.S. Actuaries report. It's not complicated. Making S.S. into a political football hasn't helped keep the system sound. Something that would help immeasurably would be to take S.S. management out of the hands of Congress all together, and place it solely in the hands of the Trustees. Then whenever the Trustees call for an adjustment in the contribution rate to account for changing demographics, the rate change would go into effect immediately and not be delayed for years, as is now the practice. This would save us all a great deal of money in the long run.