Hi Sam

SH >bob, spot on, but what politician in this country 
SH >(especially the feds) has the guts to do what's 
SH >necessary???

They will respond to public pressure.  In the 1970s economic matters 
received nowhere like the public scrutiny they do now.  I think we will 
see similar trends in public awareness of the burden of government 
spending and demands to fix it.  Crunch time comes early next century 
when the baby boomers will be retiring and needing more and more medical 
services.

There was a useful graph in one of the week-end papers that showed 
transfer payments (ie govt welfare) rising from 8% of household 
disposable income in the 1970s to over 18% today.  One government 
spokesman justified this by saying we were among the lowest in the OECD, 
which misses the point - all OECD countries are in mess re welfare 
payments and "middle class entitlements".

Rgds

Bob
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