I Need An Economist To Assist Me With Obamacare Impact

gmart74

Hall of Fame
Oct 9, 2005
12,344
2
57
Baltimore, Md
So here is my theory:
Obamacare will remove a significant amount of disposable income from the economy by significantly raising the premiums and healthcare costs of young people who tend to spend money supporting various frivolous industries. This will have a pronounced effect on the economy thereby pushing us into a depression. That opinion is based on various topics I have heard or read. However I dont know how factual my sources and information were.

So I need reliable info concerning the following:
1. What % of the economy is consumer spending on discretionary items? ~70%?? (this appears to be misleading due to healthcare costs being counted as discretionary)
2. What age demographic spends the most in that category?
3. What % of people live in poverty or near poverty by age groups? (This is actually somewhat hard to find. I have seen 10 reports with 10 different metrics) The reason why I want to know this is the theory that taking money away from the young will disproportionately affect the economy.
4. Is the the velocity of money influenced more by the elderly or the young?
 

Dr. Keith

BamaNation Citizen
Nov 27, 2006
91
0
25
So here is my theory:
Obamacare will remove a significant amount of disposable income from the economy by significantly raising the premiums and healthcare costs of young people who tend to spend money supporting various frivolous industries. This will have a pronounced effect on the economy thereby pushing us into a depression. That opinion is based on various topics I have heard or read. However I dont know how factual my sources and information were.

So I need reliable info concerning the following:
1. What % of the economy is consumer spending on discretionary items? ~70%?? (this appears to be misleading due to healthcare costs being counted as discretionary)
2. What age demographic spends the most in that category?
3. What % of people live in poverty or near poverty by age groups? (This is actually somewhat hard to find. I have seen 10 reports with 10 different metrics) The reason why I want to know this is the theory that taking money away from the young will disproportionately affect the economy.
4. Is the the velocity of money influenced more by the elderly or the young?
Maybe I can help a little-
3. For Poverty, check the Census Bureau - http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2012/tables.html Probably the reason you see several different metrics is that poverty data is collected by several different national surveys and at different levels of government. The Census Bureau combines the major surveys to produce the stats they use.
1. Check the Bureau of Economic Analysis for consumer spending data. www.bea.gov. I do not know if they have a "discretionary" spending table or not. However, you can look at consumer spending and subtract out food, clothing, and housing.
2. Not sure on this one. Have a class to teach in five min- I will try to look later.
4. This one should be linked to number 2. Which ever group spends the most discretionary funds should have the largest influence on velocity. I don't have any stats to back this up, just basing it on the definition of velocity.

Hope this helps a little.
 

G-VilleTider

Suspended
Aug 17, 2006
2,062
52
72
I am sure a certain PHD from UNA will be along soon to answer these questions. Oh wait, we may have to wait a few days lol
 

cuda.1973

Hall of Fame
Dec 6, 2009
8,506
607
137
Allen, Texas
So here is my theory:
Obamacare will remove a significant amount of disposable income from the economy by significantly raising the premiums and healthcare costs of young people who tend to spend money supporting various frivolous industries. This will have a pronounced effect on the economy thereby pushing us into a depression. That opinion is based on various topics I have heard or read. However I dont know how factual my sources and information were.
This assumes that young people will be foolish enough to sign up for $$$ premiums. Most will save money by not signing up, and just paying the penalty. Of course, in subsequent years, the penalty is going to substantially increase, as will the premiums.

The better question would be "Since not enough people will sign up, to make it work, how much will they raise taxes on the rest of us, to make up the shortage?"
 

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