As bad as all these things are, there’s a fundamental consideration that’s worse.
Let’s say that the money had been invested in private enterprise via the financial markets, with an appropriate amount (8%?) in various government paper. At some point, the amount pulled out of those securities exceeds the amount being put in. The fraction of people living off this money and no longer working increases drastically; the number of people working to support them cannot keep up and actually drops off.
The demand for goods and services–especially services–will increase, and their supply will not be able to expand because there are fewer people to make things and do things. Prices will necessarily rise, cutting into the value of all that money being pulled out of the financial markets.
I can’t see what the secondary effects will be, or how they will balance, but it is a very serious problem that we will all face. Japan is facing it with robots to assist in personal service. We should be facing it by reducing the number of people involved in regulation, and by holding regulatory agencies publicly accountable for the drag that they impose. Making those who support the drag publicly accountable will help also.
