Hehe, if only. The Republican leadership knows the disaster which would occur in not raising the debt ceiling but wanted to use their fringier elements to get something in return for doing what had to be done. It sort of backfired on them when they realized they really couldn't control the tea party candidates as well as they thought. Having that (R) in front of their name doesn't make them their lemmings I guess.I thought it was because they didn't want the debt ceiling raised, and wanted cuts instead. Isn't that what the january vote against the ceiling hike was about?
Gasp, you mean this isn't just a taxation problem? Rich people and fair shares and what not? STOP the GOD DAMN PRESSES.My plan:
STOP SPENDING SO FUCKING MUCH OF OUR FUCKING MONEY.
Nobody but the pundits said it was.Gasp, you mean this isn't just a taxation problem? Rich people and fair shares and what not? STOP the GOD DAMN PRESSES.
We probably could stand some military cuts, but that's about 20% of our expenditures. Can you guess what the rest is?Maybe you guys should lay off a bit of that military spending. Not all of it, I mean, a good military is important, but maybe spend less than everyone in the world combined.
I'm sure the greeks felt the same. Problem is, the money's not there and no tax rate will make up the shortfall. But whatever, I'm sure we'll all enjoy our nanny state.Damn right our money should take care of people here at home. That's the damn point of a society.
That's just because you have trouble taking serious anything that challenges your position that socialism cures everything.Comments like "nanny state" make you very hard to take serious. Unless of course you have no intention of being taken serious.
The argument is that the baby boomers are retiring, and we don't have enough workers paying in to support the retirees drawing out. Also - if a private citizen tries to do what social security does by design, they call it a ponzi scheme and throw them in jail. And there's a reason - because it's a horrible, unsustainable system.Can someone explain Social Security Insurance and the hatred it seems to attract to me a little bit better? My understanding of it is pretty much limited to: every check, money gets taken out by the federal government for what they've labeled as social security insurance. Every month I pay in, and every month the government pays out to who knows how many people. I'm fairly certain that there's no account in my name under the SSI budget bucket in D.C. (or, you know, the Cayman Islands, or Germany, or wherever it is that they keep this money); so when it comes time for me to retire, whether that time is when I'm 67+ years old or if, god forbid, I become disabled and can't work anymore at a younger age, my getting benefits paid out depends on other people continuing to pay in - the people in the generations below mine on the age ladder, and so on.
Is the argument that the government is kicking in an additional amount of money beyond that which is kicked in by all of these workers' SSI deductions, which is then used to bring SSI wages up to a semi-livable wage for the people who are currently on SSI benefits; thereby spending more money than we (as a nation) have available? Or is the argument that instead of putting this SSI money into paying for people to live off of what basically amounts to a government stipend, we should be using the money collected for SSI to do other things, like build roads and schools or pay USPS workers' wages?
So then the takeaway is that, all political rhetorical bullshit aside, the government requires every working stiff to pay into a deeply flawed retirement system, whereby the current retirees are actually being paid by the current workers, and the current workers will only be paid if the workers in generations below ours continue to pay in. However, I'm also encouraged to pay into an IRA because no one can guarantee that SSI will have enough money for me to live comfortably on when I retire; but that I would have more disposable income, with which I could either buy more consumer goods - which would ostensibly help the economy - or pay into my IRA, if only the government would quit requiring that I pay into said ponzi-scheme?The argument is that the baby boomers are retiring, and we don't have enough workers paying in to support the retirees drawing out. Also - if a private citizen tries to do what social security does by design, they call it a ponzi scheme and throw them in jail. And there's a reason - because it's a horrible, unsustainable system.
You are correct, however, that despite disingenuous wording to the contrary, what happens with SocSec money is it basically just goes right into the general ledger, and payments out of it come from there too. There is no "social security" trust fund or lock box, it's all rhetorical fantasy.
Meanwhile, Galveston, TX privatized its social security before they made such things illegal, and it has outperformed the federal version every year by not-negligible amounts.
What is failed to be mentioned in all that is Wall Street doesn't benefit from Social Security and would LOVE for it to be removed in favor of IRA's, which are investments in the stock market. The question remains, for me at least, do we really trust the stock market as a safe place to be putting our retirement?So then the takeaway is that, all political rhetorical bullshit aside, the government requires every working stiff to pay into a deeply flawed retirement system, whereby the current retirees are actually being paid by the current workers, and the current workers will only be paid if the workers in generations below ours continue to pay in. However, I'm also encouraged to pay into an IRA because no one can guarantee that SSI will have enough money for me to live comfortably on when I retire; but that I would have more disposable income, with which I could either buy more consumer goods - which would ostensibly help the economy - or pay into my IRA, if only the government would quit requiring that I pay into said ponzi-scheme?
I don't trust the stock market for shit. Anything that's that easily manipulated - whether it's being manipulated on purpose or not doesn't matter to me - isn't somewhere that I currently feel comfortable putting a significant portion of my income. On the other hand, since everything is tied to the market, in one way or another, what choice do I really have? I could put money into CDs through my not-for-profit credit union, but the interest rate on the certificate is based on some incredibly complex calculation which in turn is based on the prime rate, which is at least marginally affected by the markets. Or, I could put my money in a coffee can and never gain any interest on it, but also never lose any of it, but I'd have to be extremely lucky to save enough money on my own to be able to retire and live comfortably - by which I mean, not on the street. Or, I can trust a financial adviser to pick the right stocks/bonds/funds/etc. to get me a semi-steady gain from my investments. Or, of course, I could make a giant wall-sized chart of all of the available stocks and throw darts at it to pick where I invest.What is failed to be mentioned in all that is Wall Street doesn't benefit from Social Security and would LOVE for it to be removed in favor of IRA's, which are investments in the stock market. The question remains, for me at least, do we really trust the stock market as a safe place to be putting our retirement?
Remember when we were the United States of America? Back before we had red states and blue states? I knew the first time I saw CNN driving home that individual states could be completely devoted to one party or another, and that people in said state who didn't support the majority party were pointless, that we were in for some dark times. The way the political reporters carry on, you'd believe that everyone in Washington (state) is a god-hating, liberal Democrat; and that everyone in the red state of your choice is a neo-conservative, bible-thumping Republican; that there's not a single Republican in Washington (state).The "debt ceiling" is just a new term devised by the corporations pulling the strings to keep the cable news blowhards screaming at each other to convince the masses that the "other side" is evil. Even Ron Paul still has that "R" next to his name.
Fuck all of 'em. Let it all burn.
That sums up way more than just this single topic. Though, for the purposes of planning for retirement, you don't HAVE to put it in a stock, or a bond, or even a mutual fund... you could just stick it in a savings account. But people want their money to be more than they earned later, so yeah... you either risk it in the stock market, or... well, even if you have social security, you'd still better be risking some in the stock market.I suppose it really comes down to a lesser of two evils situation. Who do you trust more, the government, or Wall Street? Neither isn't really an option.