Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The problem with your "logic" is that you make baseless, categorical, prejudicial assumptions about those who disagree with you, and your "logic" wholly hinges on that false foundation. More likely, most of people disagreeing with you work harder than you, and many of them may even be more wholly independent of government assistance as compared to you. (One of the things that folks who take you position often do is forget that the entire economy - the marketplace within which they offer their skills, efforts and capital in hopes of gaining profitable returns - is substantially government-supported, starting with the armed forces which keeps other nations from taking it away from us, and including the federal officials and courts who respond when you've been ripped-off and need action take to make you whole, etc.)
The complexity you allude to is actually a product of what you claim is the solution: Use of capitalist system itself has been optimized by its major players, those least likely to need direct financial assistance from the government, to maximize their own returns by exploiting financial power to control the ability of less fortunate actors in the economy to claim as much value for the work they do. This has been brought into sharp focus over the last ten years, as productivity (literally, the rate at which business can turn capital into value) has continued to skyrocket while worker wages have remained flat. However, the problem goes back at least a generation, during which time the imbalance of power within the system has been systematically increased through similar exploitation, so much so that the imbalance is now double what is was when many of us older folks were growing up.
The increasing of numbers is directly related to the population of the country. Immigration is part of it: The moral solution there would be to put in place a system of laws, enforcement, and whistle-blower provisions whereby no business in the country can operate more than a few weeks using non-citizen labor. Businesses that try should be immediately placed into receivership, and those managers and executives participating in the violation subject to years in jail, at their own expense, not a slap on the risk.
That will help remedy some of the imbalance, but not that much of it. There needs to be positive action in many more directions than just immigration, to curtail the power large amounts of money affords people, so that those who have less money have only marginally less power in the commercial transaction space, whether those with less money are individual consumers, or are individual workers.
Finally, the number of taxpayers has steadily increased. You're simply spewing nonsense. You need to stop listening to the propaganda.
At the risk of stating the obvious, if you don't like it or feel you can live with/in it, presumably you do have others choices, you know. Either that or fix it.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good
conscience to remain silent"
-- Thomas Jefferson
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president,
or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing
the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that
is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until
it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates
a country where everyone lives in fear."
-- Harry S Truman
"Without debate, without criticism, no administration and
no country can succeed -- and no republic can survive."
-- John F. Kennedy
"To criticize one's country is to do it a service .... Criticism,
in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism - a
higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals
and national adulation."
-- U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright
Wow, all of this because of the possibility of raising the minimum SS age. Imagine if anyone in congress actually tried to pass legislation. Wow oh wow. Oh well back to reality for minute and then back to CD. On a positive not the markets are having a very nice two day upswing and the buy on the dip mentality seems to be holding so pensions and SS aside the third pillar that we all can have is still on a monster run it seems. That should make all of us feel good.
I am 62, and have done mostly heavy work most of my life except for the last 7 years working production line.
My body is prety well used up and tired, and now your telling me I have to go back to work ? Again .
I suppose that's one way of killing off the older crowd.
I hope things work out better for you all.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good
conscience to remain silent"
-- Thomas Jefferson
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president,
or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing
the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that
is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until
it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates
a country where everyone lives in fear."
-- Harry S Truman
"Without debate, without criticism, no administration and
no country can succeed -- and no republic can survive."
-- John F. Kennedy
"To criticize one's country is to do it a service .... Criticism,
in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism - a
higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals
and national adulation."
-- U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright
Aware of and agree without argument with all the above, Fran. That was not what prompted my response. It was the pejorative manner in which you referred to the country. It's something many of us, right, wrong or indifferent, have fought, bled and even died for. All it's "sins" notwithstanding, it still deserves a reasonable measure of respect.
Fixing SS should be easy. Simply tax all payroll income, not just the first X dollars (this may actually lower the overall SS tax rate), and add a means test that would reduce benefits for wealthier retirees - e.g., phase it out for anyone whose annual income (including other retirement plans) is over 4x the poverty level.
Aware of and agree without argument with all the above, Fran. That was not what prompted my response. It was the pejorative manner in which you referred to the country. It's something many of us, right, wrong or indifferent, have fought, bled and even died for. All it's "sins" notwithstanding, it still deserves a reasonable measure of respect.
However, I and my workplace raised $2500 in four days and, with the help of WalMart who gave us a 10% discount (which is against their policy -- or at least was) and UPS, who donated their boxes and their time to pack up all the stuff, a medevac unit got exactly what they asked for, in time for Christmas. Since we had only a few days to get the packages shipped in time for Christmas -- it didn't leave us a lot of leisure time, to say the least.
I volunteered (for only six months, yes) in a VA Hospital, on the med/surg/Hospice Unit. Reading to them, listening to them, holding their hands, and feeding them.
I spent 72+ hours, two hours on and two hours off, reading the names of 58,000+ warriors who were killed in Vietnam, at a display of a traveling Wall. Actually I wasn't there the first half of the first day, but as the hours went by and we lost readers over the next 2.5 days, we didn't get much sleep.
And those are just the major things. For 20 years I volunteered with a homeless organization that worked hard to get homeless Vets off the streets.
I may not have a lot of respect left for our country, but I have never disrespected our warriors, and I never will. I figure they did/do what they think was/is right at the time, and I'm not going to argue with even one of them.
I retired at 55 and will be collecting SS next year at 62. I only worked in the US for about 20 years and never was a high earner. I see no point in waiting until I'm older to collect a larger amount.
But I don't understand????????????? The liberals have been telling us that there is nothing wrong with Social Security... That it was a wonderful program and that it is solvent.. You mean they have been lying to us????
You mean it really is a pyramid scheme that has now run out of money after soaking people for their entire working lives????
Truth is they will continue to pay Social Security and they will print the money to do it until inflation makes the value of what they give you insignificant anyway.
But I don't understand????????????? The liberals have been telling us that there is nothing wrong with Social Security... That it was a wonderful program and that it is solvent.. You mean they have been lying to us????
You mean it really is a pyramid scheme that has now run out of money after soaking people for their entire working lives????
Truth is they will continue to pay Social Security and they will print the money to do it until inflation makes the value of what they give you insignificant anyway.
Doing great so far. Wife gets her check like clockwork, markets on a roll and OUR inflation is low. I hear others might not be but hey the dollar has been a strong currency to SOME of late. PS the run out of money part is a never and the shortfall is a couple of decades away by current estimates so party hardy as we use to say.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
