News, Jeb Bush: Next president should privatize Social Security.
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I am very familiar with MIT standing for Mass. Institute of Technology. In the syntax of the sentence in which it appeared, it didn't seem to make sense, which prompted my question.
A poor attempt at a little humor on my part. Those often fall flat. If I write an autobiography, I am going to title it "I Guess You had to Be There"...
MIT = Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wicked smaht people.
I got my Doctor of Science degree from MIT. There are smart people there but I don't think MIT's graduates or researchers are any smarter than folks from other institutions.
I think what differentiates MIT (or other trustworthy institution)'s studies is that they are mostly or usually based on unbiased, truly scientific basis. They either let the facts speak for themselves or to derive results and conclusions based on the facts.
Unfortunately, there are real facts and 'censored' facts. Data censoring is a common and acceptable statistical analysis technique to filter out noises, spurious data points. However, unless one tries to adhere to scientific principle, be unbiased and uphold personal integrity, it is easy to select only data supporting your prejudices or biased hypothesis. Case in point is some of the so-called 'scientific study and analysis' by anti-global-warming scientists funded by the oil industries!
People like to cite studies, surveys and statistics to support their positions but not everything on the web, from TV news, prints etc are the true facts. I am a skeptical scientist by nature and always cross checking sources to decide who and what data to trust.
Personally, I think Medicaid is too generous. Since it has no cost, people use the emergency room as a medical walk-in.
Some patients are "super-utilizers" and are frequently mentally ill or drug/alcohol users, but medicaid does allow a facility to charge a co-pay if the patient still requests care after being diagnosed with a non-emergency condition. In some areas it's hard to find a doc who will take medicaid so the ER is the only option unless you can travel long distances to see a medicaid doc. Parents might take a kid to ER after picking them up at daycare and finding that they are ill when doctor's offices are closed. Having primary care clinics open until late in the evening might help with some of that. I don't think most rational people would actively seek out ER treatment which can entail a wait of several hours over some other form of care if it were available.
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Originally Posted by GeoffD
I think Medicaid should be scaled back to a much more bare-bones health care focused on preventative care. Coverage further declines if you have self-induced diseases. If you smoke, weigh 500 pounds, drink heavily, do drugs, or are totally out of shape, you get less coverage than somebody who stays in shape and doesn't do those things.
So a 'death panel' for medicaid patients?
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Originally Posted by GeoffD
I'd then tie private health insurance 100% to risk like it used to be. Once all that is done, we can then have the rational discussion about how much we want to pay in taxes to fund it. That drives what is covered. A 20 year old just getting started should pay a small means-tested premium for the single payer bare-bones stuff and could then opt for very high deductible supplemental private insurance at very low cost to take care of the expensive procedures that aren't covered.
oh yeah, the good old days where a 60 year old with high blood pressure would pay 10 x what a younger person paid, and where women ALWAYS paid more than men, thanks- but no thanks.
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Originally Posted by GeoffD
We've had the discussion about food before. If you're poor, learn to freakin' cook. Learn how to buy inexpensive protein sources. I think EBT/food stamps should not be paying for pop/soda, bottled water, potato chips, frozen microwave food, candy, ....
A large number of the truly poor have no cooking facilities. It's very common for the poor to live in weekly rentals or room shares where they only have access to a microwave for cooking and a mini-fridge for food storage. And something to remember, if you are poor you want to fill your belly before worrying about getting enough anti-oxidants or jojoba berries in your diet. Potato chips and junk food provide more calories at a lower cost than do nutritious food. And if foods are so bad that they should be restricted from SNAP recipients they should not be sold to anyone, but then I don't believe that we need to treat the poor like children.
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Originally Posted by GeoffD
75 years ago, it was quite normal for a family of 5 or 6 to jam into a tiny two bedroom house or a 2 bedroom city apartment. 75 years ago, people got by fine with a space heater in the winter and electric fans in the summer. I don't think public money should fund the square footage and amenities wealthy people expect.
Excuse me? Not sure where you live, but the poor living 10 to a house is not unusual. I live across street from a family who has 4 generations living in the same home and that seems to be getting more common as rents continue to skyrocket.
Take exception if you will, but the math isn't always so cut and dry for everyone.
First and foremost if one as born and raised in New York City and thus consider it "home" uprooting and moving to a strange area is often out of the question.
Next the finances aren't always so cut and dry. If someone is living in a rent controlled or stabilized apartment paying say $900 per month for a huge one or two bedroom apartment what will they find elsewhere? More importantly few other areas have rent control laws which do give residents of such units some sort of stability.
Finally would argue if one is going to be "poor" NYC/NYS is probably one of the better places to do so. Few other places offer the range and expanse of services for those in need even if it isn't enough.
$900 a month will rent you a large house in many non-ginormous-urban areas. Many of them are very nice places to live, with temperate weather.
I find it bizarre how skewed the economical sensitivities of people living in NYC or Boston or LA etc etc etc are.
And sometimes things are just tough. You can stay in NYC in your $900 one bedroom apartment and dig through the garbage for food - or you can move somewhere where your rent is half of that for a one bedroom apartment, leaving more money for groceries.
It's a choice. Personally, I think choosing to stay where you have to root through the garbage is a pretty poor choice.
I'm lean more Republican but that is stupid plan! Who is going to invest the money? Individuals get whipped so bad from the market and only large breakage companies make money or very large investors. Most people are not equipped to invest them selves. Only money would be people making the trades. Bush just buried his self.
I think privatizing social security should have been done from the beginning. Politicians have proven they cannot keep their hands off it and now use it for a slush fund. I fail to see how it could get worse. At least if it was private then it would be your money and not an "entitlement".
Some other countries operate very successful private retirement plans very similar social security.
I think if Jeb Bush gets elected he won't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting it done. I also think if Jeb Bush gets elected we will have more pressing issues to worry about. Ditto Hillary and most if not all candidates.
I hope Walker is the next president! We need to overhaul the entire system. Why should those of us who are making good money, have a lot of it taken away to pay for those people that were no smart enough, or too lazy to earn enough to take care of themselves. Cry me a river.
I would like to see all entitlement programs thrown out. If you want health insurance, get a job. If you need charity, move to another country. (Don't a third of all Americans want to leave anyway?) Gimme gimme! Tired of it. Social Security should be privatized, if not just abandoned. It is a train wreck relic left over from back in the last century.
The new America needs to be leaner and smarter. In order for that, we need to cut taxes and reduce spending. Can you say "Greece."
WASHINGTON – Jeb Bush thinks the next president will need to privatize Social Security, he said at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday – acknowledging that his brother attempted to do so and failed. It’s a position sure to be attacked by both Republicans and Democrats.
Gee, if this scheme was put into effect, I wonder if it would cause an enormous bubble, a super-crash, and a guaranteed ultra-bailout, forced by the political necessity due to the entire country's retirement security now being in the hands of the "private" sector. Nah, never happen...
I hope Walker is the next president! We need to overhaul the entire system. Why should those of us who are making good money, have a lot of it taken away to pay for those people that were no smart enough, or too lazy to earn enough to take care of themselves. Cry me a river.
I would like to see all entitlement programs thrown out. If you want health insurance, get a job. If you need charity, move to another country. (Don't a third of all Americans want to leave anyway?) Gimme gimme! Tired of it. Social Security should be privatized, if not just abandoned. It is a train wreck relic left over from back in the last century.
The new America needs to be leaner and smarter. In order for that, we need to cut taxes and reduce spending. Can you say "Greece."
Wake up! Vote Walker!
Mr. Walker's credibility is down the crapper so you won't see him as President. Ever.
Make no mistake - he's coming for everyone's money.....
I hope you, Hollywood, never get old and find yourself needing a safety net.
/Wisconsin native who weeps for her homestate.
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Bush won't do it, But Walker will
