"As it is currently constructed/funded" is one HELL of a qualifier.
Joel Send a noteboard - 04/03/2013 04:41:30 AM
View original postSocial security began with a 7:1 of workers to retirees and has steadily fallen ever since. As it is currently constructed/funded it is completely unsustainable. Yeah it has lasted 75 years, and can definitely make it another 25, probably close to 50, but not any further without completely restructuring it. My generation has the "honor" of being the first to loose money one it and it is only going to go further downhill, faster, from now on. I get the fact that you don't understand the math, blame your local school system for that deficiency. You can either break out a basic math textbook (paying particular attention to the chapter on compound interest) or believe someone who does understand it.
I never said it does not need restructing, just the opposite, actually, partly for the reasons you state. There is a REASON the retiree:worker ratio has fallen so sharply: Because US life expectancy has RISEN so sharply. I am not saying we must or should raise retirement age all the way to 78, but c'mon, life expectancy went up 13 years and retirement age only went up 2 (and even THAT increase will not be completely phased in until 2027)? Of course that is a mathematical nightmare. HOWEVER, that does NOT mean
View original postSocial Security was a bad plan when it was proposed & implemented. It is a worse plan today, and in the future it will simply be legalized theft.
You made a HUGE logical leap, from "SS can no longer work the way it has since creation 75 years to go" to "SS never could, never did and never will work." It is the difference between saying, "my car needs a new transmission" and "cars cannot move."
View original postIt is so bad that I would gladly sign away any right to the money that has been taken from me thus far, and any call I could have on any of the social safety nets in the future if they would just let me out of it. Give me that 15% to save on my own and Uncle Sam will never need worry about me again. Hell, just give me 7.5, and I'll let them have the other half. In 22 years I could retire and have about the same monthly income that I receive now from just responsibly investing that 7.5% instead of giving it to the government hoping that they will protect me.
Yes, but you would gladly do that whether or not SS were sustainable on the current on any basis, and we both know it. You are not saying, "Unless we change its structure so it is solvent again I want out," but simply, "I want out." So write your Congressman, but do not hold your breath, because most of the country is not willing to give Worldcom and Bear-Stearns their retirement money, even those who have it to give.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Can You Name the Largest US Program to ANNUALLY Collect More Than It Spent for 75 Straight Years?
- 28/02/2013 11:03:18 PM
1301 Views
Medicare? *NM*
- 28/02/2013 11:38:22 PM
521 Views
No, Medicare has only been around about half as long.
- 28/02/2013 11:56:32 PM
806 Views
Medicare has its own problems, and caused many more. You really do not want to have this debate.
- 03/03/2013 03:03:15 PM
725 Views
No, I do not, because Medicare and torts are invariably scapegoated for all problems with healthcare
- 04/03/2013 12:52:37 AM
791 Views
I can argue with anyone on this (and have) btut first we need to break out that dictionary
- 04/03/2013 04:45:06 AM
714 Views
I am sure you can and have; ability to form arguments does not automatically grant them validity.
- 11/03/2013 09:56:11 PM
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Like I said, short conversation, once everyone uses the same definitions.
- 13/03/2013 03:28:52 PM
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From the way you're shitting yourself with glee, I'm going to say Social Security.
- 01/03/2013 12:45:50 AM
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Also unlike Ponzis, Social Security was not meant to profit—it just did anyway. For 75 years.
- 01/03/2013 01:55:46 AM
747 Views
It is a "Ponzi" by definition, any argument to the contrary just makes you look ignorant.
- 02/03/2013 12:02:46 PM
817 Views
Wait: An insurer is saying insurance is a Ponzi scheme? 
- 04/03/2013 12:56:30 AM
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- 04/03/2013 12:56:30 AM
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You are making even lese sense than usual... Quite an acomplishment. *NM*
- 04/03/2013 03:31:39 AM
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Maybe, but my math usually checks, and I never have to explain what I omitted.
- 11/03/2013 09:55:50 PM
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My math ALWAYS "checks" - it isn't personal, you are just making absolutely no sense, *NM*
- 13/03/2013 03:27:11 PM
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It's the world's greatest Ponzi scheme, since the government forces us to give money to it.
- 01/03/2013 01:05:05 PM
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Yes, "government forcing people to give money" defines a Ponzi; speeding tickets are Ponzis. 
- 01/03/2013 03:53:02 PM
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- 01/03/2013 03:53:02 PM
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Good lord my friend.....
- 02/03/2013 04:19:35 AM
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I will just link what Isaac said; maybe then you will pay attention to it.
- 02/03/2013 04:56:34 AM
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I really think you terribly misread what I said *NM*
- 02/03/2013 06:59:56 AM
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I really do not think I did.
- 04/03/2013 01:43:02 AM
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I'm pretty confident you have
- 04/03/2013 11:49:19 AM
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We evidently disagree on what constitutes a Ponzi scheme.
- 11/03/2013 09:56:27 PM
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No, I agree with a clear definiton, you seem not to want to absorb that
- 11/03/2013 10:24:47 PM
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Re: Yes, "government forcing people to give money" defines a Ponzi; speeding tickets are Ponzis.
- 02/03/2013 12:22:34 PM
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- 02/03/2013 12:22:34 PM
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Fraud="money contributed is NOT invested for the contributor, but instead redistributed to others"?
- 04/03/2013 12:51:30 AM
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You can try and misrepresent what I have said all you want, you are still wrong.
- 04/03/2013 03:45:24 AM
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Dude, how is QUOTING you misrepresenting you?! And why must I ALWAYS ask that in these threads?
- 11/03/2013 09:56:18 PM
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- 11/03/2013 09:56:18 PM
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Okay, that's a really weird or naive standard to judge SS by
- 01/03/2013 05:25:11 PM
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Great; will you put that on a postcard to Cannoli, A2K, Rick Perry and the rest of your party? 
- 01/03/2013 07:39:44 PM
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- 01/03/2013 07:39:44 PM
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I don't think I'd be telling them anything they don't already know... I mostly agree with them
- 02/03/2013 05:38:56 AM
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Means testing is flat out WRONG, and the contribution limit is a sticky debate
- 02/03/2013 12:43:09 PM
738 Views
Tell that to him not me, I didn't express an opinion and my implied one obviously doesn't favor it
- 02/03/2013 05:28:14 PM
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I was, I just hit the repy under the wrong post. He was the first to bering the two topics up. *NM*
- 03/03/2013 04:09:34 AM
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It is insurance against old age poverty, not a longevity lottery.
- 04/03/2013 02:00:24 AM
843 Views
It is not insurance, it is a pension plan, that also contains an overpriced LT disability insurance.
- 04/03/2013 04:00:42 AM
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Social Security Insurance; says so right on the label.
- 11/03/2013 09:53:33 PM
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You can call it BedroomWindowVitamins but it does not change what it acutally IS.
- 13/03/2013 04:34:42 PM
762 Views
"Sustainable"=/="profitable;" bankruptcy was not always a given, as your fellows claim..
- 04/03/2013 01:35:04 AM
741 Views
Sustainable often means profitable, they are not universally synonmous but both at once is ideal
- 04/03/2013 12:25:45 PM
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That is the IDEAL, but NOT point: Sustainability needs no profit, yet profit ensures sustainability.
- 11/03/2013 09:56:48 PM
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Your attacks on republican ideals would have more credit if you understood them
- 02/03/2013 04:27:34 AM
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An ironic charge, since their defenses of those ideals typically suffer from the same defect.
- 02/03/2013 04:51:32 AM
774 Views
- 02/03/2013 04:51:32 AM
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I'm rubber you're glue, whatever you say bounces of me and sticks to you. nyah, nyah, nyah
- 02/03/2013 12:58:10 PM
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"Unsustainable"=/="meeting monthly obligations for 75 YEARS and still having $2.5 trillion left."
- 04/03/2013 01:03:09 AM
840 Views
Please look up the definition of sustainable. Hint: "its worked so far" isn't it.
- 04/03/2013 04:25:19 AM
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"As it is currently constructed/funded" is one HELL of a qualifier.
- 04/03/2013 04:41:30 AM
861 Views
You just don't get it, or apparently are so in love with your political ideology you won't.
- 04/03/2013 04:58:15 AM
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I believe if you check civilizations record you will find the human population has steadily risen.
- 04/03/2013 05:08:38 AM
780 Views
*sigh*
- 04/03/2013 12:15:22 PM
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Birth RATES have fallen; POPULATION steadily rose in every period except the Black Deaths peak.
- 11/03/2013 09:56:36 PM
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Ironic that you would make my point while arguing against
- 04/03/2013 06:12:29 PM
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?
- 11/03/2013 09:56:59 PM
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you mistate his posistion and then rationalize that you know what he really meant
- 13/03/2013 12:06:44 PM
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aH yes the great liberal investmetn/retirement plan that offers me a NEGATIGVE rate of return...
- 02/03/2013 11:51:50 AM
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Do you sincerely believe people earning $14,560/year can afford investing 4% of it?
- 04/03/2013 12:53:30 AM
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*sigh*
- 04/03/2013 03:43:08 AM
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I tried it with compound interest; $44.80/month at 4% for 50 years still does not get to $1.25 mill.
- 04/03/2013 04:24:51 AM
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Here are some clues.
- 04/03/2013 04:37:39 AM
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It is math, not the Riddle of the Sphinx: EIther it adds up or does not.
- 04/03/2013 05:02:39 AM
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Math is simple - Either you know how to calculate it or you don't
- 04/03/2013 11:55:24 AM
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SS is supposed to supplement a proper pension, not provide your sole income after retirement
- 05/03/2013 03:53:03 AM
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Did you bother to actually read anything?
- 05/03/2013 02:32:16 PM
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do *YOU* know what "living in poverty" means?
- 05/03/2013 05:49:14 PM
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Re: do *YOU* know what "living in poverty" means? --- yeah, I've BEEN there.
- 05/03/2013 08:01:33 PM
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how about respond to a post with logic and civility instead of being a troll for once?
- 05/03/2013 11:03:00 PM
860 Views
All I have used is civility and logic, or least as much civility as was warrented.
- 06/03/2013 04:28:04 AM
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yeah, it's my fault for stooping to your level....
- 08/03/2013 07:22:24 PM
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Re: yeah, it's my fault for stooping to your level....
- 10/03/2013 01:42:26 PM
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i'm not going to keep going in circles so i will finish with this....
- 11/03/2013 10:08:53 PM
1068 Views
"Rah! Rah! Rah!" Can we please cut out all this blather and bile?
- 05/03/2013 11:53:41 PM
737 Views