Q & A: Social Security

One of my sole sources of political optimism these days is that the public is actually figuring this one out, at least a little bit. Why this time? Because it really strikes home, of course! Unlike…well, unlike bombs striking other people’s homes in other countries.

Please , PLEASE 3rd Rail, Spark a little Higher!!!

So let me get this straight:

We may or may not have a plan to fix what may or may not be a crisis and this plan/not plan involves taking money out of the Social Security fund to make sure there will be more money in it in the future when we need it, only nobody’s quite sure when that will really be.

Anyone want to join me in painting the roses red?

Noah’s still around? Where? I need a sparring partner to practice my throws, and he’s the right size to fly!

Nah. While the pres may not read papers, Lynne, most people involved in Wall Street find it to be somewhat helpful for their jobs–can’t imagine why–so, unlike Dubya, they’re probably peripherally aware of the fact that 60%+ of the country is giving his “plan” the hairy eyeball among other choice gestures. Not being stupid (well, okay, that’s debatable given how your seemingly healthy company is faring, but for now we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt), they’re just conducting business as usual.

Now, if congress actually passes the thrice-bedamned thing, THEN you’ll see one hell of a bull market as the top of the pyramid does its level best to make the market seem the most attractive option. Until then, well, they’re not playing with other people’s money. Okay, they’re not playing with other people’s money on the scale they prefer to.

And, tess, I’m shocked. You’d resort to fisticuffs? How barbaric. That simply will not do. Here, have a rapier.

One of the things I “love” about W’s argument is that 1) he never addresses the problem of those who are disabled and need SS; 2) he never addresses the families that get SS because parents have died, or 3) the SS was NEVER meant to be everyone’s sole source of retirement income - it is a safety net. Why look at the whole problem when a false “crisis” will do?

Somehow the rest of us have figured that out and put money into IRAs, investments etc. So, our kids aren’t smart enough to do so unless the government makes the offer?

(Ok, so that was 4 things)

Hey Adam! Remember me? Of course my last name and website are different now, but I designed the header for your website.

I just happened to stumble upon your site when looking through some google listings.

I’m glad to see you are doing well. I am too, married now and my business is just going crazy (5 websites now all with different services).

Anywho, I just wanted to say hi and let you know I dropped by

I still have a feeling that this is all somehow tied into Bush’s plan for a manned mission to Mars. Debtors’ prisons on Mars? Old people forced into slave labor shoveling hydrazine fuel into the engines of Halliburton-built rockets on the long trip out, while their private-account-investing overlords sip martinis on the bridge and take potshots at passing asteroids? But to what end?

Either we’ve been spammed or Adam is trying to tell us something.

And just what is wrong with cardboard boxes? As the Yellow Rose said in a recent address to the Paperboard Manufacture’s Association (prepared for him by the Public Information Office of the Paperboard Manufacture’s Association) “Cardboard is a fine structural material. The combination of a cor’gated interyer and two exteryer layers of sunstanchial paper provide rigidity and insulatin’ qualities that make this material a comfortable and durable home for useless Americans. Under my plan, many elderly Americans will be enjoyin’ their declinin’ years in homes made entirely of this substantial and recyclable material.”

This is really funny.
Like everything on this great site.
And, well, it’s not making any goddamn difference in how f’d up things are.
Isn’t it time to stop making jokes and start taking serious action?
Really, I’m serious. Taking 50 minutes to make a funny blog is fun, but what if that time was spent doing things that actually REALLY made a difference.
Sorry to be negative, but the “ha ha funny, can’t believe what a moron these guys are” tact has not worked, and they’re really taking over and messing everying up.
I really think it’s time to hang up the jesters cap and start organizing.
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Like, I mean imagine if MLK totally decided to make an awesome blog about, you know the funny black thing in the south in the 60s. so totally funny man! let’s write a really funny script about the witty banter at a lunch counter between a social worker and a policeman with a dog!!!!!!!!! and then the fireman comes in with the hose!!!! pa dum dum!!! ha hah ahhah
fade to black :0
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Bob -
I appreciate the sentiment, but as far as I’m concerned, my comments here are not intended to change anything or anybody. If I really wanted to change the world, then just sitting here and commenting would indeed be an odd strategy.

Luckily, I do have a few minutes left each week for something slightly more substantial.

Bob, does making fun of absurdities, preclude action? What makes you think we aren’t active?
Would you have us not satirize this administration?

Bob, you are absolutely right, and if all I did was sit around in self-congratulatory blogs, I would be ashamed. But, I, and I bet a lot more commenters here, are actively involved in local politics, and doing everything we can to make 2006 a year the Republicans look on with terror and remorse.

Locally, I’m seeing a lot more people disillusioned with the performance of the new compassionately conservative national government. A very active *local movement* is fighting the good fight locally, and shows signs of expanding our vision.

Perhaps I could spend the time I use here and on other blogs more productively, but I need some fun and mutual support, like I find here, as well.

I hope that MLK found the time at the end of a hard day to sit back with friends, and have a chuckle at the ignoramouses that they opposed.

The hospital I used to work for would send me statements each year telling me how much I’d get in my defined benefit plan if I worked until age 65 (about $900/month). In 1997, I’d been employed for 17 years when they converted to a defined contribution plan (401K). I was given a little more than $9000 (about 10 months of retirement income) and told to invest it well. That gave me 3 years to add to it before the stock market bubble broke.

Now, Dubya is planning to do much the same for lucky old me. He’s telling everyone 55 and older not to worry, but I’m only 50. It’s deja vu all over again….

But I do have Plan 9. It’s been on the back burner for several years now. Dubya likes entrepreneurial enterprise and he’s pushing me to move it to the front. Of course, it is in opposition to his current “culture of life” thinking, but he can’t think about more than one thing at a time anyway. You go gently into that good night without costing the government precious dollars that could be better spent on ousting another very bad dictator and without raising taxes on the wealthy. It’s a Kevorkian Center. Think Soylent Green without the people-eating (penis-plumping?) aspect. And I even have a slogan ready for my Center, “I’m not just the owner… I’m a client!”

People are such sheep. A friend of mine posed this scenario: what if every victory the left manages is really just a ruse by the right to keep people ignorant of the full extent of what’s going on? And to that I say, the more power to us — if that’s what the right and corporate powers find themselves having to do to stay in power, then necessitating that their efforts need to be increasingly complicated makes their house of cards that much more fragile. It’s a war of attrition, and I find that blogs like Adam’s keep up moral.

And as for ground up old people, they need to be injected directly to plump up penises and wrinkles. Otherwise, I guess we can advertize ‘em as ground-up semi-organic fertilizers (hard to say how much of what they ate in the 1950s would keep the grass from growing).

Oh, Jerry. Don’t worry about your palps. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, beer is proof the lobster loves us and wants us to get laid.