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Post by BlackCoven on Jan 23, 2005 0:11:56 GMT -5
As you might know, Bush has these plans to "improve" on our social security. According to his "intelligence," our social security money will be used up by 2018 so he wants to change it completely. I believe this is just another misleading plan of his personally. I think our social security is salvagable provided they fix the problems going on in the government. I still gotta read up on this quite a bit but what are your guys/gals thoughts?
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Post by YoshikiRose on Jan 23, 2005 0:20:41 GMT -5
Heheh, I loved how you put quotation marks around "intelligence". I don't have much to say, because...uhh....I really don't understand Social Security much, actually. Oh my god...I just had major deja vu.
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Post by Gotetsu© on Jan 23, 2005 0:27:32 GMT -5
Dude pretty soon hes gona have micro chips in our heads keeping track of us by satelites watch hes gona have us like robots!like in that movie minority report
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Post by SnakeFire on Jan 23, 2005 1:06:30 GMT -5
^Paranoid much? I feel like watching Conspiracy Theory now, lol. Bush has had a lot of missleading plans in the past, so why stop with this one?
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Post by Marccio on Jan 23, 2005 1:53:32 GMT -5
Well, he's having trouble starting a war with Iran. So, why not move onto screwing up something else ;D
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Post by YoshikiRose on Jan 23, 2005 1:54:24 GMT -5
i love listening to bush bashing ;D
*teenage boy's voice*
whoa, LOL, that's so dirty ;D ;D ;D
*back to Fluffy*
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Post by Marccio on Jan 23, 2005 1:55:38 GMT -5
My favourite passtime. ;D
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Post by BlackCoven on Jan 23, 2005 2:00:17 GMT -5
Just when you want to give the guy a chance, he starts poking you while your trying to sleep, Metaphorically speaking that is..
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Post by aika0 on Jan 23, 2005 9:17:58 GMT -5
I think Bush's solution is a recipe for disaster. Young people rarely know how to properly invest their finances. Some youngsters will probably lose majority of their holding by investing in something futile like the dot.com start up companies in the late 90's. Anyone with common sense and market experience could see the books cooking, but the inexperienced played blindly into the greedy corporate hands.
If I were the president or in charge of this situation, I would resolve it by creating a military company based upon miliatry construction in foreign countries. Instead of free government aid in foreigh countires, I would require that all countries above third world poverty status be required to repay all financial assistance at a set interest rate. This money would then be placed in a higher interest rate account which would accrue for 10 to 15 years, after such time the allocated funds would be dispersed through social security.
In the meantime to buy time and access further funding: I would also tax foreign ailrines for the privilage of flying into US airspace.
And I would penalize foreign countries a set fee for each one of their citizens deported due to illegal US entry.
This secures more funding and stability in contrast to Bush's plan.
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Post by SnakeFire on Jan 23, 2005 9:18:45 GMT -5
Just when you want to give the guy a chance, he starts poking you while your trying to sleep, Metaphorically speaking that is.. ^This coming from the guy who got on to me for Bush bashing- *twitches eye* That didn't sound right, lol. -But, anyway- him saying that means something to me. Right here! *points to her democratic heart* lol-
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Post by YoshikiRose on Jan 23, 2005 13:39:32 GMT -5
Aika, while I admit to not understanding much of social security (can someone please explain? it's the ONE thing i don't know about) I feel like that's being a little cruel to foreign countries....or at least the way you expressed the idea seemed cruel.
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Post by rjxsapri® on Jan 23, 2005 13:54:56 GMT -5
Some of Aika's ideas kinda make sense. But I have the feeling like you feel that the US would recover by charging money to other countries for everything...I mean, charging international airlines? That wouldn't help the image of the US for tourists...don't you think?
And how can you charge money for people who are deported? If the US can't control the people who get in and out of it illegally, how can you charge the other countries when both sides are equally to blame...
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Post by aika0 on Jan 23, 2005 15:05:44 GMT -5
My understanding of the Social Security dilemma is as follows:
Every US taxpayer pays a certain percentage of their income towards various taxes. Primarily you have the Federal Income Tax, the Medicare Tax, and Social Security Tax.
The Federal Income Tax pays for just about anything and everything governement related. The Medicare Tax helps to provide healthcare for the elderly and the lower income families. The Social Security Tax provides a supplemental income for the elderly, granted certain provision like they must be 65 or older, and their annual wages must be maintained at specified level.
The problem is this:
18 year old John Q Taxpayer pays an estimated percentage of his wages towards social security. Johhny Q thinks that these fund will provide a nice nest egg for his retirement. The problem is Johnny Q's social security wage is not being set aside for Johnny Q. It is being used to pay for 65 year old Jane Doe's retirement.
In years to come a large percentage of Jane Doe's peers are set to retire and soon there will not be enough income produced from Johnny Q's generation to supplement full benefits to Jane Doe or her peers. Thus by the time Johnny Q retires there is a concern that the system will collapse and there won' be any benefits allocated to Johnny.
Thus unless Johnny sets up his own IRA or has a pension plan, Johnny is screwed.
Bush wants to give Johnny his dough back so that Johnny can invest in Jim's all you can eat roach buffet. Most people Johnny's age see Jim's roach buffet as the wave of the future. But more experienced older people see the mistake Johnny will make and prefer that Johhny not be given access to his funds. The older people feel that the point of the "fix" should be to secure Johnny's retirement in contrast to helping him screw himself over.
Thus a solution remains to be found.
In regards to my previous posts, I understand concerns over my ideas, but to be honest the U.S. is far from being a land of opportunity for the third world nations. Most people in third world nations would not be able to afford to live here, much less visit.
The people who travers here through international flight have the money to pay a higher tax on their travel.
And the I agree that the US is equally to blame for it's lazy policy on immigration. Yet we have more secure borders than almost any other nation. Thus, penalizing other countries for their lack of secure borders would stand to be justified. Granted I would not penalize the immigrants themselves just their governments.
In doing so the US would also allocate funds to further secure borders and I believe other nations would follow suit, especially in contrast to paying very high penalties.
Regardless my solutions are not a fix all, the truth is the US is in some serious financial trouble. The value of our dollar is actually worthless and I'm not talking market value. I'm talking in a sense that we do not have enough gold to stimulate the economy in the state of an economic collapse. Basically, if we all decided to cash in our paper bills for the gold they represent, we would not receive anything in return.
The only real solution is a complete system collapse. We would need to eliminate all sense of greed and live upon a barter system of equality, free trade based solely upon community and individual needs.
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Post by YoshikiRose on Jan 23, 2005 15:24:20 GMT -5
Thank you for that.
JOHNNY CARSON DIED, OMGWTFBBQ?!
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Post by Marccio on Jan 23, 2005 15:27:35 GMT -5
LOL!!! ;D Fluffy, I love you. ;D But uh yeah, that makes more sense.
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