The amount of your Social Security pension is based on your most recent 35 years of contributions. "Early generations of SS recipients, who paid a lot less into the system..." received a lot less in benefits in nominal dollars, however their dollars may have gone further. The risk for future Social Security recipients is related to the credit worthiness of the USA, and hence to deficits in the discretionary budget. All of the Trust's assets are invested in Treasury bonds. Future Social Security recipients will pay part of the cost of unfunded wars and defense department waste via uncompensated inflation. There is no free lunch. We might have fewer wars and a much smaller defense department budget if these costs were paid directly via taxation rather then indirectly via inflation. Most don't understand the link between deficits and inflation ; thus paying for wars and a bloated defense department via inflation hides the real cost. The plutocrats who profit from these wars no doubt realize that.
Actually, it's your thinking that is short term. Number one problem of the world is overpopulation. If people decide to have children, then they have to have the means to raise them. The problem is that people rarely do - too many are just a burden and nothing else. Large families made sense at a time when most of them would die at birth or at an early age due to disease - the first world has no such threats, that leaves only the people who drink too much and/or don't know how to use birth control. There is a proven negative correlation between low IQ parents and large (3 or more children) families - does the world really need more dumb people?
I'd like to earnestly suggest to my fellow businessmen to join the Libertarian party. I grew up in a Democratic family, not necessarily leftist at all, just generally blue. The reason for this, I think, is that we, as a family are all generally tolerant, socially liberal (okay with gays, women's rights, tolerant of alcohol & soft drugs, etc.). As I entered the derivatives world I was still a Democrat but in the last six to eight years the Democrats have really alienated me. For starters, I'm staunchly supportive of the Second Amendment. The Democrats are so backwards and ignorant on this issue (just look at the city of Chicago!) that I can hardly think they believe their own rhetoric. On Financial issues, the Democrats are dead last. Krugman is a great example of a Dem ideologue. He's a despicable man who would ruin our republic if given a chance. They despise success and cannot empathize with those who are striving to attain great success. HOWEVER...... The Republican party has been co-opted by a different group of ideologues who are more focused on gays having sex and marrying, then on important issues like the economy, the debt and restoring our civil liberties. In other words, what was once the party of 'small government' now wants to regulate what you do in your bedroom, what your wife or girlfriend can or cannot do; and tries to teach YOUR children the Earth is 6,000 years old. GWB is a good example of a man who was both a traitor to his party's ideals, and to his nation. His fascist and constitution-trampling eight years did MUCH to push moderates and centrists, on both sides of the aisle, towards the Democratic party. I hope you all understand this. So, if you are fiscally CONSERVATIVE, believe in a balanced budget, defensive (not offensive) military posture; yet are TOLERANT of others, including gays and those who are different from us, then I would humbly submit you may want to make a statement in your life, and help us change the dynamic of our federal republic. JOIN THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY. It's the next "big" thing. Tl;dr - I'm fiscally conservative but socially permissive and tolerant. Krugman and Karl Rove both disgust me. I'm recruiting you for the Libertarian party! =)
That's a very good synopsis, especially the part about Dubya...as he clearly did so much damage to the party that he enabled O's re-election. Like alot of others here, I think it's over. It's a given that we are going to have another economic debacle in the next four years. Entitlements will expand, joblessness will increase, etc...By 2016, we'll have even more startling numbers of "wards of the state". There is a dwindling audience for a party of self-reliance, when we could very well have 60+% of the population directly supported by the govt.
Any productive member of society who sticks around for that will be getting what they deserve. -burn8
Realistically, how many people can just get up and move across the world? Even worse, alot of previous destinations are unraveling in a major way...
Been self-identifying as Libertarian since the early 1990's. Basically, do whatever you want that doesn't require me to pay for it. Plus, as a man, I am compelled to be logical and the libertarian position is the most logical and masculine ideology. http://righteousmind.com/largest-study-of-libertarian-psych/ "2) On reasoning and emotions: Libertarians have the most âmasculineâ style, liberals the most âfeminine.â We used Simon Baron-Cohenâs measures of âempathizingâ (on which women tend to score higher) and âsystemizingâ, which refers to âthe drive to analyze the variables in a system, and to derive the underlying rules that govern the behavior of the system.â Men tend to score higher on this variable. Libertarians score the lowest of the three groups on empathizing, and highest of the three groups on systemizing. (Note that we did this and all other analyses for males and females separately.) On this and other measures, libertarians consistently come out as the most cerebral, most rational, and least emotional. On a very crude problem solving measure related to IQ, they score the highest. Libertarians, more than liberals or conservatives, have the capacity to reason their way to their ideology."