[Rhodes22-list] Political - for Brad's Eyes - not relatedtosailing!

[brad haslett]

Stan,

Be careful what you wish for.  You're right, the
original intent was for SS to be an insurance program,
not a substitute for responsible planning.  I'd gladly
drop out today and forgo all future benefits but that
won't happen.  All the polls show that the current
recepients want "the rich" to pay the way and I fully
expect the current $90,000 limit to be raised.  Albert
Einstein said the eighth wonder of the world was
compound interest.  I'd like to see my kids take
advantage of that by putting a percentage of their
earnings into a controlled investing program.  That is
precisely the retirement program available to Federal
Government workers and I don't see a rush on their
part to give it up for the SS program.  I think if the
BHL's would look past their hatred of W they might see
he's hardly the fiscal conservative those of us to the
right of Attila the Hun would like.  Like my friend
always says, in many ways, Bill Clinton was the best
conservative President we had in a long time. W is way
to friendly with the pocket-book on programs like
Medicare for me.  As to the cuts in agriculture, he's
right on target. Sometimes things are not what they
appear.  I do think Bush is right to take on SS now
and not let the problem fester for future generations.
 The devil is in the details.  We won't hear the end
of this for a long time.

Brad


--- stan <stan at rhodes22.com> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> I do not even remember his name yet but the senate
> minority leader sounded 
> good to me, so far (another Truman type?)
> 
> Re SS. from a selfish point of view Rose and I are
> getting ours so why worry 
> (but you know I need diversionary entertainment). 
> So I'll ad that we have 
> thought that everyone was looking at this program
> myopically.  It really 
> either was meant to be, or should have been meant to
> be, a Social Security 
> Insurance program where everyone pays into it and
> only those who need it 
> when the time comes take the benefits..  My
> father-in-law was modestly 
> wealthy and kept getting his SS checks which amazed
> us kids because he 
> simply didn't need it and so would put it into the
> stock market - he was 
> ahead of Bush's time.... .
> 
> My guess is that while the president is out there
> pushing his investing in 
> the market idea, the market is going to be crashing
> and kill the vote.
> 
> stan/ec
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com>
> To: "stan" <stan at rhodes22.com>; "The Rhodes 22 mail
> list" 
> <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 9:35 AM
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - for Brad's
> Eyes - not 
> relatedtosailing!
> 
> 
> > Stan,
> >
> > One of the names that keeps coming up for the Dems
> in
> > 2008 is Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.  Evan
> Bayh
> > shot himself in the foot with a lot of moderates
> over
> > the Condi vote.  Bredesen was Mayor of Nashville,
> a
> > self-made multi-millionare from the health care
> > industry, from the Northeast originally, and I
> voted
> > for him as Governor and probably could as
> President.
> > Anyway, Bredesen just last month made massive cuts
> in
> > Tennessee's universal health-care program,
> Tenn-Care,
> > because it wasn't sustainable and was bankrupting
> the
> > state.  I think nearly everyone with a heart wants
> > universal access to health care but these huge
> social
> > programs have so far proven difficult to
> administer.
> > Ever been to a hospital in China?  Change in our
> > current system is certainly needed but massive
> > government take-over of health care hasn't worked
> all
> > that well in the communist/socialist countries and
> I
> > don't see it working well here either.
> >
> > Now as to SS.  Did you read what Greenspan had to
> say?
> > Certainly everyone that has bought into the myth
> of
> > SS, like my parents, need to be protected.  But
> for my
> > kids, they need to be told the truth.  When the
> > program started the ratio was 40 workers for every
> > recipient.  Now its 3 to one.  When I start
> drawing
> > benefits (I'm not holding my breath on that and am
> > planning otherwise) the ratio will be 2 to 1. 
> This is
> > a no-brainer Stan.  The numbers don't add up. 
> When
> > you politize the math and scare the shit out of
> old
> > people its irresponsible.  I can't honestly look
> my
> > kids in the eye and tell them that SS is a good
> deal
> > for them.  The handwriting is on the wall.  This
> is
> > not a Republican or a Democrat problem, this is
> simple
> > demographics.  Go to the latest McKinsey
> newsletter
> > and you'll see China is facing the same problem. 
> Its
> > simple math!
> >
> > Brad
> > 
> 
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