How to Kill Off Social Security

The Republicans have been trying to eliminate what they view as Roosevelt's socialist program since its inception in 1935. The current plan involves tax cuts and spending on homeland security and the military. They intend to run the budget deficit up so high that curtailing social security benefits will be the only option left to save the American economy. Partial privatization will further reduce the level of benefits that the government will be responsible for.

Once benefits are reduced, public support for the program as a whole will diminish. They hope to finish off Medicare the same way.

At the same time, they are pushing good paying jobs out of the US. They want to return the country, not to the 1950s, but to the 1920s. Because wages paid to American workers will fall, the well to do will be able to afford servants again. If you are looking forward to having a job as a maid or a butler, this is a good plan for you.

Getting Ahead--Which Way Is That?

First, don’t let other people tell you what you want. Advertisers are trying to tell you what you want from cars to clothes to breakfast cereal. Politicians and religious leaders try to tell you what you should want from economics to entertainment to sex. There is so much noise that your own voice may get lost. Here’s a way to listen to yourself.

Imagine that it is five years from now. You are happy and your life is really satisfying. Make a mental picture of this, at home, at work, around your neighborhood, your town, your state. Look at the other people in this scene, look at what you and everyone else are doing. Then write down everything you see going on that shows you that you have the kind of life you want.

Later, go over what you have written, take each thing, one by one, and make a list. Go over the list and choose the one item that seems to be the most important to you. If that is too difficult, choose the top two or three. You can put the whole list in order or just part of it, however you choose.

Now you can think about what you can do to get these things. It isn’t very likely that someone else is going to make your wishes come true. They are all busy trying to get what they want. But there is always something you can do for yourself, something you can do later today, tomorrow or next week by the latest.

It is useful to start again from the beginning every few years. Your wants will change as circumstances change. When people get what they wanted, they start to want other things. Then too, most folks eventually have to accept that some of the things they used to want aren’t possible for them. But experience and learning have usually led them to see other opportunities for happiness.

A Sure Way to Win the Lottery

There is a sure way to win the lottery. Don’t play it. Half the money goes to the state to provide services you don’t have to pay for—provided you don’t play the lottery. Of course, an occasional ticket when the jackpot is really big, principally as a form of entertainment, won’t do any harm. It is the constant shelling out of real money every week that is foolish. (But, thank you for paying my taxes for me. I really appreciate it.)

The vast majority of people who consistently try to get rich quick, stay poor forever. It is those working slowly at getting well off, who have the best chance of success.

If you want to get ahead financially, you need to spend less than you earn. Don’t be so greedy, grow up and stop buying yourself so many toys. Then you need to invest the surplus wisely. Avoid the hot tip. Most of those ideas make someone else rich, not you.

If you’re smart, educate yourself about different forms of investment. If you’re not so smart, start with a saving account. Once you have a few thousand put some in a CD. Save enough to buy your own house rather than renting and buying houses for other people. Then consider a diversified mutual fund in a nice, big, well known family of funds.

You will? Great. The government could take lessons from you. Because of excessive tax cuts, they are already running out of money and about to raid the Social Security and Medicare systems once again.

Personal Responsibility

A man was killed when his car hit a brick wall. He was a drunk and a general pain in the neck. He didn’t leave any money for his family so they looked around for someone to sue.

Their first thought was the bartender who served him the drinks, surely he was responsible for not cutting the man off. But the bar owner had a lot more money than the bartender, so they added him to the suit. He willingly kept on a bartender, who was known to keep on filling the glasses of the inebriated. Then too, the city was culpable for not pulling the bar’s license, so the municipality was named.

And they didn’t forget the people who put that brick wall there, where a hapless intoxicated driver was sure to hit it one day or another. That happened to be the branch office of a major bank. They ignored the brick company, even though they could have made softer bricks. But the manufacturer of dear old dad’s favorite bourbon was wealthier still. Everyone knows how they advertise and get people hooked on an addictive product. The social and monetary cost of alcoholism is legendary. They should pay.

The US government had failed to require warnings on all bottles containing liquor like they do on cigarettes. These guys have serious piles of money, they print it as needed. And surely the family deserved to be well compensated for their loss. Well, what did they do about dad’s drinking?

Dad was the one most responsible for what happened. His family shares in the remaining liability. The part left for others is slight and compensation, if any, should be proportionate.

Misdirected blame is rampant. High school athletic teams from a town that has many gay vacationers were harassed by their opponents for supposedly being homosexual. Rather than reproach the people who mistreated them, they faulted the tourists. It is the person who abuses you who is at fault, not some third party.

It seems that people need to relearn how to place responsibility where it belongs and to accept responsibility when it is their own. At least their fair share.

Congressman Gary Condit is responsible for having an affair with an intern. Chandra Levy is responsible for having an affair with a married man. Her parents are responsible for bringing up a young woman who would. Are any of them responsible for her disappearance? Apparently not.

When You Are Young, Invest in the Future

By working to improve yourself (though education for example) and by putting off pleasure (some of it anyway), you are investing in yourself. And it is like compound interest. Young people are the ones with a future, with the time ahead of them for their investment to grow and pay big returns. You invest in the future by putting time and effort into improving yourself and your situation.

The Tax Code

The government makes laws requiring us to do certain things and, more often, forbidding us from doing other things. Their efforts at social control do not end there.

The tax code is used in matters where the people would not stand for legal requirements. Tax laws are written so that, if we do what they want (invest in state or municipal bonds, for example), we get a tax break. Then there is the confusing alternative minimum tax, where they take back some of the tax breaks they handed out in the first place.

Old folks are often bewildered by the worksheet for figuring out how much of their social security pension is taxable. The process doesn't seem to make any sense. The horrendous complexity of the tax laws is due in part to the multitude of these sorts of provisions.

That is one reason to be against these sections of the tax code. The whole thing is much too complicated. Another reason to oppose this variety of social control is that they should keep their noses out of our business. If the actions they want us to take (or not take) are good for us, we will figure it out for ourselves.

Why the Rich Should Pay More in Taxes

Who are the rich? For the sake of discussion, let's say anyone with a net worth (the value of what they own minus the amount they owe) of five million dollars or more, or an annual income of two hundred thousand or more.

The rich should pay much more of the expenses of government because they benefit much more from the services of government. They have amassed their wealth because of the economic system that the government makes possible. And the government protects their accumulated wealth and property.

The wealthy also benefit from programs that are designed to help the poor and the middle class. In the absence of such programs the distress of the ordinary people would be so great that they would be likely to disrupt the system.

Higher taxes on the rich are appropriate user fees.

Economic Woes

Economists blame the world's financial problems on Americans spending too much on borrowed money, but the same guys say that the solution to any recession is to get American consumers to spend more money. What do they take us for? Never mind, it's obvious. Worse still, they're right about that.

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