OMG remember when Bush wanted to do that? Then the stock market dropped like a rock, and his plan with it. Privatizing even a portion of social security is a virtual guarantee that we are going to bail a lot of irresponsible people out a few decades out. |
Better in the hand of wallstreet rather than the governmen can't make profits and steals from it to pay everything else |
For the entire 21st century you are absolutely, mathematically wrong. What's more, under the republican plan the investment adviser is each future retiree and that NWA s thepeople who need soc sec the most are the ones likely to bet on bad stock tips. But worst of all is that it appears that 401k fees have eaten 1/3 of America's private retirement money according to the recent study. So even if John q public is a good investor and the market does not decline like it has for more than a decade, we still get screwed by fees. Wall Street is not Tge place to out money that you have to count on. |
Define poor. But in general, yes. I want the poor to have some skin in the game at the federal level. Many have none in right now. Here is an easy way. The biggest nutritional problem faced by our poor is obesity. Caused in large part by too much fast food and junk food. They can eat 50 fewer meals at McDonalds each year and send the money they would have spent to Washington. Please remember that most of our poor live in conditions that would put them firmly in the middle class in most of the rest of the world. Cars, TVs, heat and AC, indoor plumbing, a roof, potable water, refrigerator, smart phones, game consoles, Internet, guns, I could go on and on. Here in Fairfax County where I live, some people in government subsidized housing have granite countertops and 24 hour gym privileges. Whoever approved that should be placed in stocks. |
The poor have more than enough skin in the game. They are poor. In case you didn't notice, the biggest motivation to make money is not having money. On top of that, the tax burden is not that far off from the wealthy. A mother of 3 making $20k a year gets 10% of her paycheck taken out every week. That's not that far off from Mitt Romney, a guy who makes his income from investments at 14%. As an aside, it seems odd that you would choose to impose a junk food tax on the poor yet begrudge them if they have access to a gym. It appears that you really don't care about their health and will play both sides of an issue in order to disaparage them. That said, I don't know that many poor people who have free access to a gym. |
Urban (and suburban) poor are very different than rural poverty. Rural poverty means a roof rotting above your head and no indoor plumbing... |
There is a level of subsistence and then there are the extras. Poor must eat, we should feed them. Poor must have shelter, we should provide them shelter, poor need education. We should provide them shelter. I'll even go so far as they need healthcare, so we should provide that and childcare, within reason.
However, in an effort to make sure the poor don't feel different because they are poor, we provide them money and give them discretion how to spend it. Poor people need basics to subsist and education to succeed not cash in hand. I am sorry, but sending a check and saying spent it on what you want is stupid. And if you don't want make someone poor feel bad and you therefore give them granite countertops and gym memberships, they have no incentive to not be poor anymore. I am making sweeping generalizations, but the point is I work hard and I don't have granite countertops, a gym membership and I'll paying for my kids education for years after they go to school or they will. I am tired of being told I need to take care of other people's kids too. I worked my way out of the poverty level and others can too. And yes, I got subsisitence help from the government and I am ok with that. I kept food on the table when mom worked after dad died. But granite countertops are ridiculous. Helping the poor has gotten so derailed. |
Typo alert. We should provide education for the poor. |
Dude. It i snot like FFX County is going into a poor person's house and installing granite countertops. They are working in conjunction with several condo and apartment communities(that may or may not have granite in them) to provide subsidized housing sprinkled throughout the county to avoid the problems of crime and lack of upward mobility that come with grouping all lower income people in projects or ghettos. Can you not see that? Can you not see how it is better to not segregate the poor? AS for your straw man of a 24 hour gym: 1. it will help prevent the obesity problem you decry and 2. It is not like a Lifetime membership--it is the free gym at the housing complex in most cases. |
^ It is not. I really need to proofread. |
You realize that the government doesn't pay for that, right? In order for a development to build a condo complex, they must set aside a certain number of units for affordable housing. Not your tax dollars. |
I don't give a rats patoot how you want to rationalize things. The citizens of FFX county should not be subsidizing granite countertops and 24 hour gym membership for (as I said earlier) "some" of the folks receiving government subsidized housing. I don't care if the condo builders threw the countertops in for free. It is ridiculous and we are paying for it. |
What is wrong with you? It's not an extra cost and i don't get why you are measuring anyone's worth by granite countertops. Our HHI is 160k, i don't have granite countertops or the supposed status they endow, and I do not give a rat's patiootie if some poor fuck ends up with granite countertops if it means we don't end up with projects.
Get your head out of your bitter ass. |
OK now this is garden variety of DCUM bitter. |
I'll ignore the ad hominem. Of course it is an extra cost. On what planet would it not be an extra cost? I'm not measuring anyone's worth by granite. Where did I even come close to saying that. Don't put words in my mouth. We have similar HHI (yours is higher), and I don't have granite either and I don't really care that I don't. We are discussing rich and the poor and what society provides and where we should be looking to address the deficit. I offered the story of FFX County providing these perks as an example of wasteful spending (though you had to follow the thread for that simple context). I can just see it now. You have some folks in FFX County government subsidized housing listening to Obama talking about the rich not paying their fair share. Their heads will of course start to nod up and down in agreement. Meanwhile they will serve meals on granite countertops and then hit the gym. You don't see the irony? |