Guest Post: The Social Security System Is Already Broke
Submitted by Jim Quinn from The Burning Platform
Free Shit "Disabled" Army Massing Its Forces
Whenever I hear a liberal MSM talking head say that Social Security is not a problem, I want to throw something at the TV. Obama and Romney both declared the Social Security system sound. They lied to the American people that it will only require minor tweaks to keep it solvent for a hundred years. Liberals hate math. The Social Security System has an unfunded liability of $18 trillion. This means our politicians have promised $18 trillion more than they can possibly pay out. I guess $18 trillion is trivial to a liberal minded person like Krugman or Obama. Lucky for them that 99% of all Americans don’t understand what unfunded liability even means. The chart below gives the gory details. The Social Security system had a negative cashflow of $47.8 billion last year, after running a $48 billion deficit the year before. You may notice that 77% of this deficit was created by the SSDI program, where the depressed masses gather after their 99 weeks of unemployment run out. Do you have a headache? Are you depressed because liquor stores don’t accept food stamps? Did you pull a muscle getting on your government provided rascal? Trouble hearing your Obama phone? Then you are eligible for SSDI.
The funniest line item on the chart is the Assets at End of Year line, which shows the Social Security system having $2.7 trillion. Even using this funny number, the SSDI will be broke in three years. Al Gore told us this money was in a lockbox. They take it out of your paycheck and put it into a fund, waiting for you to retire and collect what you’re owed. Right? Wrong! If you tried to observe the vault with the $2.7 trillion on deposit, you’d be looking for a long long time. You see, the noble politicians in Washington DC took the $2.7 trillion and spent it on undeclared wars overseas, ethanol subsidies, investments in Solyndra, turtle crossings, tax breaks for hedge funds, TARP, bailing out AIG, subsidizing GM, $800 billion stimulus packages, cash for clunkers, homebuyer tax credits, predator drones, DHS, Sandy relief and thousands of other buckets of shit. There are nothing but IOU’s in the vault. The $2.7 trillion is long gone. The U.S. government had to borrow $47.8 billion to fund SS last year. They will have to borrow over $50 billion this year. There will be 10,000 per day turning 65 for the next decade. The borrowing will rise exponentially. If the $2.7 trillion actually existed, why would we need to borrow?
The trust funds are required by law to hand over all surplus revenues to the Treasury and the Treasury then provides “special issue” non-marketable bonds—essentially electronic IOUs—to the trust funds in return for the cash. These “IOUs” become part of the national debt. When the Treasury pays “interest” that increases the value of the Social Security Trust Funds it does so by increasing the number of IOUs it owes the trust funds. When the Social Security program runs a net cash flow deficit, as it has in the last three fiscal years, the Treasury needs to borrow cash from the “public” to keep the program funded.
Does this look like a trend that is going to reverse itself or level out with 10,000 Boomers turning 65 years old every freaking day?
These costs will be exceeding $1 trillion per year in the near future. Meanwhile, the number of workers per retiree will continue to fall as it has for decades. In 1945 there were 42 workers per retiree. In 1965 there were 5 workers per retiree. Today there are less than 2.5 workers per retiree. There are only 1.6 full time private workers for every one retiree. With Obamacare working its magic of destroying jobs across the land, there is much less revenue going into the Social Security System. The system is unsustainable and ignoring the problem will not make it go away.
A recent article on Bloomberg below barely scratches the surface of the massive fraud going on in the SSDI program. Those who think we owe them a living are faking disabilities by the millions. The number of annual applications were flat at 2.1 million per year between 2004 and 2007. They now exceed 3 million per year, as the Obama administration has actively attempted to get more people on the dole. In a matter of a couple years, there were suddenly 40% more people getting disabled. Amazing!!!
Shockingly, as 1.4 million people have been kicked off the 99 week unemployment rolls, the number of people applying for SSDI skyrocketed. Just because the scumbags on Wall Street and in the rest of corporate America commit fraud on a massive scale does not mean we should look the other way when lowlifes in our community do the same thing on a smaller scale. The working middle class pays the bill for the cost of both frauds. More than 90% of all the people who go onto SSDI never go back to work. This program was supposed to be short term until people could recover and go back to work. There are now 8.83 million people so disabled, they supposedly can’t work. There are only 12 million officially unemployed people in the country. The government is so incompetent, they barely check the applications for SSDI. Anyone with an ounce of brain power (this disqualifies anyone on MSNBC) knows that at least 50% of the people on SSDI are capable of some form of employment.
The Social Security system is already broke. The money is gone. Pretending all is well is for fools and there are millions of them in this country. If someone within the leadership of this country was honest with the American people we could fix the Social Security system. A combination of age adjustments, means testing, and reconfiguration of income levels subject to the tax could make it viable. Too bad Washington is inhabited by snakes, scumbags, liars and knaves. Corrupt lowlife politicians, lying liberal media whores, and a delusional populace will ignore the Social Security problem until it becomes a crisis of epic proportions. Then they will propose wrong solutions and implement them badly. Some things are easily predictable.
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Why would anyone eat cat food when protein in egg form is so damned cheap?
Apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in Francis' case. Or the cat food aisle, more to the point.
and plants
and you don't need as much protein as you think (Big AG BS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t_LxpCY2G8
If you are looking for racism and bigotry, you need not look any farther than the mirror.
Leading fundamentalist rabbis gather in Israel to defend the publication of a book, Torat Ha'Melech, that attempted to provide halakhic justification for the killing of non-Jews, including innocent children and families. The gathering exposed not only the ferocious racism of a swath of Israel's pro-settlement rabbinate, but the powerlessness of the government to stop them. Produced by Max Blumenthal, Joseph Dana and Alternet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jG6kJm-50k
Here is a great youtube clip - a journalist trying to intervew Jewish people in Israel.. He is literally run out of town. Take a look at this and then get back to me you self-righteous asshole. You can sing your sorry song until the cows come home but it does not change right-from-wrong.
Deal with it.
What the hell is going on with all the joo shit?
Joo joo joo joo jooooooooooo is all I've seen here for the last few days.
I guess it's time to go away for a few days and hope the joo haters go back into the closet.
Agreed. It's really getting tedious. We get it - you're incredibly clever and need attention, so feel compelled to hijack everybody else's time, energy, and intellectual bandwidth.
Dummies, could ya please give it a rest for awhile, already?! Wouldn't the joo comments work better for everybody on a nice hunting or outdoorsmans site?
I was going to up arrow you until I read all of your post and you decided to out down hunters and outdoorsman.
Ignore these guys. I really think it is some psyop to make ZH look like a bulletin board for anti-semitix [sic]. Let's just ignore them.
Isn't it interesting that the Joo posts come out when potentially socially destabilizing topics are being discussed?
I smell a psyop.
francis_sawyer was being completely ON TOPIC by pointing out the hypocrisy of CH1 [with regards to his lamenting about the inevitable demise of the Social Security system]...
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- I believe I am correct in observing that the system is in FAIL MODE as we speak
- The only thing, at this point, that can keep it going, will be MORE FIAT DOLLARS [joobux ~ as I've come to call them]
- Doing so will bring about another whole set of problems [the proverbial catfood that grandma has to eat is only the tip of the iceberg ~ the PETRODOLLAR nature of the currency all but requires that resource wars be continuously fought which bring about death & destruction to innocent lives]...
- francis_sawyer IS NOT printing the money
- francis_sawyer does not hold the franchise for printing the money
- Yet THERE IS 'a franchise' that was given 'the franchise' to print money [a feat which was achieved mostly through manipulation, extortion, & even murder ~ which continue to this day]... It DID NOT happen randomly or on its own...
- said 'FRANCHISE' counts, among it's members [& more importantly in the higher echelons of the organization & key administrative & policy positions], an almost mathematically impossible number of 'folks' who identify AMONGST THEMSELVES as [insert "witch" metaphor here]...
~~~
The COMMENT SECTION of ZH spends all of it's time "wanking off", talking about "solutions" & complaining about the situation ~ yet nobody even wants to acknowledge what's at the root of this problem [because it offends their faux 'coffeehouse' decorum & otherwise puts their panties in a bunch]...
The problem [with EVERYTHING, INCLUDING SOCIAL SECURITY, ~ but instead 'Popo', above, thinks we need a fucking Ivory Tower debate on the subject ~ Maybe 'experts' like Lew, Geither, Paulson, Bernanke, Greenspan, Krugman, & Bob Rubin can put their vast intellects together and come up with something that is sure to be FAIR for everyone]... The PROBLEM IS DEBT MONEY... & THE GODDAMNED MONEY DOESN'T JUST PRINT ITFUCKING SELF people... Somebody actually does that & they have their own interests in mind when they do... Fret not ~ your ONLY responsibility in the matter will be to JUNK francis_sawyer posts if he ever calls 'FOUL' on the master plan of your heroes...
~~~
To put this into a more 'hypothetical' posture... END THE DEBT BASED FIAT MONEY SYSTEM [& you'll see that francis_sawyer will rarely uteer a peep about so called "witches" ~ you'll find it has ZERO to do with 'anti-semitism or bigotry]... However ~ until that system is ended, it will be at the root of every single goddamned thing that anybody talks about because of its inherent ubiquitous characteristic...
There are plenty of things in the world that bug me... I'm bugged by the fact that I can't go through a day without seeing a link to a story aboutwhat Kim Kardashian's last fart smelled like... But Kim Kardashian isn't stealing from my grandmother & I don't use a Kardashian card as LEGAL TENDER to buy things...
I'm outta here people... Good riddance, right?... I'm sure the system will just magically heal itself overnight now that we've discovered that it was all francis_sawyers [& his bigoted views] fault all along... As for the "witches" ~ I have zero doubt that [whether francis_sawyer is around or not], the topic will come up over & over & over & over again... Why?... Because as distracted as people get in their daily lives, they still have the uncanny knack to sense who's STEALING from them...
Ummmm, you are Francis Sawyer. You forgot to switch log-ins before you began your rant about Francis Sawyer...Francis Sawyer. WTF kind of game are you playing? One guy racist...the other guy fair minded but not bigoted sticking up for the general concepts of the dumbass racist.
Incorrect... I didn't 'switch log-ins'... I usually refer to myself in the 3rd person...
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The 'racist' image that you have of francis_sawyer is cultivated because your eyes are vicariously drawn to the legions of attackers that come out of the woodwork when I make a comment... It gets pretty funny sometimes... I gotta say that this time was a particular dandy [all the way to the Popo suggestion that I'm sort of bot straight from Langley]... Talk about 'hijacking' an argument!...
I've taken the time, in numerous threads, to MAKE IT CLEAR what the 'root' of the problem is... Still ~ nobody wants to see that... They refuse to let themselves see it because it's easier to toss out the 'bigot' bomb & be lavished with praise & accolades by their fellow sheep...
I'll make a bet with you... From here on out... I could just COPY & PASTE the following [from my last post]...
~~~
The PROBLEM IS DEBT MONEY... & THE GODDAMNED MONEY DOESN'T JUST PRINT ITFUCKING SELF people... Somebody actually does that & they have their own interests in mind when they do...
~~~
As a stand alone ~ there is no reference to "jews" in that statement whatsoever [& the statement has a great deal of truth to it]... But I'd still receive a lot of junks from making that statement simply due to correlation [in the minds of readers] who can't move past the 'toxic sound byte' part & onward to the 'spirit' of my comments & distinctions... So who would be the bigot in that scenario?
~~~
So in the end ~ ZH will move on with 'DEEP THINKERS' [like CH1] who make the following comments:
"You have to wonder how long productive people will simply take it as they are robbed and shit upon.
Is there no limit to the abuse they will take?
No point at which they stop worshiping their abusers?"
...and the masses will CHEER his wisdom [especially the part about where he so DEFTLY 'identified' the abusers in question ~ that part must have been written in invisible ink]...
My guess is that CH1 [& pals] actually LIKE having their head shoved in a toilet & given a swirlie... That's why I called him a 'hypocrite' [& would likewise classify his supporters]...
Footnote: It also strikes me as odd that, the other day [or ~ a couple of times even], there have been threads where 'Piers Morgan' was at the centre... The comment section was full of 'limey bastard' quips [yet 'a good time was had by all' as nobody seemed reticent to say anything about it]... I was not a participant in those threads...
WTF ever... Carry on sheepies...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rooPPLtK9pg
Incorrect... I didn't 'switch log-ins'... I usually refer to myself in the 3rd person
Your first and second person are racist and small minded. Go peddle "joooooo" somewhere else.
It been around for a while , but it certainly seems to be getting worse. I prefer to ignore the commentary of people who like to generalize about a whole race of people, it tells me a lot about the quality of their character. Every culture has its own group of sycophants. They Jewish people don't have the corner on the market in that category.
I'll caveat this with the fact that I am not Jewish so perhaps I am ignorant of this fact, but I thought that Jews were a religious and/or geographic group and not a "race."
Moot point on the broader topic. I really don't give a shit what , race, religion, ethnicity, creed, color , or any other term you want to use. Every one of them have a minority of sycophants that make the majority look bad.
I thought the majority had it all wrong. Tyranny of the majority and all that. The large majority are poor. The sycophants are generally wealthy Rand devotees who abhor the majority.
Rand was committed to trading value for value. Some may claim to be Rand devotees or libertarians or the like but a wise man once said, "by their fruits you shall know them." The Jim Taggerts of the world think they are really Hank Reardons. That's to be expected. But it is those who refuse to trade value for value, both rich and poor, who hate the majority.
And Rand wrote books.
Yes, she did.
Fiction books. She did not build a single railroad.
She also wrote collections of essays. But you are correct in saying that she did not build railroads.
Because the main takeaway from Atlas Shrugged is that people who build railroads are morally superior.
"You can't fake reality" - From a completely unrealistic work of fiction.
If you are in your teens or twenties and believe what Ayn Rand wrote, well, good for you for reading serious books.
If you are older than your thirties ... it's time to grow up and think for yourself. There are holes in her logic you could drive a train through.
When I was in my teens and twenties I was a liberal Democrat. In my early forties I learned that freedom can't be provided by an elite class with guns and prisons. Then I read Atlas Shrugged.
Rand's central points are that man must base his morality on reason and that to be happy one must live by one's own values rather than by the values of others. If that is untrue please give me examples of why basing morality on anything other than reason is logical as well as examples of how you have given up your own values and live according to the whims of others.
From ATLAS SHRUGGED, by Ayn Rand, page 387:
"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve that mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
That's correct. In a free society where the elite can't use their existing position to keep productive individuals down the hapless inheritor of wealth can only fritter his money away. That money will flow to the productive people who provide the layabout with wines and cheese and boats and mansions.
the only race I have a problem with is the one to the cliff
The question should be "why does a small group of foreign loyalists have such a grip on US politics?"
http://www.occupyaipac.org/
http://www.stopaipac.org/
Challenging AIPAC. For a New Foreign PolicyAIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, describes itselfs the most important organization affecting the U.S. relationship with Israel. With a budget of $65 million, and membership now standing at over 100,000, it is no wonder that congressional staffers consider it one of the most powerful and effective lobbies on Capitol Hill.
Once a year, AIPAC holds its annual conference in Washington DC. In March of 2012, it was attended by over 12,000 participants. Its annual policy conference is one of Washington’s largest gatherings of lawmakers, topped only by the President’s State of the Union address. Guests this year included President Obama and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi,Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . However, since Stop AIPAC went online about 6 years ago, something has changed.
This year, like last year, the AIPAC policy conference was directly confronted and challanged by hundreds of citizen-activists from around the country who held a conference of their own, supporting peace with justice and an end to the racism and militarism supported by AIPAC. Under the banner "Occupy AIPAC", politicians were confronted with a different voice.
We *still* rarely hear a critical word uttered among politicians regarding AIPAC and its associates that support unjust and aggressive (and disastrous) U.S. policies toward the peoples of the Middle East. Politicians still mostly pander to an unjust status quo, even while giving lip-service to "change". Yet we are determined as ever to change that.
For too long, policies that support Israeli militarism and occupation have gone unchallenged. Political voices raising even minor disagreements with prevailing policies are silenced or subject to campaigns of intimidation. We must open the door to full debate regarding U.S. relationship with Israel and U.S. policy with other countries in the region.
These pages will examine how AIPAC and related institutions (usually collectively known as the "Israel Lobby") support a dangerous status quo, including AIPAC's support for U.S. military aid to Israel, which amounts to over $3 billion per year. We will examine its support for even the worst of Israeli policies, and its support for further U.S. military action in the region.
We will provide resources to counter AIPAC initiatives before Congress, such as the current legislation in Congress to punish the Palestinian people. You will hear many voices and listen to the debate among those who want U.S. policy to change but differ on how influential the "Israel Lobby" really is in formulating that policy.
Most importantly, we will serve as a resource for people organizing actions to challenge the status quo. We believe that changing U.S. policy is really the bottom line. The people of the United States, and the people of the world, deserve better than policies of endless war, occupation, and support for dispossession of the Palestinian people. We the people want a policy based on fairness and mutual respect. Therefore, we welcome the participation of those who want a U.S. foreign policy based on adherence to international law and support for human rights for everyone.
That's the key to the broken Social Security system?
I am one of those who believe 9-11 was an inside job.
If 9-11 had not occurred, Bush would not have been elected a 2nd term, Iraq/Afghanistan wars would not have been undertaken, the generous tax cuts at the same time, the collapse of the housing industry, the 2008 stock market crash, the job loss amounting in the 10s of millions from the outsourcing of now monopolized manufacturing, the banking bail out.
They say you cannot understand a beginning until you see the end.
In the summer of 1954, Israel conducted a covert false-flag operation in Egypt known as "Operation Susannah."
Israeli agents launched terrorist bombing attacks against U.S. -, British-, and Egyptian-owned targets in Egypt. Since 1950, it had been U.S. policy to pressure the British to withdraw from the Suez Canal and abandon two treaties: the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which made the canal a neutral zone under British control, and the Convention of Constantinople. Israel feared that a British withdrawal would remove a check on Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser's military ambitions.
After Israel's diplomatic efforts failed to convince the British to stay, Israel unleashed a false-flag terrorist operation designed to convince the British to stay while framing the Egyptians.
Israeli Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was forced to resign because of the incident, and the scandal came to bear his name. The break between Ben-Gurion and Eshkol occurred over Ben-Gurion's insistence on fully investigating and learning lessons from the sordid Lavon Affair. Eshkol was insistent that investigating the affair was a waste of time, and wished to bury it as soon as possible. On December 13, 1964, he addressed the issue to the Mapai Central Committee.
"If I vote in favor of an inquiry into the Lavon Affair…We would be opening a Pandora's box of troubles. It will not end with this affair or with this investigation. We'll be spending the next fifteen years dealing with investigations into various unsolved matters."[xviii]
Levi Eshkol, the Jewish Agency executive overseeing funding for the establishment of the Israel lobby in the United States, successfully quashed Ben-Gurion's demand to appoint a judicial inquiry into Israel's false-flag attack on America when he became prime minister of Israel.[xix]
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Voltaire has the answer to this question: Submitted by SocalLibertyGuy on Sat, 12/01/2012 - 00:57. Permalink"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
Something has gone terribly wrong in this country when We The People and even our own politicians are still able to criticize our own government, but unable to criticize AIPAC or the government of Israel without severe negative political or personal consequences.
—I am not frightened of terrorism, so don't go and create a police state on my account.
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." Voltaire
That's fascinating but are you ever going to actually utter the words "Social Security" in any of your diatribes?
I am sorry. I did not mean to distract from the topic. Social security ...The most rational solution to this problem would be to make all income subject to social security taxes.
Not income. Wealth. 400 people have more wealth than 1/2 of the country combined. They took the funds for SS and now tell us that there is no way to fund it, and they point out (correctly because wealth is not taxed as income) that higher income tax won't fix it.
Social Security now pays out less than what recipients have paid in. Why would you consider propping up a system which is less efficient than stuffing cash under a mattress to be rational?
"Social Security now pays out less than what recipients have paid in."
I wonder where all that money went? I guess we'll never know. Chauncy, take me around the park again. And get my Senator on the phone.
It was stolen by the government just like any other tax. Government is the problem.
400 individuals have more wealth than 1/2 of the nation combined. Before elected government, they called it tribute. A lot of smart men blamed the tax/tribute collector instead of the person who ultimately received the spoils. They were wrong.
If the receiver of the spoils employs a taxman to collect those spoils then why should I sanction the work of the taxman?
World's richest women (none of whom built a railroad or anything else):
1. Christy Walton. The widow of John Walton, she inherited his fortune of $15.7 billion after he died in an airplane accident in 2005. Regaining her 2010,2011 title as world’s richest woman, she got an extra bump in her fortune because of her late husband’s early investment in First Solar; shares up nearly 500% since 2006 initial public offering.
2. Lilleane Bettencourt. France’s richest woman and the only child of Eugene Schueller, her late father founded L’Oreal one of the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty companies.
3. Alice Walton. The daughter of Wal-Mart co-founder, her father, Sam Walton (d. 1922), a former clerk, founded original Bentonville store with his brother James. Today Wal-Mart has sales of $405 billion, employs more than 2.1 million people.
4. Georgia Rinehar. The heiress of Hancock Prospecting and the daughter of the late mining magnate Lang Hancock. She is the richest person in Australia and the richest woman in Asia.
5. Iris Fontbana. The second wife, and now widow, of billionaire Andronico Luksic, who died of cancer in 2005. The family controls Antofagasta, one of the world’s largest copper miners. As of 2012, Iris Fontbona and her family have a net worth of $17.8 billion
etc. This is your desired system. The rich get richer for doing NOTHING other than being born or married into it. Sounds like a Kingdom to me.
Does Ms. Rand think this the productive class? Yes, she does.
My desired system is anarchy. Do you think that's what we have?
Yes. And that's what you don't begin to understand. Anarchy always devolves into the most powerful controlling everything. Look around. Do you think we live in a free society of elected representatives?
So in your opinion there are no rulers, there are no taxes, there are no armies or nuclear bombs?
Those who do not wish for others to officiate over their affairs remain bound no matter how those officials take power. Where voluntary action is prevented there can be no freedom.
Government is predicated on giving an elite class a monopoly on violence in order to compel your obedience. What could be more devolved than that? Anarchy, or a lack of rulers, allows individuals to voluntarily organize around those with the best ideas at any given time. Government is instituted by the elites specifically to prevent such voluntary action.
Can you think of another solution? Want to step over dying bodies on the way to the office each morning?
Starting fraud investigation units to get the scavengers off the system would help.
As putting money under the mattress outperforms social security allowing individuals to do so would lead to less pain rather than more.
But in the real world people can invest money in their own business, or the business of a friend or family member or of a trusted entrepreneur or in their children's education or in their church or social group or in some combination of those things and thereby make preparations for their final years.
'The most rational solution to this problem would be to make all income subject to social security taxes.'
Why bother, just have Uncle [Sam] Bernanke print out the fiat needed for those social security programs.
All these divide and conquer bullshit articles about taxes mean diddly squat with regards to the big picture. Taxes are merely another millstone around your necks (one unlike the rat race [mortgage] that is escaped ultimately and only by death) to keep you all running in circles within their fiat monetary system (stockpiling PMs and other possessions pisses them off big time because it is simply not theirs to control).
It just so happens that a large percentage of the persons that perpetuate this ponzi (remember, money is debt and needs to be paid back with non-existent interest) share a Jewish characteristic worthy of thought (ignoring the other issue regarding laws in several countries against those that dare to question the Holocaust; if that event was so shocking and as real as the educational propaganda [hmmm bit of a miscalculation, 6 million down to 1.5 million, ignoring the gypsies and other 'indesirables'] fed through the educational system presents then why the need for many countries to have such laws enforced).
But by all means, scream at the TV about the 'terrorists' (the new 'reds under the bed') or any other boogieman of choice and/or where your taxes are going and I'll keep trying to figure out how since 1971 people could waste so much blood, sweat, tears and time over shitty pieces of printed paper/polymer and worthless cupronickel coins.
Fuck you very much, Bernanke et. al.
"Bush would not have been elected a 2nd term, Iraq/Afghanistan wars would not have been undertaken, the generous tax cuts at the same time, the collapse of the housing industry, the 2008 stock market crash, the job loss amounting in the 10s of millions from the outsourcing of now monopolized manufacturing, the banking bail out."
Bush won in 2004 not because of 9-11, but because of the Medicare prescription drug coverage, the $300 checks (economic stimulous), and the Greenspan Put (dropping rates to 1% causing a credit bubble. Bush's apponent, Herman Munster, ran a presidental campaign like Dukakis, or a Bob Dole, and pulled an "I invented the internet" Gore, with his "I voted for it, before I voted against it".
"Iraq/Afghanistan wars would not have been undertaken, the generous tax cuts at the same time, the collapse of the housing industry, the 2008 stock market crash, the job loss amounting in the 10s of millions from the outsourcing of now monopolized manufacturing, the banking bail out."
Most of was already in progress before 2004. We entered Afghanstan in 2001, Iraq invasion began in 2003, Bush Tax cuts happened in 2001 or 2002. Outsourcing began in the 1990s (even earlier as US manufacturing jobs shifted to "no Pollution laws", and nearly free labor China and India sweat shops). The Internet also changed the US economy into a global economy since datacom permitted rapid transfer of knowledgebase labor anywhere nearly instantously making it very easy for business to source labor overseas). By 2002 the US economy was doomed since the Dot-com bubble fed by the Greenspan Y2K Put had already sent the economy into a destructive tail spin (Credit bubble, Gov't spending problems, etc). Bush's Push into Iraq was to (errant) was to secure sources of cheap convential oil (ie the 1999 Halliburton-Cheney Speech that America needs to secure another Iraq to keep the US economy running which Bush did literally). Bush was aware of problems with global oil production and used terriorism as the road to justify securing convential Middle East Oil. If 9-11 was an "inside job" than it was started by Clinton since the Hijackers and others involved in it, started working on it back in 1998. Bush could not have planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (also while Clintion was the Pres)
If Al "$5 Gas" Gore had been elected, the US would face the same problems today, and the economy would have been much worse if Gore was able to push his anti-fossil pro-global warming agenda as policy. Nothing the US can do will stop China and India consuming mountain ranges of Coal and other Fossil Fuels. Under Gore-topia, instead of Oil tankers coming to America, they would have gone to India and China.
As far as "Generous Tax Cuts" Who the hell wants to pay a bunch of bureaucrats to tell us what to do and how to live. All they do is take your tax money and give it to their friends (ie subsidies, Miltary\Industrial Complex). You say you don't want a police state, but you don't seem to mind of giving them the money to make the country into a police state. I suspect what you really have a bit of freudenschade, where you want to see people get taxed as much as possible.
"Schadenfreude". But I kind of like your typo, too. Will use it the next time I have a proper hangover.
Hey, it was 2 AM!
Hey, hey, my, my. Google never sleeps.