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Guest Post: Our Many Layers Of Entitlement
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
Our Many Layers of Entitlement
The entitlement mindset includes much more than government benefits programs.
The word entitlement commonly refers to government benefits to which we are entitled as taxpayers and/or citizens/residents. But there are layers of entitlement in the American psyche far beyond government benefits programs.
Let's start with the government benefits entitlements. The programs most people refer to as entitlements are Social Security and Medicare, which taxpayers pay for with payroll taxes (even if the money just goes into one giant Federal pot).
Beyond these "I paid into them" entitlements are the "welfare" entitlements of Medicaid, Section 8 Housing, SNAP/food stamps, etc., which are paid out of general tax revenues and which are available to anyone who qualifies, regardless of their status as taxpayers.
Buried within Social Security is another large entitlement program for the disabled and dependents (widows and orphans).
Veterans are entitled to benefits as a result of their military service, as are their families.
Employers pay for other employment-related entitlements: Federal and state unemployment, workers compensation and disability insurance, etc.
The entitlement mindset is thus firmly established in the American psyche. If we experience bad luck and/or the negative consequences of poor choices, we have been trained to expect the government at some level to alleviate our suffering, cut us a check or otherwise address our difficulties.
The poisonous problem with the entitlement mindset is intrinsic to human nature: once we "deserve" something, then our minds fill with resentment and greed, and we focus obsessively on creating multiple rationalizations for why we "deserve our fair share."
Eventually this leads to a government that has been reduced to a competitive stripmining operation in which the spoils are divided up amongst the most politically powerful Elites: in other words, the government we now have.
The entitlement mindset atrophies self-reliance, adaptability and flexibility, all key survival traits. If the government will "fix" our health, we no longer feel responsible in the way one does if there is limited government/employer-provided healthcare. If we expect our Social Security retirement regardless of what other conditions may be affecting the global economy or our nation, then we stop being responsible for managing our financial affairs in the same way as one does when there is no "guaranteed" retirement entitlement.
The question isn't whether entitlements are a "right" or not, the question is their sustainability now that the demographic, financial and energy foundations of those promises has eroded. Clearly, the government has a role in providing for public health and safety, but to claim that entitling every citizen to hundreds of thousands of dollars in healthcare is "public health" spending is absurd.
Based on projections of high-birthrates/cheap-oil/high-growth in the 1940s - 1960s, entitlement programs were promised basically forever, with no recognition that conditions might change. Now conditions have changed, demographically, financially and in terms of energy input costs.
We might usefully think of the government as a ship in a sea governed by forces too planetary to influence: the tides, currents, winds, etc. Entitlements are essentially a claim that the small ship of government "should" be able to bend the sea to its will, regardless of what tidal forces, winds and currents are at work.
we can claim it's our "right" not to sink, but gravity and the ocean do not respond to our claims of permanent "rights."
But these direct government entitlements only scratch the surface of our sense of entitlement. We don't just expect healthcare and retirement; if we're honest with ourselves, don't we also expect these other entitlements?
1. Cheap and abundant fuels and energy. We can debate whether this constitutes an implicit "right" or an entitlement, but the point is that Americans expect unlimited fuels and energy at low cost, and if cheap, abundant energy vanishes then they will demand "somebody make this right," with the "somebody" presumably in government and certainly not the individual American or his community.
2. Ever-more government services and benefits, i.e. the entitlement mindset knows no bounds.
3. Full employment and bountiful employment opportunities. If we can't find a job or create value that someone is willing to pay/trade for, then the government should create jobs out of thin air.
There are only two ways to fund "make-work" jobs: either take more money from existing wage-earners via taxes and redistribute the funds to potentially unproductive uses, or print/borrow the money into existence. Both have costs in terms of the productivity surplus of the entire nation and in the potential to destabilize the financial foundation of the economy.
4. An education suited to the demands of a global economy, etc., as opposed to providing the basic skills of learning, so the citizens can educate themselves throughout life. This distinction is lost in the endless debates over education, but in fast-changing environments and times, the only real value of any education is to learn how to learn. Though it seems "impossible" to the Status Quo educator, the world we are preparing students for--one dependent on consumer spending, cheap oil, globalization, ever-expanding government and healthcare costs, exponentially increasing debt to pay for everything, etc.--may not exist in 5 or 10 years.
5. An upper-middle class lifestyle for everyone who does what the Status Quo expects: get a graduate-level university degree, sacrifice for the corporation, remain politically silent/passive, etc. The idea that toeing the line will not result in a big-bucks secure profession/career is somehow a violation of the social/financial contract of Corporate America--once again, a right or an entitlement that is implicit in the American psyche.
6. Cheap and plentiful food. Once again, if food costs actually rose to "percentage of income spent on food" levels found in developing-world nations, Americans would undoubtedly demand that the "government do something." Once again, this is like demanding the ship's crew change the winds and tides. As oil prices rise, food costs will rise. There is no way out of this, as the primary input of agricultural costs is oil and petroleum-based fertilizers, chemicals, transport, etc. extremes of weather can ruin crops regardless of policy.
7. That the U.S. should be able to influence other nations to act in what we perceive as our best interests. The idea that we cannot persuade/force others to do what benefits us is anathema to the general entitlement mindset, e.g. "what's our oil doing under their sand?"
There are undoubtedly many more layers of implicit entitlements, and the analogy that comes to mind is a worm-riddled, leaky wooden-hulled sailing ship approaching a coral reef. The only way into the relative calm of the lagoon beyond is to lighten the ship enough to pass over the reef, or the sand bar on the other side of the lagoon.
If the ship sails on fully loaded with the heavy baggage of the entitlement mindset, the reef will either rip out its bottom or the ship will be wedged on the sand bar, where the waves will break it apart.
In other words, the destruction of the ship is guaranteed in either scenario. The only possible way to save the ship and its passengers/crew is to throw most of the inessential baggage overboard. Everything that the passengers "can't live without" will doom them if it isn't jettisoned, and soon. Once the hull has been shredded by the coral reef, or the hull is stuck on the sand bar, it will be too late: jettisoning all the financial "rights," entitlements and "essentials" will not save the ship or its crew/passengers.
The entitlement mindset is heavy baggage indeed, and the emotional content of the baggage-- resentment, anger, and a debilitating focus on "what I deserve"--is toxic to the traits we will need in abundance to weather the decade ahead: flexibility, adaptability, open-mindedness, experimentation, community and self-reliance.
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I agree: it pisses me off to see welfare, SS, and military retirement benefits put together under one term. It is wooly-headed thinking but with a socialist purpose. The US owes military retirement benefits. It also owes SS to those who paid the "premiums."
Right on.
A Welfare entitlement(being collected by someone who has paid little or nothing into the system) is a completely different thing than a worker who has paid into the system for 40 years and then retires and collects back what he has put in.
Lumping them both together as some sort of a public handout seems less than accurate--unless the actual purpose is to promote confusion and inaccuracy.
Putting everyone in the same system allows the system administrators to do whatever they want. The systems have to be broken up and administered differently. As you so correctly pointed out, the rights and obligations are completely different among the diverse recipients.
These are voluntary obligations of the government. ( SS et al).
They are also big fucking lies.
Let's see the military "pensions" become available to roll-over at discharge.
O6 (Navy Captain, Army Colonel) over 20 - 9371 per month, $112,000 per year, plus housing benefits, plus free health care, plus PX/BX, plus other benefits. They make more than all of the civilian college grads that I know that are over 45 years old. Plus retire at half pay - again, better retirement benefits than all of the college grads I know over 45 years old. Maybe it's just the people I know...
40% pay for twenty years
50% for 30 years
get your facts straight
Do you have a link? Mine show that there are two ways to calculate - you can pick one. One way - 20 years is 50%, add 2.5% per year. The other is 40% at 20, add 3.5% per year. So 20 is 50% unless you opt for 40%. 30 years is way more. Unless you have a link...
more unsustainable ponzi
There were at least 3 plans when I retired in 2003. 50% for twenty was really 2.5% per year. I got that because I first was active duty in 1972, pay per month was $201 back then. They also had "high three" which ends up lower than 50% for twenty, and some other plan I don't remember, also lower than the 50% for twenty.
I saw some pretty high flying pay numbers above, I know as an enlisted infantryman in 2003 over 20 I got no where near that kind of cash, more like about $2.5 K a month base pay, plus housing money and food money. That's rough, I don't have the papers in front of me. There were large pay raises in the last 8 years, due to continuous war.
Keep this in mind: a retired LA cop after twenty years makes roughly 10 times what I do after twenty as a Combat Light Infantryman NCO. My body is broken by the way, inside and out.
You obviously have no idea how difficult it is to attain that rank and the levels of responsibility inherent with positions requiring that grade. A great deal of judgement, experience (more than 20 years) and training are required.
An Army Colonel in command of a brigade is responsible for several thousand personnel, hundreds of millions of dollars of sensitive/dangerous equipment and making constant life and death decisions. One can not really compare civilian responsibilities to those of senior military.
For what you get, 10K or so a month is cheap.
All of the above said as a former NCO (no lover of O's here, but they have earned my respect).
No - I understand. I graduated from USNA in 86. My classmates still in are O6 or above. The civlant people with the same dedication, education, drive, etc are making less.
in my opinion, there was a time when the military wasn't being paid enough. After years where the civilian work force has not seen an appreciable pay increase,, that time is not now.
Fair enough, but here is a huge world of difference between Captains of luxury liners, Ro-Ros, and oil tankers on one hand and aircraft carriers on the other.
If you were just stupid enough to waste you life in the Military its because you enjoyed being told what to do. The taxes you paid and salary you earned mean nothing, as your entire existence has been a tax on people with real skills. You have earned nothing, you have piggybacked on productive honest people that want nothing to do with you.
or enjoyed serving your country thinking it was the right thing to do with ones life
and not realizing what was truly up with the govt, country and world until you were out
way to throw a blanket of stupidity over our young men and women who believe they are serving YOUR best interests
and i have been thanked by plenty of people for my service who believe i was serving in their best interest
the fog of deception and propaganda is not always apparent to the young, or did you pop out of the womb seeing the world for what it truly is?
one more thing, get fucked!
Well said sir. Fuck 'em.
its amazing to me how people throw rocks at servicemen....
Rogmo.
Without a successful military, you would be a slave of Nazi's or Japan by now. That's pretty valuable.
hint: Red Army had Wermacht on the run after the collapse of Army Group Center summer '44. We got there in time to save the wine and cheese. Now, we sure as hell did thump the Japanese. Yamamoto told the emperor after Pearl, "We will run wild for a year, maybe more. After that, I can promise nothing."
I was even stupider than that - I was a citizen soldier that *volunteered" to serve, and did six years - two years active Infantry and four years very active reserve in a Ranger training company,.
You ain't gonna get this, but it is not about being told what to do - it is 'about' really cornball stuff that is not very popular these days, especially among some on this list (but not all):
Duty
Honor
And most of all: Service
There was this oath we took about defending our country, its Constitution, and our way of life - we were prepared to give our life in its defense. 'Prepared to give our life' - and some of my good friends did.
We did this so that dumb-ass, loud mouth, clueless assholes such as yourself have the freedom to shoot your mouth off about any damn thing you please.
You're welcome.
First, and foremost, thank-you.
That being said, harken to the truth:
All you life you have been lied to by those that seek to control you.
Did you think the laws were written to protect you ?
Thanks for the thanks.
I was young and foolish (now old and foolish), but never that naive - I mean Nixon was president when I logged into the military. American governement has never been perfect, and for the last 50 years or so even less so, but it is the one we deserve - I've been voting a long time. Laws are written to protect the rich, the status quo - anybody that can log on and type knows that - so what?
Just pretend that we had no military - the police state that some country would impose on us would make our present fucked up TPTB corporate state look like the good old days indeed. And, perennial optimist that I am, there is a possiblility we can get the pendulum swinging back to government of and by the people, instead of the corporations, some great day. Looks to be getting slimmer as a possibility, but still there. (Need a differently composed Supreme Court, for openers.) Guess I'm saying this country (not the governemt, the country) is still worth fighting for.
nobody,
i couldnt have said it better
that was beautiful..
and thank you for your service....
Duped - sorry
that was so good i would have read it twice....
at what point would you not defend your way of life?
At what point was your way of life the same as enforcer for the Mobsters.
No thanks for defending a criminal enterprise, sorry.
If one believes that a criminal enterprise is what he would be called to serve and sees eveidence of that each and every day over "there" then is he a clueless moron?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
See ya soon.bro!
It's sad. Deserving of sympathy, perhaps. But neither respect nor honor can be earned that way, imo.
"There was this oath we took about defending our country, its Constitution, and our way of life - we were prepared to give our life in its defense. 'Prepared to give our life' - and some of my good friends did."
I'm not questioning your bravery, discipline, physical fitness, martial skills, etc, etc, all of which are highly admirable qualities. You have my respect, certainly... but my thanks?
Let's face it: (unless you fought in WWII) what you did, on behalf of our MIC, was help our government kill a shedload of people who were no threat to "our country, its Constitution, and our way of life", and in doing so wasted vast amounts wealth and alienated virtually the entire globe.
Yes, if we had been invaded, you would have defended your country. But you know what? So would I. As, I suspect, would the rest of our able-bodied population. But the difference is, we haven't spent decades wasting money, enlarging our government, enraging the planet and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians (millions, if you include the Viet Nam conflict), and then expect to be lionized and subsidized for the rest of our lives.
So, no, you get no thanks from me for the 'freedom to shoot my mouth off about any damn thing I please', because from where I'm standing, you, sir, have done nothing in this regard, your bravery and blind obedience to authority notwithstanding.
Unless, as I say, you are a WWII vet. In that case, you did indeed help to preserve the world's freedoms against a truly terrible threat, and you have my eternal gratitude.
Lets face it the American army works for the bankers and the oil companys they are just hired merc's , so why pay any benefits to them, fuck them.
only via the ponzi do they get paid, so long ive the PONZI.
I've done 12 years in the Indian Navy as an officer. I'll say it's the biggest scam in the world, this MIC.
Their biggest victory? MilSpec Parts.
It's a Faustian bargain. You have no REAL idea who or what yuo are fightiing for anymore.
ORI
why is it that service should be voluntary and not to pay for the service be voluntary?
Those that wish to pay to send you on your round the world in 80 days to take down the evil ones and then pay for a life on easy street once you come back should PAY for it.
Those of us who don't should not.
Last I saw the ability to raaise money without taxes, I think they call it FUND raising was alive and well.
Nothing should be done by a fascist gvt(this one) that the fascist supporters should not pay for.
Has to start sometime, may as well be now.
Ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can be forced to do for you.
Yeah, got a ring to it.
Most everybody forgets also that a military retiree is still "on the rolls" and is subject to recall until age 65. The pay is considered a form of retainer. That is why you do not get the retired money and paid fully if you go back.
I understand and sorry if you are afflicted, but if I felt this country was under direct threat they would not have to call me back and I know many other that would go no matter their age.
But, the funding should come from freely made funding.
If there is not enough free will left in the country to support the program, whatever it is then that support should cease at the FED level.
No compromise none.
Agreed. The bottom line is even the post soviets had a pension system. In fact, they had multiple pension systems, during which reforms the pensioners kept getting squeezed tighter, and tighter. Unfortunately, that seems to be in our future.
I understand the academic argument for why everyone who paid into the system should get nothing because the money has been spent, but that's the problem, it's an academic argument, and these are real people. It won't happen.
Thank you for your service
Conditioned Connedsumer: I'll get us individually and collectively into even more debt, so I keep getting these "free" things.
No such thing as a free lunch and anyways, on a long enough etc...
In India they are playing the poverty card and the Planning Commish had the temerity to suggest that anyone with 95 cents a day could live in a city like MooooomBuy of Delhi or heaven forbid bangalore.
They really are rubbing it in. Funny thing, this entitlement thing, funny NewYorker Cartoon from long ago, two rabbits peering from a bush, watching a lion strut by, one says to the other "Now there is someone with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement".
ORI
It's All About the DEBT Stupid!
probably fully half or more of the people who get on here and complain about government and the fed etc, also get some kind of check from the government. how can you on the one hand complain about a corrupt and evil government, but at the same time get money from this beast? a man cannot serve two masters............uh oh..............
oh so instead of commenting about my statement, you give me some junks......i have made this statement on other websites before and it always makes the ears itch and makes people feel unconfortable etc. ron paul said it best the other day. amerikans simply do not truely understand what liberty and freedom are all about..........let us be clear here shall we. anyone and i do mean anyone that gets money in any form from the government cannot , i say again , cannot and will not be trusted.....it is easy to see how a fink and rat system of snitches can be implemented in this country with so many here willing to take the crumbs that fall off the table of the state....when the chips are down, what will happen? will they bite the hand that feeds them? i say they will not. they will turn in anyone that they feel is a danger to their provider of sustainence, because it is not the right thing to do, oh no, it is the easy thing to do.......so for another day of life, or existence shall we say, they will , turn on the man or woman who fights this beast........and say to themselves .....yes they are patriotic and fear God.........
they can not refute. Maybe , MAYBE long ago before the rot was complete and the ponzi frauds became the economy there was a chance.
Not now, the empire and it's tools will kill anyone and everyone they can and they will brand them terrorist and un-american and by secret orders(as now) they will savage them.
And guess what, just as in times past , the savaged through their own lack of action will deserve it.
God speed!
Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.
I've been seeing to my own retirement for years on the assumption that Social Security will not be there when I qualify.
Those who throw prudence to the wind and bank solely on Social Security are fools.
If it's still there when I qualify, it's just gravy for my biscuits. If not, I'll just have biscuits plain...but I won't starve.
You are right, it should provide an absolute minimal safety net so the elderly do not end up on the streets.
You are right, it should not exist at all, but now that we have boxed ourselves in a corner, we either pack them all up into cattle cars, or provide an absolute minimal safety net for the indigent so the elderly do not end up on the streets.
Fixed it, you wouldn't want to invite attack by not qualifying each and every little statement.
Without doubt this outline by Hugh Smith is one of the best articles I have read in a long time, precisely my own thinking and written much better than I could. It boils down to one word "Responsibility". Too many Americans have turned that word upside down just as Hugh points out. When a ship is burdened with spoiled passengers, crewed by incompetent sailors, captained by leadership drunk on power and has monetary sails set to tack it directly to the shoals, it is doomed.
It boils down to one word "Responsibility". Too many Americans have turned that word upside down just as Hugh points out.
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US citizens are expansionists. Expansionists are used to socializing costs for solving internal issues, at the expense of the people they expand on.
US citizens have always been denying the meaning of responsibility. They have kept exporting their shit so they have not to smell it.
It is more fabled past to claim it was otherwise.
Just like US citizens used the indian lands to solve their internal issues, they are using the rest of the world to compensate for blatant imbalances generated by the US society.
The US citizens nature is eternal.
It's a riot to hear the clowns bemoan ss as a ponzzi when the whole country is only one big ponzi. Based only on funding another bigger sucker via force or fraud.
Whatever it takes.
smells bad.
You two really need to get a room.
Soon as you and Owebama check out, all the rest of the whores are asleep.
I think they ARE in the same room, probably in a windowless basement room in the People's Ministry of Propoganda.
Why don't you two run along and play and beat up some students like the other good party members?
What about corporate entitlements, eg. tax treatments, oil, fishing, and farming subsidies, platinum parachute payments to failed executives etc. Where is the accountability, Sarbox notwithstanding. The piece discusses the "don't get political" or apathetic political aspect of American life, but what about the near-corrupt Congress and their paymasters. One should not be "entitled" to anything but one's name and choices, but is anyone entitled to a life of poverty? Where are the jobs when 30 years of policy have sent them to Chindia, Pakistan, etc. Look at your underwear tag, where is that rag made? We are entering a time of a 9-10% permanent unemployment, can we afford it? If you are demonizing the poor (the users of those entitlement programs) I am disappointed. If you are demonizing our elected officials who create the programs that do nothing for them to imporve their lot, well, I'm on board. And, by the way, what's wrong with providing healthcare to the poor (especially poor children)? Means-testing anyone???
You can blame unions for your jobs going over seas. Most white collor and service jobs are not unionized hence the turning of our economy into a service economy. When I was just a lad GM accounted for 50% of auto's sold in the US. Noe the unions have caused them to represent less than 25% and caused a bankrupcy.
I am afraid it is bigger than "Unions", how do you explain the call center workers making under $10 an hours being shipped overseas? They are neither unionized, nor make a ton of money to being with.
And rememeber, the promise of offshoring all those "dirty" and "lousy" manufacturing jobs would be replaced with "New Economy" jobs.
Almost none of these new jobs are Union--but they too still get offshored as quickly as management can figure out how to do it.
>>Noe the unions have caused them to represent less than 25% and caused a bankrupcy
You really think this is the sole cause? Gross mismanagement and misspending on all levels, including CEO pay, stupid products, excessive money spent on marketing were also huge contributing factors as well, don't you think?
No. Where we dont have a significant technological advantage the extra cost of unionization is the difference. To blame management is to beleive that auto companies hired the stupid managers while software ans high tech hired the smart managers. No, the downfall of the autos and most manufacturing jobs is the cause of the unions, they put themselvs out of business. Not every white collor job will be here. Low skilled jobs not tied to a physical location will go to where capital gets its best return. its all simple eco 101. try as they might the soicialist can not refute the laws of nature indefinatly.
There was a time, believe it or not, when the only entitlements were The Bill of Rights and the protection of life, liberty and property.
Every person may have a different comfort zone on this scale:
[security<----You---->liberty]
- but you only get more of one at the expense of the other.
The problem is that slider has only been going in one direction for a long time now and we've long past the point where there is an equal tradeoff. That's because the government is in business for itself at this point and scrapes off an ever increasing vig with every new "service" it provides.
When TSHTF it will be wholesale private asset stripping time...not "reform" time. The government will do everything it can to stay in business.
If you're not already falling-down rich: get PM, get out of the country or get a government job.
Please make a note of it.
No man is an island.
But I don't think you care enough about the infirm, the elderly, the weakest among us to admit that.
Sure people should be all they can be, but in the end, humans are a social species, designed to thrive in small groups and benefit from group participation.
There is a common good, even if it is abused.
under obama care, uncle sammie will take care of those people real good....
There is a common good, even if it is abused.
True enough, but right now there is an enforced common good, not chosen common goods.
He covered the basics but left out many smaller thing such as entitlement to road-maintenace, free education, sanitation, etc.
Short Version:
No entity of the size and massive diversity, spread over so many millions of square miles with different cultures, can be governed by a Central Authority.
It should be fairly obvious by now that if a country like Greece, Italy, Spain, or Denmark can barely be governed that a nation like the U.S. (united in what?) is hopeless.
The only solution is to break it up.
That's exactly what the Constitution was designed to do. Unfortunately, it was recentralized.
I am just saving my place so I can come back later and inform the idiot sheepish consumers.
Opps, try again !
I read an article about a couple trying to rush through an adoption. The man was a dying veteran. The adoption had to go through before he died so survivor benefits would be assured to his adopted child. I'm against that outcome. He was in his 50s, and had been trying to adopt for around a year.
You are against the child collecting the Gentlemans benefits?
You are the "Decider"?
You should have the Power to control the Gentlemans benefits?
You worked your entire life to collect those benefits?
What is your back ground?
What is you education?
What gives you the Right to Take Anything from that Gentleman who worked his entire life to create?
At 50 years of age how much of his Benefits.. that he worked his entire life to have.. did he get to collect and or enjoy?
I will guess that you are un-educated.
I will guess that you have not worked your entire life to be able to enjoy any kind of benefits.
I will guess that you are a fucking coward and will duck and dodge the questions and the facts that I just stuck under your nose.
You are the ignorant majority.
You are the Problem.. NOT! Him.
under this system , it's his choice and if he can get them then fine.
However the other who doesn't agree with that choice is fine as well.
However, this system is rotten and is taking the country down little by little.
No matter , some get screwed out of what they have eaarned and if earned under a criminal and immoral system, then maybe that's just the way the world has to work in the end.
Who is to say that the "child" may not be better off without the benefits.
Apparently entitlements to constitutional rights such as those noted in the second and fourth amendments are not part of the mindset of the citizenry, as we repeatedly relinquish them to the Federal government without a second thought.
Great post! I concur doctor. One thing i have noticed about people who utilize food stamps in my area, and probably all areas, is they are mostly all under 40 and able bodied, which should negate them needing them, but if they dont screen you that well why not right? Lie about your income and its alll good.
One thing i think all states should enact is a severe cut as to what you can and cant buy with food stamp. When im standing in line behind a mid 20's family with 2 kids, all of which are rotund to say the least, and their cart is filled with 2litre bottles of soda, the 30pack Lays variety chip pack, ice cream etc. and then they whip out the EBTcard to pay with it i just cringe. Not only are they using state/taxpayer money, they are using it to get unhealthy food that is going to make them even larger, make their kid so used to junk food that they grow up with a malnourished mindset and a snack habit. Type 2 diabetes by 20! No joke. And what is their to stop them? Nothing. You can buy as much candy, soda, ice cream, chips, and a boatload of other "food" that has calories (which defines it being available to purchase) as your limit will alow you.
I bet the amount of people on food assistance would drop by half overnight if they went in one day to buy their regular food only to find out half of it no longer qualifies (and rightly so) as food. If they limited people to vegetables, fruits, grains, basic dairy, and REAL food that needs perparation time- well... we'd be saving billions nationwide erry year.
Im sure lobbying against that would be near impossible because im sure somewhere up the line the state is getting reimbursed/sucked off by big corps like coca cola to allow the sale of their product to welfare recipients. Gotta get those kids hooked!
I agree. Food Stamps should only be able to buy things like Potatoes, rice, dried beans, noodles, flour, sugar, vegetables, cabbage, celery, onions, ground beef, chuck roast, pork shoulder, chicken, milk, eggs, bread etc.
NO salty foods or Sweet food. No beverage except something like V8 juice or Fruit juice.
No prime rib, no lobster, no center cut pork chops.
The foods that qualify should be very limited.
wrong, you want them to become obese and dies at 45-50 as most of them are prone to do.
Sooner and cheaper you get rid of them the less burden they will be to you and you willbe able to sleep at night without those nigtmare of caddy driven dope smoking whores with 10 brats running around slingin dope.
Nope, only twinkies , happy meals and sugar water for these folks.
The good stuff must be left for the class that deserve it.
If we continue to feed them, they can be converted into more little green crackers like Soylent Green.
.... sigh ........ & what will we do with all those poor souls who were born into the system, paid into the system, actually thought that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT was responsible & looking out for their best interests ? that generation (of which i am one) who forceably had money stolen from their paychecks & thought the money would be there for an old-age supplement ? seems like the people who paid into it should at least be fed so they don't starve to death.
Lynnybee, how is SS tax any different from income taxes? We had to pay those too, if not, good bye!!! All taxes are taken by force, coercion and aggression. So they lied...again. Heard the old line: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you"? Sorry.
Well bird you can always complain on the internet.
Damn that Michelle Bachman is making a lot of sense!
when she dances with her husband to help cure gays or something else?
So you want to live in the US of A without any responsibilities to it? So how will you pay for cops, military, firefighters. Ah, yes, just write a check! Sure...
can you not elect to send money for the service you wish to see.
Do you believe all would not send money without a tax man twisting their arm?
If so, then the country should not have it.
If the people withdraw consent via no funding then that service should be shutdown.
simple.
after all , if money - speech then does not money - consent?
I swear the great irony of ZeroHedge is that it's going to make statists of us all in the end. Posters like lynnybee have made me a proud Republican once again. Come join me, spacemonkeys.
Keep it up grams! Tweet me when you are about ready to starve to death - I call first dibs on your flesh. LOL
Five greens lynny. People here like what you are saying.
Hey check this one out:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15118751
My key take-away from this video is that brown people believe in conspiracy theories they read on the web.
Give me a green if you find that alien-looking chick at the end of this video oddly attractive. Give me a red if you think giving reds on the internet counts as activism. :-)
Sigh. All those people that believe in the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S self-serving lies and deception deserve what happen to them, given especially that the true sociopathic nature of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is apparent for anyone who wants to actually look.
And you're not the only generation that has had money forcibly taken from them. That doesn't make you unique in the slightest. There are people in their twenties and thirties today that will conceivably not see a single penny of the taxes taken from their paychecks when old age finally comes for them. SS will have immolated itself in a flaming ball of actuarial death by then.
yes, all crime victims deserve it.
Nothing really can be done. They are getting shafted since the money are gone (misspent), and there is nothing can be done about it. The only question is by how much they are shafted, and who is prepared to pay for them.
We need to save money? Oh boy can we cut the military expenditures?
Can we cut DHS and TSA and the other fascist bullshit our new Nazi
overlords have created?
Can we have peace? Oh it's hard when we have to rule and regulate
the entire world as the 'Empire'. More Trident missiles! More Tomahawk
missiles! More machine guns for our Mexican Cartel Amigos!
More Tasers for our legions of 'Law Enforcers'.
Author, the sad news I have for you is you are part of that excess baggage.
It's a big club and you ain't in it.
Look at my chart of GDP since the late 1940s. As we increase Socialism (entitlements) over time, look at GDP growth.
http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/consumer-purchases-and-housing-i-hope-this-isnt-deflation/
Bad juju.
Having troubles understanding how your chart goes to 2020...
No ! No ! NO ! Stop using "social security" and "welfare" together in any article about entitlement.
Social security is citizens' paid-in SAVINGS the government is supposed to guard for us and give back when we retire. It is ours. Period.
Welfare --- no one ever paid in a nickel. Welfare is CHARITY, with which a benevolent, prosperous govt helps the needy. { Only problem is our govt isn't prosperous anymore. } No one is entitled to a charitable gift.
Cutting charitable contributions, aid, welfare is what a prudent family or govt does when they need to save money.
Cutting Social Security is THEFT.
Social security pays out more than you paid in. It is thus a mixture of payback and welfare. As such it should be classed as welfare.
Exactly. If you get paid back your SS contribution, indexed to whatever the government's inflation number is, that's one thing.
If you want one penny more than that, it becomes welfare.
Absolutely, they throw a bunch of different types of recipients together in one system so they can play the shell game with the arguments. There are pension issues/welfare/payback/disability issues all mixed together so they were able to steal all the money without any group able to stop them.
Theft was making the promise that was never intended to be kept.
Savings my ass. You have been ripped-off.
Social security is citizens' paid-in SAVINGS the government is supposed to guard for us and give back when we retire. It is ours. Period.
Welfare --- no one ever paid in a nickel. Welfare is CHARITY, with which a benevolent, prosperous govt helps the needy. { Only problem is our govt isn't prosperous anymore. } No one is entitled to a charitable gift.
There is no savings. The money you paid has already been spent. If you are unhappy that it was spent on things other than your retirement, I suggest taking the matter up with the entity that took the money from you. If you actually read the fine print of your arrangement with said entity, you will notice that no contractual obligation actually exists. The obligations are as illusory as the savings. They lied. Sorry
Now get your hands out of my pocket.
physco billy,
Now get your hands out of my pocket.
No, YOU get them to take their hands out of your pocket.( SS Recips are not IN your pocket), we paid our dues.
Your turn Bra.
We had no say, and you have no say, how/when/where the money was/is spent.
So, the problem remains, and changing it is your responsibility as much as anyone elses.
Until then THEY WILL BE IN YOUR PANTS.................................just like they were in mine for 40yrs.
We had no say, and you have no say, how/when/where the money was/is spent.
You have a say right here. And unless I've interpreted you incorrectly, you say you're entitled to other people's money today and in the future because the government previously taxed you and spent the proceeds. The response of a child.
You are even confused/delusional enough to refer to it as "savings." This is all part of the fantasy you and others engage in so you can pretend you aren't on the government dole. It’s how you reconcile all your hypocritical screeching about socialists with your begging for a government check.
No, YOU get them to take their hands out of your pocket.
I saw all this coming a long time ago and planned accordingly. It won't be me paying for your gross sense of entitlement or begging for a government welfare check. You can be sure of that.
And the rest of the world feels entitled to have the US come bail out their asses and do all of their dirty work for them in the Middle East etc...
Anything else we can do for you guys???
Really seems to me like it's the rest of the world that has their hand out most of the time....
every and any poll of those muzzies over thar says that north of 85% want us out of there.
You are just another MSM slave aren't you.
Of course anyone will take whatever you freely give that is the human nature you no doubt understand.
Of course you would agree we should not do that, right?
We should not be over there giving them welfare, right?
Don't bother , i won't wait for your duplicity.
Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money!
Yo Benron, fly some a dat shit ovah here!
<quote>Keep in mind that the serviceperson foregoes tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in income by accepting the low levels of pay the military offers.</quote>
Is not this why it's called military 'service'? Is it not voluntary? Is the average service-person's mentality, "I've given up tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in income to serve, so now I deserve a pension, benefits and healthcare"? ...because that attitude is not one of service but one of something entirely different.
While we're on the subject, I for one have a problem with money, taken from me at gunpoint, being doled out to not just welfare recipients, but also disaster victims. I pay my own insurance. Why do I have to pay the insurance of those who decide to not purchase their own?
Military benefits are high to encourage people to volunteer. Would you rather be drafted and sent to Afghanistan then pay someone else to do it? You might find that more infringing on your freedom.
if one has to field a band of mercenary to bounce the rocks over and over and set up a fukin DEA over there when we demand the drugs over here , then I would rather not be paying anyone to go over there.
what crap.
MIC should hold bake sales , those who wish to send them can buy all the 16Dollar muffins they wish.
You see or would if you would get off the drugs that if the country doesn't wish to contribute to it's defense then you are wasting the sainted troops as what they are defending is a fukin lie.
yes, but with a draft, would there be so much complacency about how our military forces are currently utilized, as is the situation we have now? Most average folks don't have a son or daughter out there, so what do they care what we do overseas. They are too busy watching American Idol and checking their facebook status.
yes we saw what the draft caused, but I am not in favor of a draft.
I am for giving people the chance to by their funding choose what they want done.
Of course all programs would be on a strict paygo basis.
If money is the mother's milk of politics then why should it not be made clear what the money wants done in the end?
It's clear that electing various clowns to run the same fascist clown show at the Fed level is nuts.
Fre open funding at the personal level. that's all the campaign finance you need.
Those that feel they have the most to lose will send it in to protect their loot, right?
people in the top 20-30% hate this option as they know they would have to pay for what they steal to a grester degree than now.
This ends all the contracts with this and that.
You pay for it each year or it gets cut.
Jut like a family and their checkbook, K!
But, if you want a draft it should only be those on welfare that are in the draft pool. What the heck is OWEbama waiting on?
VOTES....that is what will destroy this country...actually it is destroying this country...what a government does for VOTES...the politicians will Never cut entitlements...they should..it needs to be done..it is the RIGHT thing to do....but they never will....so what next...we just sit back and watch if fall apart...it could be fixed..but it won´t...to many people on the dole...countires collapse...its happened before....we will watch Greece first..but there will be others...or hyperinflation which is a collapse to me..the White house just gave Oregon a 5 million dollar bonus for signing the most people up for food stamps...you get a bonus for getting people on the dole....they vote....
As some of us expected, the suckers (surprising that Tyler is also the sucker) were scammed by this charlatan, Alessio Rastani.
Alessio Rastani: 'I'm an attention seeker not a trader' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8792829/BBC-financial-exper...
would you have been more prone to listen to what he had to say if he had a 9 digit net worth?
does what he earns or claims to do or be make what he said any less true?
do you measure people by their net worth?
if so, then I cannot take your opinion seriously until I see an audited financial statement from you showing you actually have a high enough net worth to merit having an opinion worthy of listening to.
Dude,
Read my responses to Tyler's original post again -- what this Napoleon (self declared City trader with paranoid psychotic delusions) said was a complete absurd nonsense (I was surprised that Tyler [most likely due to his/their opinionated one-sided bias] bought such irrational crap).
Another great David Stockman interview on CNBC:
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000048484
Always the biggest entitlement elephant in and out of the room that is missing from these discussions . . . the U.S. military and Wall Street, which at the end of hte day as one and the same.
I do resent the Government calling programs like Social Security and Medicare "Entitlements" as I did pay into those programs for many many, many years.
The problem is the Boomers. The Boomers paid Trillions into the so called "Trust Fund". When the Government saw all of that Money that was to be used when the Boomers retired they could not keep their hands off of it. It became an Entitlement after they took all of the Money Out of the Trust Fund.
When we Boomers started to pay into Social Security it was Touted by the Government as preparing for our future Retirement. Only later did the Government say that it was not meant as our sole retirement.
The Government also raided the Fund to pay for Welfare, support for illegitimate children, Food Stamps and Section 8 Housing. Many who never contributed were able to tap the fund that was for only those who contributed.
It has never been easy being a Boomer. The schools were overclouded, lots of school extension trailers, there was not enough room in Collages for all of the Boomers. Fierce Job competition. And now this. The Government took our Money and now do not have the Money they Took to take care of us in our Retirement.
I also resent the fact that being self employed I paid an additional 15% of my Income for SS and Medicare. Now it is an Entitlement. That means that I was effectively paying 15% more in Income Taxes. On an average Income Tax rate of 35% add on the 15% and I was paying a 50% Tax Rate. No one would have gone along with that. The only way it was justified was that it was for your Retirement.
this self employment b.s. just outlines the true nature of the whine and moan bitches.
It is not easy to be Self Employed. There is no safety net. No unemployment checks to help you out if you do not make enough money or cannot find enough work. No one to pay your Health Insurance except yourself. No one to pay 1/2 of your Social Security and Medicare contribution. No one to contribute to your Retirement except yourself. No guaranteed pay check.
Self Employed people have to work harder as if they do not they are on the Street with no help from anyone, including the Government.
I understand that , but I don't whine about choosing to take more risk for greater rewards.
there are many tax advantage to being self employed and much greater freedom as to how and when/what you choose to do with your time/money.etc.
Yes, it is a choice and I made it and I knew or should have known what I was getting into.
I don't bemoan that the choice I made was unfair when I knew the terms going in.
Although I have not taken them up on it and will not, there is of course ALL KINDS of gvt "help" for the self employed as you know if you have done much at all.
It is not true that there is no gvt help. There are a multitude of gvt programs and beuacrats to help you.
Karzai_sucker, You have been whining throughout this whole thread!! what are you talking about, you don't whine???? Have a snickers man!
flexibility, adaptability, open-mindedness, experimentation, community and self-reliance.
wow, not sure who these people are, haven't seen dem deer peeples in did dem deer parts, 4 long time now.
this is the mythic american, the hologram. a better description would be, flexible enough to reach behind the truck seat to pull out a shotgun, adaptable in the choice of weapon and target, open-minded in who gits it, willing to experiment with electricity and your nuts, the community of like-minded souls is large and are self-reliant enough to do it all again tomorrow.
"If the government will "fix" our health, we no longer feel responsible in the way one does if there is limited government/employer-provided healthcare."
Well they do smoke and drink more in Europe with government provided healthcare but life expectancy is still higher and it costs half as much. Maybe from the reduction in stress of not worrying about going bankrupt if someone in your family gets sick/injured and from not having to argue with the insurance company about the claims.
N'ah, I think it's the 35 hr work weeks, plus 6 weeks minimum vacation time they have over there. La Dolce Vita and all that.
The only thing you should be guaranteed or entitled to is life & liberty. Get your fucking ass to work if you want anything else.
Bingo +100!
Let me see if I got your argument. The entitlements of ordinary people have led to a situation where the elite class feels entitled to strip mine national assets with the connivance of politicians. "In other words, the government we now have," as you say.
The word for that, Mr. Smith, is not "entitlement," it's "corruption."
We have had Social Security, disability and unemployment insurance and veterans' benefits for many years. What's new is the utter disregard for U.S. national viability shown by "our" elite class. Ship the jobs overseas, commandeer the remaining assets through a system of fraud, then gut the social safety net. What's left? The new feudalism.
Good luck with that.
What about GENERAL ELECTRIC & JPMORGAN & GOLDMAN & the PENTAGON ? DO THEY STILL RECEIVE THEIR ENTITLEMENTS ?
Renters are begining not to pay their monthly rent to landlords.....
More "just walk away" at commerical levels...
Hey, it's just a
busness decision" they say....follow the leaders on Wall Street, eh.
Bravo!! Great article, life's a bitch so let's get over it and move on. Those who "can't", OK we'll help out. Those who "won't" might as well abandon ship or pick up a paddle and start paddling with the rest of us.
What about the financial fucknuts who bankrupt companies and feel "entitled" to a BAILOUT? Fuck off, life and nature make no promises regarding anyone's survival. The sooner the system crashes, the sooner we find out who is worth a shit.
entitlements are privileges not rights. the difference is that a right cannot be taken away and a privilege can.
We grew up believing we had a "bill of right"...but we now know they are just a "bill of privileges" as evidenced by the expedience with which they have been taken away.
this is america...breaking promises is tradition.
FDIC and NCUA insurance is an entitlement. If youo think it is gonna be politically possible to make good FDIC insurance if Social Security payments have been halted, you are deluding yourselves.
Problem is, if you're entitlements are packed safely away in the hull and the ship's management refuses to admit there are any issues, then there's no way to abandon ship of all the excess baggage. Most people are relaxing poolside because, as you said, entitlement attitude is programmed into our psyche, and the winner take all mentality isn't simply going to disolve. You're talking austerity, addiction and withdraw. And the problem first has to be addressed before it can be doctored and then perhaps curred.
"Clearly, the government has a role in providing for public health and safety, "
WHAT IS CLEAR ABOUT THIS??
Maybe you'd like to go back to the days of private fire departments who would literally watch your house burn down while negotiating a fee for putting it out. Maybe you trust giant multinational food conglomerates to test their own food for safety. Maybe you trust comcast and verizon to keep the internet free. Maybe you'd prefer to pay FEDEX $13 to send a letter instead of $.45 at the post office. Maybe you'd enjoy no mandated safety standards at the workplace, or at the airport.
Once you accept that there should be minimum level safety net, the welfare statists have already won. The safety net destroys community. By that I mean why get to know your neighbor if you can say "let the government take care of it." If there is no safety net, there is no one else to take care of it, thus conscience compels those who would listen to do something about it. Why do you think modern churches are well, to put it mildly "into themselves." They get together for feel good sermons but many in the church do not get involved in charity or real charity which demands some sacrifice, more like checkbook charity, write a check and that's it, your conscience can be assuaged. In a nutshell, it is the safety net that destroys religion and community.
It is also up to the these socialpreneurs to convince others to 'Invest' in their respective causes. In this regard, it will be much more effective at reaching those in need. Like the market place, causes that have merit will draw investment where wastes of money will not. This is not the case with government "charity." you might ask, but there is way too much people in need of charity. Not so. If you look at the market segments in need of charity, it is much less. Also, take into account the "forgotten man". Those from whom the money is taken from now will a) save it and thus not be in need of charity themselves b) invest it in businesses to employ people which takes people off the dependency dole c) give or start charitable enterprises themselves. The other side of the equation is to whom this charity goes. Strip away all able-bodied lazy people who no doubt in self-interest will look to work and there will be much less in need of true charity, the widows and orphans as it were.So in more economic terms, because the government takes from some and gives to others, it "monopolizes" the charity sector of the economy. Those who would have given to charity feel there is no need since "the government can take care of it" in addition to having less disposable income to "invest" into such enterprises(because of transfer payment taxes). Having less money to give to churches, non-profits, etc, in effect "crowds out" many would-be charitable "socialpreneurs" from getting into the game. Also, getting a check from some faceless bureaucracy creates an entitlement belief on the part of the recipient. With a real charity, there would be more gratitude and responsibility on the part of recipients as they know that the gravy train can not last forever, as opposed to getting it from government where the gifts can keep coming regardless of how (ir)responsible the recipients are.
People give into the "we need at least some safety net" trap because they don't trust their fellow men to to the right thing and give to charity. It is in the self-interest to give, since it makes a person feel good to do so, as well as not feeling like a heel for not giving after seeing so much suffering.
I forgot to add in communities not dependent on the safety net, there is a lot more community and neighbors helping each other out. Why is that? My theory is that without the safety net, many follks, in self-interest of course would get to know the neighbors much better. So you can borrow tools, lend a hand in getting something done, or watching out for the neighbor that needs help. Sort of like a gift economy "insurance." Why would someone help their neighbors, not to be nice (although that's cool) but when the shoe is on the other foot, it is good to have others that have your back.
Same goes for corporate welfare. Crowds out what could've been.
Have you ever actually lived in a country that has no safety net?
Solyndra employees get $13,000 in Fed re-training funds.....each ! Unemployment, SNAP, etc. as well ! Obama has a vision.....if only we were smart enough to appreciate the Negro ! Monedas 2011 Comedy Jihad World Vision Thing
So 13kX1100 = another $14.3M to the tab, nice!
This is so much BS. If you are an employer, you can get away with paying your employees the absolute minimum wage possible, but unless the economy has become so damaged that there is no business to be had (then why are you in business?) then at some point, either those who have talent will go elsewhere (seduced by higher wages or benefits) or start their own business, competing with yours. You want to insure that your workers stay healthy, because one sick worker can become ten sick workers, then a hundred, then you can't run your business. Occasionally this veers into the world of frivolity - give away too much of the profit and you have no reason for business, but in many respects the benefits that you pay as an employer come down to the degree to which you want to retain the talent necessary to do the job. I'm not sure where the entitlement is there.
Now let's look at education. If you are in a technical profession, you need that education. If you're not worried about your doctor knowing your patella from your ulna, being able to diagnose what's wrong for you rather than simply picking out poisons at random, then by all means, get a doctor who's never been to college. Ditto computer professionals, engineers, researchers, lawyers, etc. In most cases, in this day and age, these people took out loans to go to school as investments, investing in themselves rather than in their portfolio. They have to pay those loans back. You want a competitive workforce, then you make sure the means exist that let them gain that proficiency to be competitive, and in an increasingly technical world, this means life-long education. How the hell is such education an entitlement.
You want roads and livable cities and police and emergency services, you pay for them. That's what taxes are for. You want to keep pandemics from happening, want to keep from having people dying in your streets due to starvation or disease, then you have to pay for that.
There's this tendency to point to people who abuse the system as people who are taking "entitlements". No, those people are simply criminals. If the system were sufficiently policed, then they wouldn't be able to take advantage of these, but in general such enforcement is weighed off against cost - if the cost of policing the system is higher than the (possibly legitimate) benefits these people are getting, then from an accounting issue its a wash.
Where the system breaks down is when it is subverted from without. Do you need a massive military? No, especially when so much of that budget goes into equipment that will seldom if ever get used for a legitimate purpose. Do you need subsidies to giant agribusiness? Again, no, these companies are doing quite well without gov't intervention. What about financials? If a "rogue trader" that you employ makes a bad bet that costs your company billions, should the government make you whole? Hell, no. The bank employed the trader, should have been monitoring his or her behavior, and should have shut him down before too much damage was done. And yet, that's what has happened now.
Most of the countries that are in trouble now invested in their infrastructure or their people, believing that it would make them more competitive in a global market, and in the long run it probably would have. However, to make that investment, they borrowed money from financials believing that they were sound investments - AAA graded material - and when the reality hit that what they were buying was in effect the offal from thousands of Ponzi schemes, then they were forced to find other funds in order to cover, which ultimately led to bank after bank having to reveal their own bare finances.
For whatever reason there's this core of Libertarianism that seems to feel that it's the "entitlements" that are bankrupting these countries (including ours), yet for the most part these programs have been, until recently, net neutral in revenue, because they were designed that way by people who knew they had to. It's been largely due to the combination of corporate greed and forty years of "business-friendly" politics that gave trillions of dollars to oil companies, banks, defense contractors, security services, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and all the other shiboleths of the corporatist mantra that have been providing substandard value for the money (if not outright stealing) for years that has put us in the position we're in, aided and abetted by Big Religion and its loyal army of Nascar idiots, and of course it is this same group that is yelling loudest about "Entitlements".
Entitlements, my ass. Start counting up the REAL beneficiaries of the these entitlements and cut off their lifeblood, and I can assure you that we may have fewer giant banks and defense companies, but a much healthier economy overall.
+++
I am not sure that the author understands the purpose of SS and Medicare, or the reason they were created. It was to take care of the people that made America rich. Like I said once before. They were designed to allow retired workers to live at the poverty line for the rest of their lives. Maybe you aren't old enough to realize that this is what the people of this country worked for because of the thievery of the industrial revolution and the greed of the 20's that comes back to life today. Your solution? Let em' eat cake?
You sir, are a fascist. You believe a basic life support mechanism is a profit engine for you, when it has nothing to do with any of the drivel you have written. You justifiy ending that which was paid for already, and the money was stolen to give to your friends. Tell your neighbors how you think, they'll take care of you in your dotage.
Amen, and well said. The fascists are coming out of the woodwork. They love a crisis, caused by them, to promote the law of the jungle on humanity.
So whhat would you tell folks like myself who would gladly opt-out if that were an option. Forcing people to pay into a system they don't want to seems pretty Fascist to me. Me, I'll keep my freedom and money and take my chances out there in the cruel hard world. But now I'm forced to pay into something that will likely collapse by time when it's my turn at the trough.
Make a law that lets people opt out, no problem. But if things don't happen to work out according to plan and you find yourself in your late 60s without a pot to piss in, you won't expect any help. Time and chance can happen to anyone.
sure there is no doubt that the current crop of programs was created when there was the threat of a commie under every bed and the elites back then actually feared that the sheep were going to burn down some of their nice homes.
But , the sheep have become so passive as to remove the fear from the elites,now , that doesn't mean the programs will/should stay.
You see, the CONstitution and the laws don't protect crap, only the sheep of the time at hand can protect what they want.
the hilarious outcome is that the sheep have been turned into hollow sheep, even for a sheep and now see the programs come under attack.
It's the way of life. relax it will all come back again someday.
I suppose it is also an evil entitlement to expect decent pay for a hard days work. After all isn't the boss a god endowed by his creator with super rights. An entitlement from god if you will?
One can quit, no ?
yes and those pesky corporate entitlements. would you like a defense contract for something we don't need, how about a new convention center, a sports stadium, we can loan you the money.
does your city council give money to corporate franchises, while your local bank punishes small businesses who need a loan (yes)
did the Supreme Court give them carte blanche to destroy small businesses and private homes, in order to keep those corporate profits, (and tax receipts) coming in (Eminent Domain)
how may people do you know who do not work for government, or in a private sector job with a government contract. (not enough fingers on one hand?, too many on the other, well give them one!)
stop corporate welfare.
I live in a county pop. 25,000. It just built a $50 million dollar public safety/courthouse/jail.
so are they going to contract out to other counties to take their prisoners? the competition for government dollars often involves taking on something no one else wants and then charging them to use it.
Indeed! I live in a rural county of 20,000. They built a new Social Services Complex and a new high tech county jail complex designed to hold over 50 prisoners. Total cost, millions! This was state of the art stuff, with all the frills both inside and out!
I was at the local clinic one day, the sheriffs brought a teenage female prisoner up to be seen by a doctor. She had hand cuffs, ankle cuffs, a black and white prsion jumpsuit and was escorted by two male jailers and one female jailer. Christ! Must have costs $200 in wages just to bring her up for a doc visit! Her crime was use of meth. I know this town it has only 2K people, and teenage girls are real threats. What a joke!
Try a $25 million dollar softball field to bring the "tourists". Yep. Nice huh.
We can't afford to make war with all the nations of the world we haven't subdued yet but that's doesn't seem to concern us either. The politicians look at it from an investment perspective. Like we can't NOT afford to conquer these nations and take their shit via a Central Banking system
O contrare, it seems we're as innovative at old forms of war as we are wtih financial weapons of mass destruction. World domination gets cheaper by the day:
http://www.truth-out.org/sex-and-single-drone-latest-guarding-empire/131...
The question isn't whether entitlements are a "right" or not, the question is their sustainability...
This theme of sustainability runs across all categories today. Big re-set coming. From a management point of view, it makes sense to keep the peasants quiet with bread and circuses. Trick from here is managing expectations lower. Gotta be a way to blame those goddam Muslims by ramping up the phony war on terror. Works every time. Remember Goering's famous remark?
“Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denouce the peace makers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
? Herman Goering
What is unsustainable is a financial system that assumes infinite growth with finite resources.