13 countries have a Triple-A rating, including the 4 weakest. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...ngs-and-those-at-risk-losing-them/?test=btech
You're the one saying that people are expecting someone else to pay for their lifestyle after paying into a system for 3 - 4 decades of their life... Seriously...
Ask maxiep. Solutions are not always simple. Politics is complicated. You have your constituents, your donors & your party to answer to. Usually your donors & your party are well above your constituents. Who makes up a lot of the donors? Private entities who want something in return & given how often we have elections there is always a need for money. The political system is corrupt, true, but political systems in any entity are corrupt including the private sector. I am not quite sure that's the case, a lot of US citizens approve of the idea of single payer healthcare, a lot of them like Medicare & Social Security. A lot of them do not like huge corporate entities that are too big to fail or else they take the entire economy down. They do not like giant corporations who barely pay taxes, pad their executives pay & don't hire anyone. They're not happy about a pointless war that's wasted billions of dollars which a large chunk of was given directly to Halliburton, contractors who made faulty armored vests & vehicles & private mercenaries who's ability to follow the rules of war would be considered questionable. Some how I doubt people are going to run out into the streets saying "take down Medicare, take down Social Security because AIG made bad policies & Washington Mutual gave out bad loans. Destroy those dastardly socialist programs because GM fucked up their business model & Halliburton helped start a war by getting their ex-CEO into the White House, socialism is so bad, it caused all these bad things by private industry!". Not everyone is that stupid, some people can can follow the money & understand that corruption is what people should be fighting against & not lame battles about the evils of communism/socialism/marxism/capitalism...
They pay 7% of their income into a system that pays for 10-20 years of benefits after 45 years of working (if you didn't go to college). Exactly how does that make sense?
Well, I guess insurance can't work either under your logic. The idea that people contribute to a pool of money, some of whom will not receive full or any benefit from is ludicrous! Almost as ludicrous as saying that someone who's paid into something is getting it for free.
Those of us in the younger generation that still have a work ethic and are trying to be successful in earning for ourselves are angry about the completely broken government and the ludicrous spending. Those others in the younger generation who don't want to work and have been raised with the I-deserve-things-to-be-given-to-me attitude will direct their anger at these so-called "hoarders of wealth"... which is actually just the group I mention above who were willing to work for things instead of expecting gifts.
Yes, which Social Security has a lot to do with, a system that has been fully funded(w/ surplus) from it's own tax. Now if we want to talk about squandering that surplus, then yes there's a point to be made. If we want to talk about SS possibly needing adjustments in the future, yes that too can be discussed. But saying that those who have funded SS over the last couple decades are expecting something for free or have poor work ethic is unethical. Gifts like bailouts or wars? Isn't that part of the "ludicrous spending"?
Well-said! People who work hard and pay their own way through life usually believe in smaller government. On the other hand, an amazing number of people seem to think the government exists just to provide for their needs . . . an attitude I have never understood.
Social security holds domestic debt, essentially an investment in the US. They do not directly fund other programs, that is up to the Goverment to decide. I am sorry I have to rehash this too, but it's not just "social programs" that "waste money". Goverment is free to chose what they want to spend money on, "Pay down debt or go to war?", "Give tax cuts or pay down debt?" Lots of insurance companies take your money & invest it into different instruments. Sometimes they don't actually have the money to pay out(e.g. AIG).
Wow, do you not understand insurance. The probability of my house burning down is much lower than my probability of living to 65 and beyond. Furthermore, insurance is risk-adjusted. If I'm more likely to make a claim, then my rates go up. Fuck, my SS has been capped for years, even as I get older. It's almost the opposite of insurance. It's an annuity.
The govt. IS AIG. Too big to fail with nobody big enough to bail it out. You can use faulty logic that the the govt. didn't directly spend the trust funds, but it found a way to make those funds fungible with the general fund and spends $2 for every $1 in it. I don't want a govt. that spends 40% of GDP. Do tell what kind of tax increase is needed to go from 20% to 40%. The clue us DOUBLE every tax the govt. puts on us now.
It's going to take a hell of a comeback for Obama to be a two-term president at this point. It almost doesn't matter who runs against him. In fact, it may be better for him to pull an LBJ.
