Saturday, July 02, 2005

Lesson One

It's late at night, and I just got back. I'm tired, but I want to say one thing. I'm sick of angry people who wish to blame everything on everyone else. Tonight I talked to someone who actually attributed our society's healty to corporations. So many greedy corporations and yet there are some people who think these bigwigs have public interest deep in their hearts.

Lesson:

Individuals who have Republican ethic: want personal gain
Social Security Privatizers: Expect personal gain from privatization (why else would a party that is FOR personal gain propose such a policy? To give back to the community? Surely you jest..)
Individuals who want safety net: believe hard times can befall anyone; understand that life cannot be characterized by glib bell curves

More from Professor Elaine later
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2 comments:

Chris said...

My comment to address your lesson would be too long. However, I think we can all agree the Republican ethic has more than one tenet. It would be like me saying, Democratic ethic: feign wanting collective gain, really want personal gain. That wouldn't be fair, would it?

Nevertheless, in good faith, I've resurrected my blog into a new one: busyscenes.blogspot.com

I'll post soon.

Cheers.

6:40 AM, July 02, 2005
Chris said...

People are compelled through Social Security to give up a portion of their income to go towards this "pool" for people CURRENTLY eligible for SS. What the GOP proposes is that to ensure workers in the future can have that safety net, they should be able to have the option of placing a portion of THEIR OWN money into private accounts that would increase through interest and possibly stocks. Most rich people don't even use SS to begin with, because they can build their own retirement accounts, so it's not like they'll be putting their SS into private accounts. Those people who will actually need SS will still get it because all those rich people will still be compelled to pay their SS taxes.

If nothing is done, no one will get anything except those who were fortunate enough to create retirement funds for themselves. I don't plan on getting SS as it stands now, so I've planned ahead. The idea is for people to be self-reliant, not reliant on the government. When they fall on "tough times," we have welfare, various charities, community organizations, not to mention friends and family (if fairly lucky). Private accounts allow everyone choose to either continue to get the regular SS or get a reduced amount from the government supplimented by the fiscal growth in their own private account. It's a government arranged retirement account, if you will. Congress has such private accounts, and from the federal employees I've talked to, they quite like it.

6:58 PM, July 02, 2005

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