Re: OT: Politics [Was:Social Contract]

Mumia W wrote:
Great. You understand that roads are a social benefit. Not having the
elderly rotting on the streets is also a social benefit.

Yes, having them rot in homes is so much better because they weren't able
to invest their own money in something to yield a higher return so they could
live much more comfortably. Yup.

And public schools are doing such a fine job of educating, too!

Yes, they are. I was educated in a public school.

It shows.

And there are people who believe that America's laws should be
interpreted from the point of view of the Christian Bible--Pat Robertson
is one of them. Just because a few loons believe something doesn't mean
I have to buy it.

Yes, so anyone who doesn't conform to your world view is a loon.

No they are not. A few, knowledgeable individuals *might* be better off,
or they might screw up and choose the wrong investments and lose most of
it.

No, not might. Most people. Some might choose bad investments. But by
and large it is extremely difficult to do worse than Social Security. I think
it's so bad that putting the money in a simple 3% interest savings account
offered by any bank yields more in the end.

The idea behind the Social Security system is that you shouldn't have to
know anything about stocks, bond or any other securities to have your
retirement protected.

The idea of Social Security is to make people dependant on government and
to buy votes.

And your retirement money shouldn't be entirely dependent upon the
twists and turns of the business cycle.

Yet over the course of any long term investment it performs better in the
end than Social Security. It is only when people use fear mongering tactics
like "What if they dumped right in the middle of *insert downturn here*"...
Unless they started 1-2 years before chances are they'd be far better off.

Consumption taxes are a regressive (targeting the poor) idea that the
Right Wing has touted for years.

No, they're not. In fact some forms help the poor. But since they're not
vote-buying wealth distribution schemes most politicians don't go for it.
Far better to buy 70% of the votes by taxing only 30% of the population and
calling it "fair" and "progressive".

--
Steve C. Lamb | But who decides what they dream?
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | And dream I do...
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