Another feel good public pension story

[NOTTHOR]

www.contracostatimes.com/danielborenstein/ci_12133578?nclick_check=1


www.contracostatimes.com/danielborenstein (use if the link doesn't work).


These things are going to bankrupt the nation.

[NotMyKid]

Wow, that is bad. nothing a local option sales tax can't fix.

[mattahawk]

Well that's just wonderful.

[thunderhawk]

We seem to be so fucked in so many ways that I can't even summon up the concern to care.

I should, but I can't.

[HawksStock]

don't worry the Rothschild's will offer themselves as our Christ soon.

[socal]

The good news is that he increased his / his family's chances of dying in a fire.


Caveat --- pensions are only good for the employee and their spouse, right?

[NOTTHOR]

Apr 17, 2009 21:13:32 GMT -6 thunderhawk said:

We seem to be so fucked in so many ways that I can't even summon up the concern to care.

I should, but I can't.

Big old cosign. I think the government spending/Treasury bubble will puff up nicely and get us out of this recession. It will work in the short run, but then when it bursts (not if, when), look out below. That's when the bottom will fall out from under the economy.

In roughly a decade, SS and Medicare will both be paying out substantially more than they take in and government spending on all levels with entitlement spending added in will be well over 50% of GDP. Call me pessimistic, but I just don't see where the money will come from or how you could expect the 20% or so of the population that pays the majority of taxes to support such a giant burden. A politician needs to stand up and brace the populace for the freight train that is coming. Unfortunately, you start screwing with the obligations the old people saddled their kids and grandkids with and your stay in politics will be very short.

In other scary news, here is an op-ed about how Bawney Fwank wants to pin New York's and California's pension problems on all citizens of the United States. online.wsj.com/article/SB123993403283927985.html

[thunderhawk]

Apr 19, 2009 16:22:29 GMT -6 NOTTHOR said:

Apr 17, 2009 21:13:32 GMT -6 thunderhawk said:

We seem to be so fucked in so many ways that I can't even summon up the concern to care.

I should, but I can't.

Big old cosign. I think the government spending/Treasury bubble will puff up nicely and get us out of this recession. It will work in the short run, but then when it bursts (not if, when), look out below. That's when the bottom will fall out from under the economy.

In roughly a decade, SS and Medicare will both be paying out substantially more than they take in and government spending on all levels with entitlement spending added in will be well over 50% of GDP. Call me pessimistic, but I just don't see where the money will come from or how you could expect the 20% or so of the population that pays the majority of taxes to support such a giant burden. A politician needs to stand up and brace the populace for the freight train that is coming. Unfortunately, you start screwing with the obligations the old people saddled their kids and grandkids with and your stay in politics will be very short.

In other scary news, here is an op-ed about how Bawney Fwank wants to pin New York's and California's pension problems on all citizens of the United States. online.wsj.com/article/SB123993403283927985.html

Social Security and Medicare are going to sink the fucking Titanic if they aren't reformed. They are massive icebergs.

Getting rid of them altogether would create alternatively indigestible problems (as evidenced by their very existence). The problem of course, aside from the structural issues, is the politicians. It would probably be better to divorce these programs from the realm of politics and allow some unelected experts deal with them.

Like that will ever happen.

[NOTTHOR]

Apr 19, 2009 20:25:21 GMT -6 thunderhawk said:

Apr 19, 2009 16:22:29 GMT -6 NOTTHOR said:

Big old cosign. I think the government spending/Treasury bubble will puff up nicely and get us out of this recession. It will work in the short run, but then when it bursts (not if, when), look out below. That's when the bottom will fall out from under the economy.

In roughly a decade, SS and Medicare will both be paying out substantially more than they take in and government spending on all levels with entitlement spending added in will be well over 50% of GDP. Call me pessimistic, but I just don't see where the money will come from or how you could expect the 20% or so of the population that pays the majority of taxes to support such a giant burden. A politician needs to stand up and brace the populace for the freight train that is coming. Unfortunately, you start screwing with the obligations the old people saddled their kids and grandkids with and your stay in politics will be very short.

In other scary news, here is an op-ed about how Bawney Fwank wants to pin New York's and California's pension problems on all citizens of the United States. online.wsj.com/article/SB123993403283927985.html

Social Security and Medicare are going to sink the fucking Titanic if they aren't reformed. They are massive icebergs.

Getting rid of them altogether would create alternatively indigestible problems (as evidenced by their very existence). The problem of course, aside from the structural issues, is the politicians. It would probably be better to divorce these programs from the realm of politics and allow some unelected experts deal with them.

Like that will ever happen.

Yes, they should be administered wholly separate of the political bodies, similar to the Fed. There need to be egghead economists, actuaries and accountants running the thing and being the assholes who push the age back a few years here and there and lowering the benefit levels. Unfortunately, our elected officials will wait until about 3 days before every check they mailed out will bounce and then come up with a "fix" that involves raising taxes on the working and fucking our future even more.

[Saggitariutt Jefferspin (ith)]

I'm about to the point where I'm going to walk out of my corporate job, leave my mortgaged house, take the wife to somewhere far, far away and live off the land.

[Dr. Doofenshmirtz (Heywood)]

Apr 20, 2009 10:42:31 GMT -6 Saggitariutt Jefferspin (ith) said:

I'm about to the point where I'm going to walk out of my corporate job, leave my mortgaged house, take the wife to somewhere far, far away and live off the land.

+1

Why not? It would be an easier life.