Don't be sweet, lest you be eaten up; don't be bitter, lest you be spewed out.
Seems that I came down with some sort of a stomach flu. Been puking up my guts for the last two days. I barely got any sleep, always just managed to nod off before I had to jump up and run to make another offering to the porcelain God again. I haven't gotten anything done, because even sitting up for more than a few minutes hurt like hell. My fever peaked last night at 102, and broke sometime around 3am when suddenly I started to feel better. I fell asleep and slept like a rock until just after 11. I'm feeling better now, other than a headache, but that could just be from the lack of caffeine in my system.
Gotta love Bush's new budget antics. In his current suggested budget he completely ignores any money for the Iraq war. Completely ignores the money for his tax cuts for the wealthy, or any funding that will go into his new social security reforms. Reforms, which once again, they use scare tactics to bullshit their way to being passed. Privatizing social security is not a logical answer in and of itself. What happens if the market goes belly up or another 'tech bubble' bursts? Suddenly people are going to find that their retirement plans aren't going to be as good as they hoped. Going to private accounts means you have -no- guaranteed benefits, so if your account fails to make you enough money to retire on, too bad - so sad. Bush keeps saying that social security will be bankrupt in a few decades. What he fails to mention is that even if it does go 'bankrupt', existing payment into social security will still allow for benefits to be paid out. Those benefits might have to be restricted a little more, but the system will never be truly out of money. Yes, the system needs to be rethought, but it doesn't need to be completely revamped. Changing benefits around, paying them out to those more in need wouldn't take as much effort, and would save the system the money it needs to survive well into the next century.
"The money is yours..." Well, no it isn't. Once it is in your retirement account, you can't touch it until you retire. The federal government would also charge you a fee for 'adminstration' of those accounts. Plus, then when you do retire, the government automatically takes a chunk of that money. A chunk in the 10,000 dollar range. So if your account failed to make adequate money, you're doubly screwed. Now, if they offered the private accounts as well as the current system, I could see that working better.
Now I am not socialist, I truly believe that in a perfect world everybody would be responsible for their own retirement - the government would have nothing to do with it at all, but we've managed to get ourselves deep into a rut that there really isn't a logical way out of.
Pet of the Post:
My hedgehog had babies again. If anyone wants a baby hedgehog in the greater Austin, TX area, they should be ready soon. Let me know. Anyone who mentions LJ can get one for $50. They are pintos, so aren't your standard color.
Gotta love Bush's new budget antics. In his current suggested budget he completely ignores any money for the Iraq war. Completely ignores the money for his tax cuts for the wealthy, or any funding that will go into his new social security reforms. Reforms, which once again, they use scare tactics to bullshit their way to being passed. Privatizing social security is not a logical answer in and of itself. What happens if the market goes belly up or another 'tech bubble' bursts? Suddenly people are going to find that their retirement plans aren't going to be as good as they hoped. Going to private accounts means you have -no- guaranteed benefits, so if your account fails to make you enough money to retire on, too bad - so sad. Bush keeps saying that social security will be bankrupt in a few decades. What he fails to mention is that even if it does go 'bankrupt', existing payment into social security will still allow for benefits to be paid out. Those benefits might have to be restricted a little more, but the system will never be truly out of money. Yes, the system needs to be rethought, but it doesn't need to be completely revamped. Changing benefits around, paying them out to those more in need wouldn't take as much effort, and would save the system the money it needs to survive well into the next century.
"The money is yours..." Well, no it isn't. Once it is in your retirement account, you can't touch it until you retire. The federal government would also charge you a fee for 'adminstration' of those accounts. Plus, then when you do retire, the government automatically takes a chunk of that money. A chunk in the 10,000 dollar range. So if your account failed to make adequate money, you're doubly screwed. Now, if they offered the private accounts as well as the current system, I could see that working better.
Now I am not socialist, I truly believe that in a perfect world everybody would be responsible for their own retirement - the government would have nothing to do with it at all, but we've managed to get ourselves deep into a rut that there really isn't a logical way out of.
Pet of the Post:
My hedgehog had babies again. If anyone wants a baby hedgehog in the greater Austin, TX area, they should be ready soon. Let me know. Anyone who mentions LJ can get one for $50. They are pintos, so aren't your standard color.