The U.S. Goverment

[ewlol]

Are you really suggesting that a social security system is detrimental to a country's economy?

What's detrimental to a country's economy is capitalism and a insatiable hunger for an unnecessary weapons/defense system. Compound that on a broken society that is fixated on the long-since-worn illusion of the "American Dream" and the sometimes-working idea of hard work = money.

[jorb]

Are you really suggesting that a social security system is detrimental to a country's economy?

....



Of course. Highly. How could it possibly be otherwise?

Taxes are detrimental to economic development as they disincentivize work, and taxes are necessary to support a social security system. Read that book i linked to. It's very simple and short.

[ewlol]

Except you are totally factoring out those who work but are not compensated accordingly.

The woman who works her ass off in the Dorito's factory and goes home as a single mother to 3 children someone is less worthy than the 9 to 5er business executive who goes and plays a few holes of golf and spends their ample amount of leisure time poolside?

You cannot quantify work whatsoever. Any attempt to is bogus.

[ewlol]

Also if you are interested in a little literature read some of this.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/20 ... d-metaphor

I recall you spurting out something about how "america is just a ponzi scheme" one time. A lot of your opinions about America are filtered through some bullshit tea party/ultra conservative screen.

[jorb]

Son, I'm sorry, but the utter stupidity of that article makes my head hurt. The analogy with a ponzi scheme is made in relation to the payout and intake models of the system. If you join a ponzi scheme fully aware of what it is -- or better yet force the citizens of your country to partake in one -- you are obviously still running a ponzi scheme even if you are completely open about how the system (doesn't) work. The fact that the Social Security Administration is open about the fact that it can't meet it's promises doesn't mean that it hasn't made those promises.

EDIT: I'm slightly taken a back by the fact that even the NYT could print something so utterly inane, truth be told.

[ewlol]

Im beginning to think that your strategy is just labeling something with an unpopular name in order to make it look worse than it actually is. And you just hate America, obviously.

So I guess the banking system is a Ponzi Scheme as well? Speaking only on terms only of input/output. Please.

Call social security what you will, but grasping at a straw in order to slander a system that you "dislike" isn't effective. How many people have benefitted from Social Security vs. how many people benefitted from a true ponzi scheme? I dont think you can even begin to compare those two when looking from that angle.

[jorb]

Im beginning to think that your strategy is just labeling something with an unpopular name in order to make it look worse than it actually is.

It's not about the name, but an analysis of the mechanics of the system.

And you just hate America, obviously.

No, I don't. In fact the case is quite the opposite.

Call social security what you will, but grasping at a straw in order to slander a system that you "dislike" isn't effective. How many people have benefitted from Social Security vs. how many people benefitted from a true ponzi scheme? I dont think you can even begin to compare those two when looking from that angle.

Broken Window Fallacy. The thesis of that book I pointed to is that it is at the heart of much if not most bad economic reasoning. You only see the good social security did because the alternate uses of the money that went into creating that system never had a chance to materialize.

[ewlol]

I leave with one final statement anyways.

I don't believe all of this horseshit theory is at all productive to humans at all, nor do I even believe very much in goverments, nor do I really even understand them. I am mostly a naturalist who see humans as purely destructive, at least the humans of today are purely destructive. All my my understandings of America (the only country I have ever lived in) come from real life experiences I have had. I spend a lot of time with homeless people and have a great deal of sympathy for them. My beliefs regarding government are only dictated by what I can touch and see in person--not some crap written in a book or pooped out on the internet. I went to a Jesuit high school and was brought up in a religious family, and what I believe in fundamentally is a fairness for all humans. I realize this dream of a fair (and I ain't talkin' about a world where each person is on equal economic footing) world wont ever come true, but that doesn't mean a dog-eat-dog world is OK. Now you are probably see why I agree with social security.

I especially like what you have said here.

You are free to compete in the marketplace of ideas just as everyone else is, but your ideas deserve absolutely no special recognition just because you happen to like them or believe them to be particularly good. I think most people believe that about their ideas to the extent that they have them.

I hope you can live by it as much as you have preached it. I think you consider yourself a teacher, above your forum "students". Your ideas deserve absolutely no special recognition just because you happen to like them or believe them to be particularly good. Economics is all theory.

[jorb]

Perhaps burgingham could interest you in some critical theory? ^^

[Potjeh]

Indeed, most European societies up until very recently did not have such systems of general education, and free societies they were.

Again with the nostalgia. You throw around the word "free" quite haphazardly, would you mind explaining what it means?