Posted on 08/29/2013 8:50:43 AM PDT by barmag25
Of course, this only works if you speak Serbian, and the panhandler does not. :)
I don't speak Serbian, either, but can do a halfway credible job of faking my way through broken, heavily Russian-accented English. "Da, tovarishch? Not really money you are meaning to be giving me to? No, no! Please! Not really now I am needing money some of now today, but most deeply now thanking you I am, nyet?" Shaking hands with them is... well, "another matter," I'll just say, and let it go at that.
You think when citizens are forced to give up their hard earned dollars on the promise it will be returned decades later, they should not expect their money to be returned? You consider that an entitlement, when they paid for it in advance?
Do you think the same of private investment plans and 401ks?
Ha Ha Ha!
“Rushlish” is my fake language of choice in these situations as well...
Tovarich, Ya ne govoryoo pangliski, spasiba, da s’vidonyah!
Panhandlers don’t speak German, either. One equatorial type came up to me on a street corner and asked for money. I replied in German. He looked at me confused and said, “What you say?” and I repeated in German. Another confused look and he turned away and said to his fellow vultures, “I don’ think he speaks English”.
Just last night I was walking to my car in a private parking lot where I work. A big, well-fed thug materialized out of nowhere and asked for “change to pay for parking”. This parking lot requires plastic cards to raise the gates; there is no one to take money. I said I had none and briskly walked back into the building while he stood there and cursed. We are unfortunately not allowed to carry guns where I work.
Private investment and 401ks are fundamentally different. There is an account, with your name on it, and that money is yours. Short of government theft, no one can take that stuff away from you, because it absolutely is YOURS.
But the government doesn’t have any money. There is no box with your name on it. There is no stash of YOUR money. The government isn’t dipping into the pile that YOU paid into and giving you YOUR money. What the government is doing is dipping into MY pocket, taking MY money and giving it to YOU.
And you think the government is entitled to do this, because you are OWED.
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
***Airport authorities ought to better police those freaks.***
I remember when it was the Hari kirshnas hassling people at airports years ago. Did they finally get chased off?
I remember those freaks also!
I think they must have been run off, or disbanded...
Praise God! I haven’t seen even one of them in ages.
Actually, private doesn't lock that money up in a box. It is loaned out and put to work. The risk is minimal with quality institutions, but there is risk.
The government isn’t dipping into the pile that YOU paid into and giving you YOUR money. What the government is doing is dipping into MY pocket, taking MY money and giving it to YOU.
While I understand your point, I'm on the paying side still and for a long time.
I think everyone got conned
I make my own plans, assuming it won't be returned. But I won't go quietly into the night while others are paid and my funds never returned.
Any solution to this problem will be painful, but there is absolutely no hope of a better future until more people wake up and say, “I’m part of the problem. It’s not just other people living off entitlements. I’m really doing the same thing. Now – how can I begin to change that?”
We need to push for more policies that allow people to make their own plans, and for fewer policies which enforce government charity which breeds dependency among both Liberals and Conservatives.
I will take any budget cut, in any program, at any time. There are no sacred cows.
CCG, we've may have had this discussion before. SS was sold to us AS a retirement program, and as you pointed out, many of us have been paying into for decades. What exactly are you proposing? That people decline their SS? That they send their checks back, or refuse to cash them?
There’s a line in Fiddler on the Roof, a guy gives the town beggar a smaller coin than usual because times are hard. The beggar says, “So because you are having hard times, *I* have to suffer?”
I’ve had beggars call out sweetly, “Good morning, Miss, can you spare a coin, please,” or words to that effect. But when I walk by without giving them any money, it’s, “You @#$%%^ !@#&^!” That’s just one reason why I never give them money.
Um...ok...that's why social security IS an 'entitlement'. Sheeesh.
It needs to be done intelligently and carefully -- but it needs to be done.
A lot of people (including many Conservatives) are totally sold on the concept of government charity when they see themselves as the recipients. Oh, sure, other people don't deserve their gubmint check, but I sure do!
Any legislation which diminishes government support should be embraced.
The same for us. Instead, I keep reducing clutter and donating whatever to Easter Seals. I itemize and claim the small tax deduction.
When the GOP calls asking for money, I tell them: “We are living in the Obama economy. I have no money for political donations.” The response is a shocked silence.
A few weeks ago, we hired someone to do odds jobs for which my husband’s time is limited. The person we hired is an old hippie, *down on his luck*, a former mason who says he is broke and homeless (he is 57 and lives with his adult children)due to spending years caring for aging relatives. Doing the math, he hasn’t worked for nearly 15+ years, lived off the relatives and didn’t need a house since he lived with them. We broached the idea of hiring him to his DIL, who is a physician. She was enthusiastic and said he “could ride his bike” here, since they live nearby. He agreed and insisted on cash so he wouldn’t lose his welfare (!). He showed up in his son’s car.
He showed up late, worked 3 hours,was not very productive and cornered us to talk for at least an hour of that time, did not show up the next day nor in the past weeks to claim the $30 we still owe him.
My empathy has vanished.
****Actually, private doesn't lock that money up in a box. It is loaned out and put to work. The risk is minimal with quality institutions, but there is risk.***
READ AND WEEP!
http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssa/usa1964-2.html
Self-Supporting
“The program is designed so that contributions plus interest on the investments of the social security trust funds will be sufficient to meet all of the costs of benefits and administration, now and into the indefinite future—without any subsidy from the general funds of the Government.
Both the Congress and the Executive Branch, regardless of political party in power, have scrupulously provided in advance for full financing of all liberalizations in the program.”
NOW IT IS GOING BROKE by the SSA’s own admission.
****
Where your money really went....
The REAL entitlement class sits in both House's of Congress...and the White Hut.
I don't disagree. President Bush hinted at "private retirement accounts," and was pilloried for it. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, in a more intelligent way, to end SS.
But let me ask you this: what of the money we've already contributed to SS? Is that shot? Don't we deserve some compensation for it?
Brother and I have done the same. Sorry, I’m all out of sympathy.
I pay in....and it's mandatory. I shouldn't expect to get my money back????
Top it off with I pay DOUBLE because I'm self employed....and it's MANDATORY. And I shouldn't expect to get MY money back????
What's your logic?
I believe there is a more fundamental problem that if not turned around, then efforts in changing the dollar amounts will not ever be effective.
The SS and other programs were put in place because of a voting society that wasn't willing to let individuals suffer from their own bad decisions with the embarrassment of charity.
They force everyone to save money they should have been saving in the first place. They tried to eliminate the need for charity for those that would not or could not.
Charity is an important quality in a quality society. To choose to help those in need rather than being forced by having money taken away by the government.
Decisions need to have consequences. Teach your young otherwise damages the society structure to follow.
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