"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I’m surprised that people in San Fransisco are willing to admit that the Welfare state will bankrupt us.
Anywa, am I the only one who thinks the government will just go back on their word and slash services, all the while promising ever new and thrilling programs?
I thought the Democrats and their publicists in the liberal media say there is no Social Security and Medicare crisis.
Just like they told us there was no crisis and Fannie and Freddie...
I thought the Democrats and their publicists in the liberal media say there is no Social Security and Medicare crisis.
Just like they told us there was no crisis and Fannie at Freddie...
Nonsense. I was forced to put my hard earned dollars in long before they were born.
Although the market failed today, NOTE THAT THE FED RELEASED $630 Billion today, AND, THE MARKET TANKED ANYWAY!!! The point of the post is that we have not seen anything yet. Correct.
Here is the bloomberg piece noting the non-effective release of vast funds in one day that failed to impress the market irrespective of the US Houses failure to pass a so-called ‘bailout’ bill..
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahwz_k5JvuB8&refer=home
As I've said before, those costs are no problem at all - they simply won't be paid. Grandpa's going to be greeting people at Wal-Mart until he's 95 to pay his drug bill. ;)
Great post, kabar. Thanks. Frederic Bastiat talked about this here...
Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.
But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.
Socialists desire to practice legal plunder, not illegal plunder. Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism?
Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.
That’s got to be the first story from the San Francisco Chronicle that I completely agree with.
Social security and medicare can be easily addressed, though no one has the guts to do it. Cancel the whole program now, and grandfather those people who’ve been led to believe in the lie (i.e., people within 15 years of retirement). There is no trust fund and no mandate to fund it. Social security is the biggest myth in American history—it’s just another tax that goes into the general fund. Originally conceived as an elaborate ponzi scheme, it was never thought that the originally minimal outlays would exceed the massive input. Changes in the 1950s and then the Great Society totally changed the system and have led to it being “unfunded”. But the law has always been clear—there is no legal obligation to fund Social Security and Congress can abolish it any time they want.
...but we’ll still have money for “free” healthcare right?
Can’t we just borrow the money?
The "October Surprise" a few years from now will be Social Security's broken by folks using "disability" as "welfare without pesky social workers". Some will be on for 50 and 60 years.
Go down to your local Social Security Office - - a third of the people signing up are in their late twenties.
I believe the next big bailout class will be states or municipalities that are ‘too big to fail.’
I may be entering tin foil hat territory, but I think that’s why democrats were so ready to push this bailout for President Bush. If it passed, it would have been very tough to say no to a state or big city.
Picture a dimowit press conference, “You mean we bailed out Wall St but can’t help (insert indebted state here)? Oh, and it’s Bush’s fault.”
Eh, those are non-issues. Our taxes will just go up. That means tax rates (which will also become progressive) will increase as well as the caps on income will be removed altogether.
Sooner or later Dems will figure out that the federal payroll taxes are the most regressive taxes in the US and it will turn into a national crisis.
By that time I will be living on a boat, a man with no country, because my country is no more.
The stock market loss today ALONE cost investors (that’s pension funds, kids’ college funds, etc.) $850-billion—that’s greater than the $700-billion price tag of the bailout.
Anyone want to chip in and buy an island somewhere and start our own country? I’m not joking. We can call it Freeper Island. We’ll be self-reliant.