Posted on 04/06/2012 5:22:49 AM PDT by C19fan
Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have drafted proposals forcing all those over the age of 25 to pay a proportion of their income to cushion Germany against a looming population crisis. The German Chancellor's ruling party is seeking extra sources of cash to pay for soaring pensions and bills for social care costs at a time when Germany's "baby boomer" generation is ageing amid a decline in the birth rate.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Socialism is the idea that we can live at the expense of others. I hope all the young socialists are just elated at their opportunity to help older socialists enjoy their free nursing home care and vacations in Greece.
“I’m old.....Gimme Gimme Gimme” - Abe Simpson.
A few years ago I was in Germany to attend a meeting. I met a woman who was a manager for an auto parts company. She quickly told me that she could never work in the US because the government gave her “free health care and four weeks of vacation”. By reflex I said, no they don’t. She said, well yes they do. I asked, do you realize that every week of vacation costs you 2% of your takehome pay. She said, no it doesn’t. By that time, I had recovered my civility and knew to shut up because socialists are such true believers in the benefits of living at the expense of others.
While two world wars didn’t help, that’s not the reason Germans aren’t reproducing now. Germany lost a few million men in WWI but had no problem fielding an army in WWII.
Under the Nazis, the old were drafted into the Volkssturm.
This is a complete non problem. After the coming war in Europe, no one will even remember the question was raised.
Alas poor Sparta. Awsome fighters, but turning to homosexuality lowered their numbers to an unsustainable level.
Sounds like our Social Security.
I think the standard is 6 weeks. We lived over there for a couple of years and my husband worked for a company that only offered five. He had someone turn down a job because it wasn’t the 6 weeks and just five.
If there is to be a return to common sense, without screwing over a huge number of people, government will indeed have to “take the hit”. But importantly, *not* the people, via the government, but the government itself.
For example, in the US, Social Security was a nasty effort to create a universal retirement system. A truly bad idea, that might have worked for a limited part of the population who paid their own way: minimum wage workers with no other form of retirement. That’s it.
But adding other people to it, and using it as a “loot as you go” cash cow for unrelated spending, guaranteed it would fail. So how do we get rid of this monster without screwing the people who paid into it?
The answer is, “with a better deal”.
Right now, income taxes are also an unwieldy monster, full of exemptions and other crapola that require accountants. But if the vast majority of those exemptions were canceled, and re-offered in exchange for *not* taking Social Security checks, it would be a much better deal for many, and it would restore order to a much downgraded SS system.
Proposals that there be a “means test” were killed dead because it was inherently unfair. People who paid into the system would get shafted.
But if people who still had income had a choice between getting their SS check, *or* saving even more money through tax exemptions worth more than their SS check, many would wisely vie for the exemptions. And it would be *their* choice. Many would not choose this, because they really needed their SS money.
So a minimum number of people get screwed in the deal.
And while this would cause a big drop in tax revenues for the government, this could be made up for both with government austerity of *their* spending, *and* the improvement to the economy of more cash floating around for consumers to spend or invest.
Soon the program would be expanded to include the people still working who are not getting SS. Instead of going to SS, their money would go to an IRA, but with added tax benefits. Still a better deal for them.
Finally, those just starting out, except minimum wage employees, would never start paying into the SS system in the first place. The end result would be an SS system at a tenth of its current size.
Yes. But homosexuality was only part of it. In defining themselves as racially pure Spartiates they doomed themselves to extinction.
Yes. But homosexuality was only part of it. In defining themselves as racially pure Spartiates they doomed themselves to extinction.
Yes. I am a baby-boomer, but have to say that I have always detested this demographic as a group. High maintenance, low benefit, scant contributions of any positive accomplishments. Dependants first on their parents, and now on their latch-key kids. It is my intention to live to 120 just to make sure they are all dead when I go.
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