Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The USA declares foreign Austerity a soft human rights violation. Supplying room & board for these refugees (think PIIGS) will be a top humanitarian issue.
Waiver/reduce 10% withdrawal penalty for tax-deferred retirement accounts.
Last edited by DSOs; 01-02-2013 at 02:32 PM..
Reason: added italics to refugees
"My personal interest in this matter starts with this. I am on the autistic spectrum and it is far harder for me to change my life than it is for everyone else. The change I want to make is I want to get a job. Because of the challenges I face that others don't I want 2% unemployment before I try getting a job. So how do you get 2% unemployment and keep it from where we are now. That is the question that I have tried to answer."
This is the main problem in getting anything accomplished and that is "personal interest" from individuals through giant corporations. It is understandable but it is a nation killer. Inflation is a killer of economies. Inflating might seem like a good idea but it crushes the reliability of a currency.
Take a look at the US economy after gold went from $20.74 to $35 per Oz. The change in the size of the economy was about 10% short of the change in the value of gold. It was about a 2:3 ratio increase in GDP for a ratio of 1.7 on gold. If I did the math correctly. Debt as % GDP went from 265% to 170% assuming same amount of debt then the difference was in the size of the economy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie1946
As long as entitlements are off the "fix it" table, we have no hope to repair our economy. It will get worse.
How to put them on the back door table. Set the minimum wage above the payout for entitlements and create a high demand for labor. You don't change the entitlements themselves you change what they relate too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie1946
The US Constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is. If Congress sets up a "salvation committee" and it passes muster by the SC, then it is done deal.
Here is a salvation comity for you. Start a new political party. One dedicated to reform. One backed by the people. Asking an addict to voluntarily limit their addiction is incredible stupidity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie1946
I doubt it will happen, but it is the only way, in my opinion, that we will get through this. The Simpson-Bowles committee came up with a plan and it was shouted down. Yet here we are on a downward trend. Where I live, a loaf of bread just over a year ago was 1.79. Yesterday, I paid 3.15 for that same loaf. Small sample but indicative of where we are headed.
But what has happened to wages over the same time frame? Wages for the bottom end need to lead not lag prices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie1946
Good luck to you.
[quote=Ollie1946;27571654]
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
I am sorry for your disability, but you have incredibly unrealistic expectations to demand in order to even look for a job. The lowest unemployment has been since the end of world war 2 was 2.9% on Jan 1, 1953, and the only time it was under 3%. You are setting the bar so that you can blame others in order to say you want to, but so far things aren't perfect.
Back in 1998 I was out of work for 9 months. I went through 5 jobs in 6 weeks the last one sticking for 2 years. Changing my ADLs is a royal pain in the neck. Now I am older. I have been out of work for 11 years not 9 months. More set in my ways. Less employable. So in order for me to go through 5 jobs in 6 weeks again, I need a very high demand for labor indeed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
Life isn't perfect...it's messy, frustrating, and a struggle. That is what makes it worth living. I am friends with, and have helped, many people with all sorts of disorders (mental/physical) and see people go from the streets to happy productive lives.
I have a plan. It is custom for me. It may actually work. It isn't getting a conventional job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
No where in there is a rational idea. I was a Chaplin, and the rules for clergy and teachers are very different. Education does not teach you what class (not sure what "classes" there are in the US) you are in or unquestioning obedience.
Detroit graduates 47% literate. They are not in the reading and writing class of people. I learned to read in the 6th grade. I test out 10% in several areas regarding writing. That 10% is in large part my ability to compensate for what I am bad at. I can tell you that 90% of those that can't read coming out of Detroit have an easier time learning to read than I do. They have been taught that they can't read. I call that teaching them what class they are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
I agree that a number of well maybe well meaning, and poorly though out, churches will demand obedience over critical thinking. It is something I find as a cancer on the love of Jesus. Jesus gave us a mind to use and not to threaten others with hell if they use it.
Back in 1998 I was out of work for 9 months. I went through 5 jobs in 6 weeks the last one sticking for 2 years. Changing my ADLs is a royal pain in the neck. Now I am older. I have been out of work for 11 years not 9 months. More set in my ways. Less employable. So in order for me to go through 5 jobs in 6 weeks again, I need a very high demand for labor indeed.
I have a plan. It is custom for me. It may actually work. It isn't getting a conventional job.
Detroit graduates 47% literate. They are not in the reading and writing class of people. I learned to read in the 6th grade. I test out 10% in several areas regarding writing. That 10% is in large part my ability to compensate for what I am bad at. I can tell you that 90% of those that can't read coming out of Detroit have an easier time learning to read than I do. They have been taught that they can't read. I call that teaching them what class they are.
I have been working since I was 16. This also includes a stint in the military, self paid seminary, and working while pursuing 2 masters degrees 5 nights a week while paying for you to be out of work for 11 years waiting for unemployment to be near 2% in order to even attempt to apply for work because you feel like it. Watching you take pride in basic literacy, and tell me how awesome you are, as I pay for it is downright insulting to the hard work I have done.
Then you are happy because you are better at only basic literacy then most of the kids in the most violent and poverty stricken school districts in the United States. Sorry, but if you are living in a place where people are firing guns over your head I could understand when literacy is not your primary focus. Not when you get to sit on your butt posting on forums and boasting that you are better then those that live in pretty much a war zone.
I guess some people need a reference point where they can boast they are better then others, but you need to get your priorities straight. I donate my time every weekend helping those in need, where children want to come to school (some have even cried on snow days so I would drive them in my 4WD) so they are in a place without violence or drugs on a daily basis. Seeing your self indulgent whining about how unemployment is not low enough to try is downright sickening.
I have been working since I was 16. This also includes a stint in the military, self paid seminary, and working while pursuing 2 masters degrees 5 nights a week while paying for you to be out of work for 11 years waiting for unemployment to be near 2% in order to even attempt to apply for work because you feel like it. Watching you take pride in basic literacy, and tell me how awesome you are, as I pay for it is downright insulting to the hard work I have done.
Then you are happy because you are better at only basic literacy then most of the kids in the most violent and poverty stricken school districts in the United States. Sorry, but if you are living in a place where people are firing guns over your head I could understand when literacy is not your primary focus. Not when you get to sit on your butt posting on forums and boasting that you are better then those that live in pretty much a war zone.
I guess some people need a reference point where they can boast they are better then others, but you need to get your priorities straight. I donate my time every weekend helping those in need, where children want to come to school (some have even cried on snow days so I would drive them in my 4WD) so they are in a place without violence or drugs on a daily basis. Seeing your self indulgent whining about how unemployment is not low enough to try is downright sickening.
Couldn't rep you again (too soon) so I'll do it this way: Fantastic post - just excellent.
Pie__Row, I think you are not coming across as clearly as you might want to be in the points you make. You may also be confusing a standard of literacy when you grew up with what is now defined by accountability standards etc etc. I have heard progressive commentators say some of the same things about Detroit that you are saying but they are saying it a bit more clearly. They are focused on the failings of the education system and the priorities they have for educating their students. I appreciate the challenges you have and they create a unique need situation for you as you indicated.
Predictions for 2013 and probably beyond are based on the continuing effort by government to increase revenues without making the necessary cuts to expenditures.
A. More companies going to the use of employees contracted via staffing agencies so they don't have to bear the cost of benefits etc etc and any interest in increasing the rate for payroll taxes.
B. More use of 1099 employees where possible and legal and in some cases especially small business if questionable.
C. Assaults and attacks on current tax codes and a desire by a growing number of people to tax wealth and not just income from the wealth. That means 401K and 403B accounts. Many people don't fully appreciate that if you have a 100 Million dollars sitting in a safe and spend 500K a year you aren't paying income, capital gains, dividend taxes on it etc. Or if you have 100 Million invested in a taxable account along with your wife and receive 400K in dividend or interest income your taxes didn't go up.
D. Continual effort by those with the resources and desire to minimize the efforts of government to increase their taxes etc
E. The Roth Conversion allowance may well be robbing future government budgets of taxes by folks doing the conversion from retirement accounts now.
Many more outcomes but until the federal revenues/expenditure equation changes those outcomes will probably not be positive and may not be very successful.
I have been working since I was 16. This also includes a stint in the military, self paid seminary, and working while pursuing 2 masters degrees 5 nights a week while paying for you to be out of work for 11 years
The long and the short of my dip into the public dole is a ½ price bus pass. And several months of food stamps. I've pain enough into the system to cover what I've taken out so shut up about you paying my way, you aren't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
waiting for unemployment to be near 2% in order to even attempt to apply for work because you feel like it. Watching you take pride in basic literacy, and tell me how awesome you are, as I pay for it is downright insulting to the hard work I have done.
Again. You aren't paying my way. I am proud of basic literacy in a way the only people with a profound learning disability are. But Asperger's is a learning disability ability combination. My care giver quit 11 years ago and I'm struggling to over come the absence of a care giver in my life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
Then you are happy because you are better at only basic literacy then most of the kids in the most violent and poverty stricken school districts in the United States. Sorry, but if you are living in a place where people are firing guns over your head I could understand when literacy is not your primary focus. Not when you get to sit on your butt posting on forums and boasting that you are better then those that live in pretty much a war zone.
Would you please reread my post. I said that the school system taught them that they can't read. The school system didn't teach them how to read. Yes they live in a war zone. This doesn't change that they weren't taught how to read by the system. Your tax dollars are paying for their illiteracy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EmeraldCityWanderer
I guess some people need a reference point where they can boast they are better then others, but you need to get your priorities straight. I donate my time every weekend helping those in need, where children want to come to school (some have even cried on snow days so I would drive them in my 4WD) so they are in a place without violence or drugs on a daily basis. Seeing your self indulgent whining about how unemployment is not low enough to try is downright sickening.
If you want to understand where I am coming from a little better why don't you take an ice pick and drive it into your head in several place and then you can talk about much better you are than I as you struggle to learn the very basic things that organic drain damage does to your ability set.
We have a phonetic language, what is taught is school is word memorization. Your volunteering time would be far better spent teaching the parents of 1st graders how to sound out words so that they can teach their kids how to sound out words. You want to teach the parents how to learn how to read because they are bound to the community by their kids. If you teach the kids they will leave with the skill set you give them.
Word memorization teaches you to read a subset of the words you know. Sounding out words lets you learn new words in writing. IQ is measured by word knowledge. They are being taught that that they are dumb.
I have put a lot of effort into changing the unemployment rate.
The Fed is buying 2/3 of the budget short fall each year. If you print that much money again and give it to everyone but me. That much extra spending all at once even if part of it goes into debt reduction will tend to drive to full employment.
Up th minimum wage. This is one way to change the ratio of debt to income. We are at close to 400% of total debt in the US. The banking system is on the edge of collapse. Inflation will tend to forestall this collapse
There are several other thing that need to be done to get the economy on an even keel. I have taught myself a bit of economics with the time I've spent trying to get the economy fixed. A job at McDee's isn't in the offing for me. But that doesn't mean that I haven't put a lot of effort into getting a job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TuborgP
Pie__Row, I think you are not coming across as clearly as you might want to be in the points you make. You may also be confusing a standard of literacy when you grew up with what is now defined by accountability standards etc etc. I have heard progressive commentators say some of the same things about Detroit that you are saying but they are saying it a bit more clearly. They are focused on the failings of the education system and the priorities they have for educating their students. I appreciate the challenges you have and they create a unique need situation for you as you indicated.
I may very well not have put what I was trying to say into words as well as I could have. That you have 47% illiteracy is not because the kids are inherently unable to perform. It is a system failure. I read a letter published in a gold prospecting book (Old book) that was written by someone named Rockefeller, in that letter he said that he liked the way this one person was educating back people as they were only good for factory work when the were done with school. I think that it is system failure by design and that has me hopping mad about it.
I am at a loss to understand how raising the minimum wage changes anything. Prices go up and people who are paid minimum wage advance exactly nowhere.
A major part of our problem is unsolvable and that is demographics. There are far too many people (boomers) who are graduating into social security and medicare. Clark Howard had a special on radio yesterday on this issue and it was excellent. SS can be made well but medicare cannot be. The numbers are simply too big. Slashing this one main entitlement is the way to go. The US cannot grow its way out of this. That possibility has gone to Asia. It isn't coming back. An economy such as ours that depends on the internal combustion engine whereby anyone needing one to get to a job or anywhere else is hammered by high fuel costs. That isn't going to get better either.
Voters, especially Boomers, are not going to accept diminished Medicare. It has to be changed in a draconian way or else. We cannot survive the "else".
"Start a new political party". Really? Like that hasn't been attempted quite a few times and every time has been crushed by the donkey and the elephant. Won't happen. Pipe dream. Fantasy.
This is one time where democracy cannot work. It isn't working.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Pushing Bodies/Churn Act
