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Man didn't form goverment for collective good but for personal good. Individual man wanted security, protection of his property and a chance to purse happiness . Man agred to a social contract(creating a small goverment) to get more benefits(mostly security of property and law and order) without giving up too much liberty. Government is legitimate only to the degree that it affords greater security for life, liberty, and property than would exist in a chaotic state of nature and hence goverment should only be a sort of a 'night watchman'. Its not a Faustian pact in which people give up liberty for sake of food and basic economic security and hence men(and women) would gadly agree to a indentured servant pact , but not slavery.
Very well put. This is what government is in theory, now to what government has become.....
Why is that reforming social security argument always comes back to 'attacking the seniors' or responses like 'kicking seniors'. I am aganist ending social security for seniors, I am just saying that we need to at least reform the system for future generation. We need to introduce individual accounts in the system, cut some benefits for future retiree(not seniors) and increase more taxes(outside of social security taxes) along with cutting spending in other program(and stop raiding social security trust fund) because this pay-as-you-go system won't work as seen by almost every report and projection.
I am a independent. Yes, I support Obama but it is only because of foreign policy issue----- IRAQ. I don't like domestic positions of Senator obama or of any candidate for that mattter and I don't want a national health care insurance. Frankly, the idea of adding another program, while the 'big three' (social secuirty, medicare and medicaid) are failing is just crazy. I don't believe that it's state responsbility to takecare of citzens.
Please go back and reread your earlier posts and see if they are consistent with this post.
If your only reason for supporting Obama is Iraq, I hope that you are not in for a rude awakening. While we may be able to get out of Iraq in 18 months (I believe that is his present timeline), the troops will only be redeployed in Afghanistan and other trouble spots.
TexDav -- I agree with you that the Democrats should have been reigned in long ago when they gave benefits to people who had not payed into the system. This is still continuing as recently as last fall when the Dem in Congress voted overwhelmingly to allow illegal aliens to receive work credit while illegal. This is just the first step to letting illegals get SS benefits as soon as they are given amnesty. You think SS and Medicare have a problem now just wait. In addition, the SS Trust fund has been raided ever since LBJ start it to fund his Great Society and Vietnam War.
Man didn't form goverment for collective good but for personal good. Individual man wanted security, protection of his property and a chance to purse happiness . Man agred to a social contract(creating a small goverment) to get more benefits without giving up too much liberty. Government is legitimate only to the degree that it gives greater security for life, liberty, and property than would exist in a chaotic state of nature and hence goverment should only be a sort of a 'night watchman'. Its not a Faustian pact, people won't give up liberty for sake of food and basic economic security and hence men(and women) would gadly agree to a indentured servant pact , but never become a slave.
That is the problem, with our wonderful 2 party system a person has to fit into a peg or a square hole. If you don't you don't count and neither do your ideas. Am I the only one that sees this as a problem?
I support free markets, free people and a realist/neo-realist foreign policy.
If pulling the Obama lever, and unless voting on purely racial terms, it is utterly impossible to define oneself as anything other than a liberal, nanny state dem.
For that matter, even some McCain voters could be defined that way
If I recall, SS was supposed to be a supplement for retirement, not the entire plan. It seems to me it's morphed into an excuse for not being a responsible saver during your working career. And before someone flames me as a silver-spooned fortunate son, I'll say that I am a blue-collar worker who puts in long, long work weeks and then comes home and works at a home business. I won't bore you with a lot of details, but I didn't start with much.
Some years ago, the business I worked for got the union booted and I lost tens of thousands of dollars in a pension fund, never to be seen again (unless I go back to being union - fat chance as unions disappeared here, and I wouldn't if they existed!). At that point, I gave up thinking that anyone was looking out for me and got right in the game. If I had the money I lost there and what I've paid into the SS system the last 30 years, I could retire pretty handily at 58 or so. As it is, I get a letter every year from SS, and it's never good news. My full benefits check has been moved back 2 1/2 years from when I first started paying real money into the system, and I expect it will move back in an increasing pace as the boomers impact the system. While I will always want to work some, I'd like it to be increasingly optional as I grow older - ready for a little downtime here and there.
My company's 401(k) rep is no better; they keep saying how great a 401 is but won't consider a Roth 401(k) for the plan to avoid the ever-increasing tax burden retirees are facing. The plan's stock fund choices are burdened with very high expense ratios; I realize better returns with personal no-load funds and individual stocks. I'll take the buck an hour they pay into it, but won't contribute as I can see the handwriting on the wall for the endgame on those. I do our personal portfolio through on-line trading and purchasing - that saves literally thousands in brokeragesales fees over a lifetime. There's no mystery to this stuff, but you have to be willing to work hard and spend time reading and researching. And realize that you will have losses occasionally; it's part of the game.
Sorry, but a politician telling me how much they will save me in taxes is really insulting my intelligence - there is no free lunch in taxes and fees. If one goes down, another will go up or a new one created somewhere. I am more than willing (and do) contribute to the system, SS or otherwise. In return, I expect to be told the truth by my representatives, no more, no less. Sadly, I am often disappointed in that regard.
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