[Plantagenet]

SS is yet another problem that O is kicking down the road. Someone will have to man up and fix it but it sure isn't gonna be O

[wildbourgman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'N')o argument they are voting based on social issues, wild, that's my point. Where they once voted pro-slavery (by whatever name) as an economic issue, as well as a "social" one, they then voted pro-New Deal as an economic issue, they have now been persuaded to vote against their economic interests in trade for clinging to their guns and bibles. Oh, and deciding who sleeps with who.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'N')o argument they are voting based on social issues, wild, that's my point. Where they once voted pro-slavery (by whatever name) as an economic issue, as well as a "social" one, they then voted pro-New Deal as an economic issue, they have now been persuaded to vote against their economic interests in trade for clinging to their guns and bibles. Oh, and deciding who sleeps with who.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wildbourgman', 'H')ow is voting against a system that's destined to fail voting against their economic interest? (Answer this one please, that was not rhetorical)

[wildbourgman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')f course it is rhetorical, it's just your opinion

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wildbourgman', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')f course it is rhetorical, it's just your opinion

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wildbourgman', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')It will then widen, and by 2087, payable benefits
will be 34 percent smaller than scheduled benefits[/b].

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'S')S is yet another problem that O is kicking down the road. Someone will have to man up and fix it but it sure isn't gonna be O

[PrestonSturges]

Rolling Stone article about how the rush to slash pensions is a Trojan horse to dump cash into hedge funds

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat few people knew at the time was that Raimondo's "tool kit" wasn't just meant for local consumption. The dynamic young Rhodes scholar was allowing her state to be used as a test case for the rest of the country, at the behest of powerful out-of-state financiers with dreams of pushing pension reform down the throats of taxpayers and public workers from coast to coast. One of her key supporters was billionaire former Enron executive John Arnold – a dickishly ubiquitous young right-wing kingmaker with clear designs on becoming the next generation's Koch brothers, and who for years had been funding a nationwide campaign to slash benefits for public workers.

Nor did anyone know that part of Raimondo's strategy for saving money involved handing more than $1 billion – 14 percent of the state fund – to hedge funds, including a trio of well-known New York-based funds: Dan Loeb's Third Point Capital was given $66 million, Ken Garschina's Mason Capital got $64 million and $70 million went to Paul Singer's Elliott Management. The funds now stood collectively to be paid tens of millions in fees every single year by the already overburdened taxpayers of her ostensibly flat-broke state. Felicitously, Loeb, Garschina and Singer serve on the board of the Manhattan Institute, a prominent conservative think tank with a history of supporting benefit-slashing reforms. The institute named Raimondo its 2011 "Urban Innovator" of the year.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'T')he Tea party libertarians will bring this Country to it knees if they gain enough power.

[yellowcanoe]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'R')olling Stone article about how the rush to slash pensions is a Trojan horse to dump cash into hedge funds

[PrestonSturges]

The people clamoring for something to be done are the same people that grew up hypnotized and slack jawed by crappy cartoons that sold them stupid toys, now they sit there hypnotized and slack jawed while the same idiot box sells them on crappy policies. It's a different time slot, but it's still shiny garbage bundled with yelling and slogans and shoveled into the passive receptacles that are the Gadsen Flag goobers. And it's all going to work just as well as that Power Rangers cape when you jumped off the roof of the garage. Wheee, the power of make believe, keep believing every random thing you hear on television.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wildbourgman', 'S')ixstrings, that's a very good point, but I don't think we're going to have anyone recommending that we structure social security payouts according to whether you had a desk job versus being a coal miner.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'N')ot sure where you've seen any gas station attendants, six, LOL. Regardless, there is a difference between being on your feet all day making change behind a counter and digging a ditch, lifting a bale and toting a barge.

[yellowcanoe]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')
What I'm saying is that raising that age is a massive hardship on people from certain lines of work, folks on the lower end of the scale who haven't spent a life yacking by a water cooler in some Washington think tank.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'m 56, work in an office but get lots of exercise biking/walking to work or hiking/canoeing/cross country skiing on weekends. I consider myself to be in much better shape physically than most people my age and expect to retain my good health for a few more decades.

[yellowcanoe]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '
')
Your life could change in a day. Being in shape physically is no guarantee to expect good health for a few more decades, actually it's nonsense. All it will take is something like a stroke or maybe you will get a virus that will turn your immune system upside down and you end up with an autoimmune disease like Lupus. OR maybe from overuse, you end up having Knee or hip replacements. Think I'm full of BS, check out 'athlete's heart'.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')What I'm saying is that raising that age is a massive hardship on people from certain lines of work, folks on the lower end of the scale who haven't spent a life yacking by a water cooler in some Washington think tank.

So what government does is the OPPOSITE wb, they're saying "well okay everyone is the same everyone's life expectancy has gone up *on average* so now we're raising retirement age another 4 years* -- and it's just not right, because it's just not true, averages don't mean sh*t because this is not an averaged out country, it has classes, with real and stark differences between those classes.

What winds up happening is working class folks who are worn out and can't make it to retirement age go the disability route with SS. Government will go after that next. I'm not sure what you can do here, you can't beat an old dog and make him do new tricks, if his body's shot and worn out, what can you do. It's not like there are lots of jobs out there for old folks with health problems, sheesh.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yellowcanoe', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '
')
Your life could change in a day. Being in shape physically is no guarantee to expect good health for a few more decades, actually it's nonsense. All it will take is something like a stroke or maybe you will get a virus that will turn your immune system upside down and you end up with an autoimmune disease like Lupus. OR maybe from overuse, you end up having Knee or hip replacements. Think I'm full of BS, check out 'athlete's heart'.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Y')ep, not many people can keep hanging sheet rock into their 70's. The people who need Social Security to survive are exactly the people whose bodies are shot long before 65.'

And I was saying upthread, the really evil part about these "reforms" is that they are being pushed to solve an imaginary problem - the growing hoards of poor elderly. Nope, the poor elderly aren't having big increases in lifespan.

But hey, consultants get paid big bucks to create imaginary problems that will trick people into killing off the helpless