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Friday, April 27. 2012

Miracles Do Happen: Someone in Brussels Accurately Analyzes Europe’s Fiscal Crisis!

Portland Pounces On Groupon - Oregon city stopping citizens from saving money in tough times.

First Lady’s Spanish Vacation 'Cost Taxpayers $500,000'

Vacation backlash: Blue collar Dems jealous, angry at Obamas

George Will: Illinois is running out of time and money

Outrage as Egypt plans 'farewell intercourse law' so husbands can have sex with DEAD wives up to six hours after their death

Can Romney be a transformational President?

Review: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion By Jonathan Haidt

Terrific: Senate Dems offset cost of student loan bill with higher taxes on small business

The Election Should Be All About Barack Obama’s Record - Three likely stark reminders of just how bad it is will arrive just before Election Day.

Would You Settle Your Claims on Social Security for 80 Cents on the Dollar? (I Would)

America Is Out of Control - Central Planning in the US

Congress to Sebelius: “This mandate is going to wind up in the Supreme Court”

Mahan’s Naval Strategy: China Learned It. Will America Forget It?

California Bill Would Ban Psychotherapy Aimed at Changing Under-18-Year-Olds’ Same-Sex “Desires, Attraction, or Conduct”

Kay Hymowitz: Why Women Make Less Than Men

Matthews: Romney's Youth Vote Comes From Corrupt Business Students

Liberal Media Mock Obama for Faux Campaign

No sea level rise for 100 years

EPA Official's 'Philosophy' On Oil Companies: 'Crucify Them' - Just As Romans Crucified Conquered Citizens

City Slickers - The growth of urbanized areas could shift some states from red to blue over time.

Actually, if Ken Salazar had his way we'd already have $9 per gallon gas

Former Dean Rapoport: 'I Expect Some Law Schools to Close'

Secret Service Repaired Personal Cars Instead of Presidential Limos

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:30 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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OMG! Looks just like my mother-in-law's Airedale seeking his share of the BBQ ribs!

#1 jma on 2012-04-27 08:25 (Reply)

Social security is easy to fix, just raise the retirement age for benefits until what workers are willing to pay equals what the retired take.

Raising the age raises the number of workers and reduces the number of retirees. Somewhere is an exact match, probably within reasonable range.

The benefit of SS isn't getting your money back but its insurance aspect. It's an annuity that's inflation adjusted that guarantees you won't outlive your savings.

It's a lot harder to save for the longest possible retirement than to save for an average retirement.

SS pools the savings so that you're covered for the longest possible retirement if you save for the average.

A private company can't do that because, (1) inflation isn't an insurable event - all your policies go bad at once; and (2) a private company probably won't survive the 50 years anyway, leaving your savings gone.

#2 rhhardin (Link) on 2012-04-27 08:26 (Reply)

I wouldn't say that it was "easy" to fix Social Security, unless someone has a crystal ball that can predict the future of the economy and the trend in national demographics. However, in agreement with your suggestion, I believe Congress should raise the EARLY retirement age from 62 to something like 65 for people who are now between 25 and 45 years of age (with a comparable increase in the corresponding full retirement age), and to 67 for people who are now younger than 25. By 2060, the early retirement age should be raised to 70 or even 72 in order to keep pace with our longer life spans. The retirement age for full benefits has been raised quite a bit in recent years, but it is the early retirement age that needs to be increased in order to rescue the program from long-term default.

#2.1 Agent Cooper on 2012-04-27 17:58 (Reply)

I think the early retirement is a wash as far as benefits go - the usual advice is wait until you're 70 exactly and start payments on the last month, since the benefit increases to compensate for reduced remaining average lifetime, giving you the largest insurance component.

It may be that you're working less and so not paying in with early retirement and that doesn't figure into the benefits correctly, given a clamp at some number of years you have to put in in their computation.

#2.1.1 rhhardin (Link) on 2012-04-28 06:53 (Reply)

PS: "A private company can't do that because, (1) inflation isn't an insurable event - all your policies go bad at once; and (2) a private company probably won't survive the 50 years anyway, leaving your savings gone."

Oh? Won't survive 50 years? Here's just one example, taken from Wikipedia:

MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, or MetLife, for short, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries. The firm was founded on March 24, 1868.

For the math challenged, MetLife was founded 144 (!!) years ago. That' a century and a half ago, three years after the Civil War ended.

#2.2 Agent Cooper on 2012-04-27 20:02 (Reply)

Consider the companies that aren't around, not the ones that are.

#2.2.1 rhhardin (Link) on 2012-04-28 06:55 (Reply)

--re the EPA guy --remember this: Everything the Nazis did was legal. After coming to power thru the electoral system and parliamentary politics, they took great care to pass 'enabling acts' prior to any planned outrage. So much so that a new legal concept ("Crimes Against Humanity") had to be developed in order to have any legal basis for the Nuremburg Trials. IOW, because they so richly deserved it, they were more or less prosecuted under a Bill of Attainder --which, inside the nation of one of the Nuremburg prosecuting nations, was then and is now Unconstitutional.

Listen to the EPA guy --watch that 'sweeping-away' hand motion as he says that the first thing the Romans woulkd do upon entering a conquered town was 'crucify the first five guys they saw' so that for the 'next several years, they wouldn't have any trouble' with the town.

Now imagine that the 2010 elections had gone the other way. Now imagine the fiendishly logical 'for the children' explanation the EPA could have had, for their own police force --and their own administrative court, and punishment bureaucracy --just like the other tough-minded governments with 'sweeping-away' hand gestures.

#3 buddy larsen on 2012-04-27 08:42 (Reply)

California Bill - is it possible for the United States to eliminate a state from the Union? Because if it is, California would be my first choice.

#4 Tom Francis on 2012-04-27 08:44 (Reply)

Tom.... I don't know if it is possible for the United States to eliminate a state from the Union, but I do know that Texas, which had been a Republic for Six or eight years before we were "invited" to join the Union, reserved the right, as a condition to joining the Union, to withdraw if, later on, we decided to become a Republic again. Gov. Perry mentioned this a few years ago, and several prominent governmental figures got their knickers in a twist about it.

Heh.

Marianne

#5 Marianne Matthews on 2012-04-27 12:45 (Reply)

If Texas hands the presidency over to Mitt Romney in this November's election, the Dems might just be willing to give the separatists in Texas their fondest wish.

#5.1 Agent Cooper on 2012-04-27 18:04 (Reply)

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Friday, April 27. 2012

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