I think this is the beginnings of an economy based on perpetual growth and fossil fuel energy running headlong into geological energy constraints. Basically I see an undulatory downward path for the rest of my life. From here out, I think any rallies in our economic condition are going to be met with spiking commodity prices that knock us right back down.
Joined: Sep 25, 2004 Posts: 4690 Location: Boston, MA
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:20 pm Post subject: Re: Isn't social security salvageable?
vision-master wrote:
basil_hayden wrote:
vision-master wrote:
Let's say 2012, eh?
Guess that will give me 8 years collecting. Life is good, keep on worken fellows! Thanx for that Government employees pension too. Too bad for you. :smirk:
I'm getting mine NOW, before it's all gone.
Hence the reason for Aaron's Reapers to exist...you may want to change your tune!
Why? I'm already entrenched into the system. As long as the Government stay's solvent, I can't be fired & have no work commute! Besides, with the number of boomers ready to retire, if benefits were cut, the Government would have a revolution on their hands.
vision-master, they already cut benefits this year. And they cut them next year and the year after that.
"It reminds me of a scene from George Orwell's 1984 -- the government proclaiming, "Good news, the chocolate ration has increased this week," while in fact it had decreased -- but all record of the prior ration amount had been expunged."
They are cutting benefits as we speak by outright lying about inflation projections.
A movie ticket was 50 cents in 1960. According to the inflation data, a movie ticket should cost only $3.34 today.
I pay twice that today and yet if I was living on a social security pension I could only afford 1/2 of a ticket because my pension would be dependent on government numbers.
And sure, milk and corn are cheaper than they were 30 years ago. But take away the billions of dollars in government subsidies and you'll see a price increase over time ahead of the "Cost of Living Adjustment" figures. _________________ "www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."
Joined: May 18, 2006 Posts: 4753 Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:13 pm Post subject: Re: Isn't social security salvageable?
Yeah, I'm getting about 70% of my former working income. The difference is, taxes. I hardly pay any. So, "take home pay" is about the same. The only debt is a small house payment. So, I'm not hurting - yet! Every year COLA is figured in, so I'm not on a fixed income.
One fund I'm collecting from hasn't allowed new members since 1978. It is a closed fund. A Government basic plan. The good ol days...........
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
The endgame is coming into view.
"The Treasury Department plans to introduce a prepaid debit card for Social Security recipients in an effort to provide safer and cheaper benefits payments."
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:37 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
mattduke wrote:
The endgame is coming into view.
"The Treasury Department plans to introduce a prepaid debit card for Social Security recipients in an effort to provide safer and cheaper benefits payments."
wsj
You bet, then the government doesn't even need to go through the paces of printing worthless money, they can just change a number in a spreadsheet and suddenly SS is solvent.
It will save alot of money though too and provide better security for seniors, if a little less privacy about when and how they spend their money.
Soon RFID will replace cards I suspect. The thing I find interesting is how you keep a balance sheet when there is not paper money. I mean couldn't we do just about anything we wanted then.
Imagine one single electronic currency for the whole world. It sort of changes our perspective on money because when money can be created at no cost (well other than the cost of the electricity to maintain the online network) how do you decide what the wage should be, how many units of currency should exist? A lot would change because in that world the cost of currency would be the energy equivalent of maintaining the network that preserves it (the Internet). So theoretically every persons output could be related back to units of energy. That would make a cool movie to investigate some possible future based upon that. _________________ I return to you now at the turning of the tide.
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:39 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Gandalf_the_White wrote:
mattduke wrote:
The endgame is coming into view.
"The Treasury Department plans to introduce a prepaid debit card for Social Security recipients in an effort to provide safer and cheaper benefits payments."
wsj
You bet, then the government doesn't even need to go through the paces of printing worthless money, they can just change a number in a spreadsheet and suddenly SS is solvent.
It will save alot of money though too and provide better security for seniors, if a little less privacy about when and how they spend their money.
Soon RFID will replace cards I suspect. The thing I find interesting is how you keep a balance sheet when there is not paper money. I mean could'nt we do just about anything we wanted then.
Imagine one single electronic currency for the whole world. It sort of changes our perspective on money because when money can be created at no cost (well other than the cost of the electricity to maintain the online network) how do you decide what the wage should be, how many units of currency should exist? Alot would change because in that world the cost of currency would be the energy equivalent of maintaining the network that preserves it (the Internet). So theoretically every persons output could be related back to units of energy. That would make a cool movie to investigate some possible future based upon that.
Joined: Sep 25, 2004 Posts: 4690 Location: Boston, MA
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:23 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Why is this a NWO conspiracy theory?
Some old folks aren't very good at managing their money.
Giving them a prepaid debit card makes it more difficult for them to end up in debt.
They can't spend more than they have on the card.
Moreover, it is probably easier to administer and is safer.
I support this idea. _________________ "www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Tyler_JC wrote:
Moreover, it is probably easier to administer and is safer.
FEMA agrees, and where a lot of strip clubs don't cash checks, they will accept debit cards. _________________ "It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:06 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Tyler_JC wrote:
Why is this a NWO conspiracy theory?
I guess smells like a step towards a cashless society. Similar to the manner in which gold was confiscated and outlawed (surely an unimaginable idea just a few years earlier), effectively forcing everyone to be a bank customer (at least of the central bank), another "logical" step would be to eliminate hand-to-hand cash altogether thereby eliminating the possibility of a bank run and increasing surveillance.
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 12:10 am Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
mattduke wrote:
effectively forcing everyone to be a bank customer (at least of the central bank), another "logical" step would be to eliminate hand-to-hand cash altogether thereby eliminating the possibility of a bank run and increasing surveillance.
Yep. Nice find as usual mattduke.
Quote:
The debit card is part of a broader effort by the Treasury to move to electronic payments.
This is one of the "fruits" of the now nearly complete merging of the banking system with government.
I find this article to be quite unsettling, as the whole thing is geared towards illegal aliens.
Quote:
Dallas-based Comerica Inc.'s Comerica Bank has been selected as the card issuer for the program, which is targeted at Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who don't have a bank account.
Who doesn't have a bank account? Comerica will now get to scoop up all the fees that were going to the corner check cashing store.
Quote:
"We've been working for a while to try to understand the needs of the unbanked," says Judith Tillman, commissioner of the Treasury's Financial Management Service, which disburses most government payments.
The "unbanked" is the term used by the banking system to refer to illegal aliens. What are all these government payments going to illegal aliens?
I'm pretty sure this is the last rung in the ponzi scheme. There are no levels below giving government cash cards to illegal aliens.
Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1008 Location: As close as I can get to the beginning of the pipe.
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Yes, really nice find, MattDuke. When we have a cashless society, we'll find out just how important the gold standard was. Next stop after the cashless society is.... barter?
I predict that the era of the cashless society will be a very brief, brief period of time.
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:43 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Tyler_JC wrote:
Why is this a NWO conspiracy theory?...
It's part of American culture to be deeply suspicious of government (especially centralized government). That's one of the things that makes Americans "different" than for example Europeans.
That's why we do NOT have:
1) national police force
2) universal health care
3) national public transit system
4) national ID card
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:41 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
cube wrote:
Tyler_JC wrote:
Why is this a NWO conspiracy theory?...
It's part of American culture to be deeply suspicious of government (especially centralized government). That's one of the things that makes Americans "different" than for example Europeans.
that's why we do NOT have:
1) national police force
2) universal health care
3) national public transit system
4) national ID card
...and because incongruity of thought is also another noteworthy American trait, we also lay claim to:
1) the largest centrally planned highway system in existence
2) a federally maintained air traffic control system
3) a compulsory social security benefits system (complete with de facto national ID)
4) educational system following mandatory federal directives
If one were to consider the directives of the New Deal that have been expanded upon in the decades since WW2, an argument that the United States is in the twilight years of one of the largest central planning exercises in history would not be an altogether absurd notion. _________________ "It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:56 am Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
emersonbiggins wrote:
......and because incongruity of thought is also another noteworthy American trait, we also lay claim to:
1) the largest centrally planned highway system in existence
2) a federally maintained air traffic control system
3) a compulsory social security benefits system (complete with de facto national ID)
4) educational system following mandatory federal directives
.
The size and intrusiveness of American government is still "less" then in Europe.
I stumbled upon a website about France. It was not a "political" site but instead a "culture shock" type website to help educate would be travelers what to expect. Here's a story.
A French company fell on financially hard times and was about to let go a couple 100 employees and go belly up. A journalist asked the Prime Minister, "What should the state do?" The Prime Minister's reply was innocent enough, "The state cannot do everything."
emersonbiggins --> you want to guess what happens next???
There was a national SCANDAL. The publics' response was so negative this was one of the major cause's of the Prime Minister's defeat in the presidential elections. Being a free market supporter, my jaw almost dropped in disbelief when I first read that. I do not believe the State should bail out failing companies. Even if there was a great depression and unemployment reached 25% the government should still......stay out! While not everybody shares my opinion obviously; at least in America a couple 100 people losing their jobs means absolutely nothing. It would takes at least 100,000 people losing their jobs before the federal government steps in.
Even with the current housing crash with perhaps a million or maybe even more people losing their jobs+homes the majority of Americans believe government is doing too much!
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:50 am Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
Unfortunately that graph will prove quite ephemeral when TSHTF, especially when the segment of the homeowning population now considered "safe" (the 30 yr-fixed, 5.5% crowd) see their 401Ks and home values deteriorate considerably. Then, I fear, we will see a return to a new breed of populism, perhaps coinciding with the introduction of a 50 or 70 year mortgage product for the housing market. We still have far to go, and this party's just getting underway. _________________ "It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:28 pm Post subject: Re: Treasury Plans Social Security Debit Card
emersonbiggins wrote:
Unfortunately that graph will prove quite ephemeral when TSHTF, ...
Unfortunately you're probably right. There is an "implicit hint" within American history / econ class in high school that basically says it was government with it's public works projects that pulled the nation out of the great depression. The USA runs on Keynesian, not Milton Friedman economic theory.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
