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Forums - Politics Discussion - Ann Coulter says welfare policies responsible for looting....

fordy said:
badgenome said:
fordy said:


Big business is interested in big government only if it benefits them (ie. Oil subsidies, Bank bailouts). Anything else is regarded as money that they COULD get.

Agreed there, and big government does benefit big business. Every bit of regulation that has been advertised as being the thing that will finally reign in the excesses of eeeeeeeeeevil big business has only turned out to be burdensome to small businesses who can't afford to hire the lobbyists who help to craft said regulations.

I still don't understand why you think getting rid of social security would put money in anyone's pocket, though. Whenever I make X amount of dollars, the government takes a portion of that and promises to give it back to me later when I'm all growed up. How would my employer justify pocketing that money if social security were suddenly ended? This sounds like the logic behind minimum wage laws being stretched to its breaking point.

Any suprise that they want minimum wage laws to be abolished too? Unless something replaces the cutting of social security, such as superannuation, then the move back will be subtle. After all, employees take more notice of their wage changing than any taxes changing. Generally, if complaints are made about taxes raised, it's generally noticed because of a wage drop. Same goes the other way.

They want minimum wage laws to be abolished, too... "too" meaning in addition to social security? I've never, ever seen anyone in the business world (or anyone outside of fringe libertarian circles, really) advocate the abolition of social security. Source?



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Marks said:
non-gravity said:
Marks said:
Troll_Whisperer said:
Britain's welfare state is much less developed than those of, say, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark... which are very successful societies. So I wouldn't blame welfare.

Norway - $2.23 Trillion Debt

Denmark - $560 Billion Debt

Netherlands - $518 Billion Debt

Finland - $371 Billion Debt

 

Very high standard of living, but at a cost. And the US has huge debt thanks to social spending, as well as reckless military spending.

The figure for the Netherlands seems about right for the amount the government is in debt. The other figures are either measuring something else or are just off.

And really holding a decently sized debt isn't such a great cost.


Yeah I got those from kind of a weird source (I just wanted a quick answer), but I went back to the CIA factbook and its different. My apologies for the crappy source. 

CIA factbook does it by percentage of GDP instead of just a number though. Norways is 48% of their GDP so more like $200 billion debt. I don't know where that other source got their whack numbers.

And yeah even though these countries doe have a large amount of debt they have really high standards of living so maybe it is worth it. 

Cia Worldfactbook is not a good source aswell,  some countries reporting an population number that is 5-10% higher than what CIA factbook has. 
Most important is that the majority of those countries were having a annually surpluss before the GFC started.

On topic:  having subburbs with 20-30% of the population unemployed, an justice system that is a joke and some discrimination is asking for problems...



 

Seece said:
Troll_Whisperer said:
Britain's welfare state is much less developed than those of, say, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark... which are very successful societies. So I wouldn't blame welfare.

My impression (having lived in London for 6 years) is that Britain's society is kind of broken (although I believe this is much more accute in London than in the rest of the country). The fabric of society is not strong, individualism and the dog eat dog culture is present in many layers of society. Kids don't play with each other (I heard they're not even allowed to be out alone by law, but I'm not sure). Many people are not well integrated in society, at least in London. Hooliganism is rampant on weekend nights, it's like many people go out simply to get pissed and get in a fight. Seriously, if you take night buses in London you'll have plenty of anecdotes to tell people in this respect.

I'm not hating on the UK. It is one of the best countries in some aspects and I have enjoyed my time here immensely (leaving soon). I've met wonderful people. But socially, compared to what I've seen in mainland Europe, it is broken. And I don't think it is because of welfare.

I agree with this, this country seems like most of the most broken civilised countries in the world. I don't think multiculturalism that's been forced on us has helped either.

You are both spot on.



badgenome said:

They want minimum wage laws to be abolished, too... "too" meaning in addition to social security? I've never, ever seen anyone in the business world (or anyone outside of fringe libertarian circles, really) advocate the abolition of social security. Source?


*sigh* Plenty of sources around if you look:

http://www.nasi.org/usr_doc/Kimberly_Morgan_Paper_09_19_06.pdf

http://www.dove777.com/socialsecurity.html

 

Let's look at this logically okay? Can we agree, according to polls, that the majority of Americans wish to leave Social Security alone, and would prefer to increase payroll taxes instead?

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/31/1001269/-What-the-American-People-really-Want--according-to-a-few-Polls

So why would conservatives go against what over half of the population want? Surely it would be a disaster come the next election....



fordy said:
Kasz216 said:

The Social Security trust fund is... and always has been filled with by government bonds... when there was more money being paid in then there was paid out... this money was ALWAYS spent by the government that year on something else.


(Italicised) You just proved my point there that government was raiding the social security surplus in order to fund other things. What right do they have to take that money?

Except you made it sound like this was so new trend under reagan.  Which was my point.  It wasn't.  Therefore there was never a real surplus.

As for why they should be able to do it?  Social Security is and always has been a "pay as you go" system.

The very fact that Fica taxes were used to pay other peoples social security instead of actually being  a savings program makes it so.  FICA taxes are no different from any other tax. 

The whole talk of surpluses have always been a myth because FICA has always been like every other single tax that's existed. 



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MARCUSDJACKSON said:
he's a fucking idiot if he truly believes that.

people loot because the opportunity is there.


And why did they loose all moral breaks that normally stop us from doing so ?



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fordy said:
badgenome said:

They want minimum wage laws to be abolished, too... "too" meaning in addition to social security? I've never, ever seen anyone in the business world (or anyone outside of fringe libertarian circles, really) advocate the abolition of social security. Source?


*sigh* Plenty of sources around if you look:

http://www.nasi.org/usr_doc/Kimberly_Morgan_Paper_09_19_06.pdf

http://www.dove777.com/socialsecurity.html

 

Let's look at this logically okay? Can we agree, according to polls, that the majority of Americans wish to leave Social Security alone, and would prefer to increase payroll taxes instead?

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/31/1001269/-What-the-American-People-really-Want--according-to-a-few-Polls

So why would conservatives go against what over half of the population want? Surely it would be a disaster come the next election....

Can we agree that nothing you've posted shows anyone actually calling for the end of social security? No business leader has called for the end of the program, and contrary to that conspiratorial bunch of shit at the second link very few Republicans have even made a serious attempt at tackling the kinds of serious reform that would be needed to make it sustainable. Even the biggest Tea Party types in office tend to hem and haw whenever you bring up entitlement reform because, yes, entitlements are extremely popular. But being extremely popular does not make them good programs.

This past year social security reached the tipping point and now pays out more than it takes in. This wasn't expected to happen until 2016, but the government was yet again overly optimistic about how their own Ponzi schemes work. The Democrats may indeed be on sound political ground by screaming and hollering every time someone talks about even touching entitlements, but that isn't leadership. I strongly suspect anyone under 30 will be cursing their very names one day.



badgenome said:

Can we agree that nothing you've posted shows anyone actually calling for the end of social security? No business leader has called for the end of the program, and contrary to that conspiratorial bunch of shit at the second link very few Republicans have even made a serious attempt at tackling the kinds of serious reform that would be needed to make it sustainable. Even the biggest Tea Party types in office tend to hem and haw whenever you bring up entitlement reform because, yes, entitlements are extremely popular. But being extremely popular does not make them good programs.

This past year social security reached the tipping point and now pays out more than it takes in. This wasn't expected to happen until 2016, but the government was yet again overly optimistic about how their own Ponzi schemes work. The Democrats may indeed be on sound political ground by screaming and hollering every time someone talks about even touching entitlements, but that isn't leadership. I strongly suspect anyone under 30 will be cursing their very names one day.


Do you really believe you're going to get a business leader actually come out and say in public that Social Security has to end because they no longer wish to pay the payroll tax? Honest bet that if that happened, that leader would go down quicker than a $2 hooker. They prefer to let their money do the talking, and this is exactly the kind of crap that happens when you're able to donate undisclosed amounts to politicians. Australia doesn't allow that, so employers are more public about the situation of payroll tax.

Republicans are more crafty. They adopt a plan such as the Ryan plan, which slashes Social security to useless levels, and they stick behind it, despite the ongoing criticism by the public. Last I checked, a hell of a lot of Republicans supported the Ryan plan (ie. Dismantlement of Social Security phase 1).

I said it before and I'll say it again. The fund that the American people pay into is supposed to have enough surplus to remain afloat until 2037. That is provided no government looting has taen place, and if that's the case, then that's your government's dumb fault.



fordy said:


Do you really believe you're going to get a business leader actually come out and say in public that Social Security has to end because they no longer wish to pay the payroll tax?

Once again, the employee - not the employer - pays the social security tax.

Your entire position is a bunch of conspiratorial nonsense. Republicans hate poor people! Paul Ryan wants to destroy social security! So do business leaders even though they won't say it but I know they do! Social security is good until 2037 and if not that's not social security's fault!

Government-run pension programs require good governance, something that isn't exactly in abundance here. I'm glad things are working out so swimmingly for your little country with its 20 million people, but what works for 20 million isn't going to work for 310 million. Just as a ton of people can run a million dollar business, only very few have the wherewithal to run a billion dollar business and fucking nobody on Earth is smart enough to run a multi-trillion dollar business. The federal government of the US needs to come clean about their little Ponzi scheme and then butt the fuck out of people's lives.



badgenome said:
fordy said:


Do you really believe you're going to get a business leader actually come out and say in public that Social Security has to end because they no longer wish to pay the payroll tax?

Once again, the employee - not the employer - pays the social security tax.

Actually they both pay, not that it matters... since if neither did they'd be forced to make up the difference anyway so people could save for retirement.

Although again, none of it is actually going to your retirement, as it's been ruled that nobody has any accrued property rights to social security.