Z
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The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost,
Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration,
politics without God, heaven without hell.
William Booth
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”
― William Saroyan
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill
Ignorance is not an opinion, liberals
I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. C. S. Lewis
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
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geeez2014
GeeeZ ....
How about we raid the criminal alien fund and put it in the Social Security account and then it would never run out.
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Why 67? Won’t fix anything. When this giant ponzi scheme was initially foisted upon us, life expectancy was nowhere near what it is today. In fact, planners kinda figgered that many would never last long enough to be eligible, and those who did would be gone after collecting only a few years’ worth of bennies.
We have this system of government which was designed by patriotic geniuses but is being run by selfish morons. So, put me in charge. Make me king for one year. I won’t fix it exactly, but I’ll sure put a friggin dent in it, and I won’t hurt the economy one bit. Here’s my 20-step plan:
1. Install a flat tax and national sales tax
2. Get rid of EPA, DOE, NEA, TSA, IRS, and ACA
3. Limit unemployment insurance to 183 days
4. Incrementally raise retirement & Social Security age eligibility to 72
5. Reduce Welfare/Food Stamp and other dole programs by 1.5% per annum
6. Set term limits of 12 years total on all members of Congress
7. Discontinue payments to the UN and NATO
8. Discontinue all foreign aid
9. Cap federal worker salaries at $100,000
10. Convert all US embassies to consulate offices and discontinue ambassadors
11. Execute all federal death-row prisoners who’ve been there for a year or more
12. Have state and federal prisoners perform manual labor on infrastructure
13. Rescind punitive restrictions on energy from coal-fired plants
14. DRILL in ANWR and Santa Barbara
15. Outlaw tobacco and free all those imprisoned solely for possession of marijuana
16. Have Congress convene twice a year and teleconference the rest of the time
17. Cancel the external portion of the national debt
18. Eliminate fast-food and soft-drink advertising
19. Have all college students who leave school or graduate and then become successful professional athletes repay all portions of their tuition and costs borne by taxpayers
20. Have the US and state attorneys-general establish a clear definition of nuisance and frivolous lawsuits, then require anyone who initiates one and loses pay all court and legal fees both plaintiff and defendant.
Dozens of other ideas come to mind, but you can make up your own. One of my pet thoughts is automatic death penalty for distributing and/or dealing opiates and cocaine, with the execution televised nationwide on all channels the day after sentence is determined.
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Bocopro
May I add that those televised executions be administered via gallows and/or guillotine?
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PETER…back to FRANCE again? 🙂
BOCOPRO…..I can’t agree with all of your list but MUCH of it, I sure do! Thanks for taking the time!
This is one of my own ideas for years “Have state and federal prisoners perform manual labor on infrastructure”
IMagine the Left “Oh, gee…that’s so unkind…we can’t MAKE people work!”
No, we just want to support them at thousands of dollars a year because they did us dirt instead of having them EARN their keep.
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They just took out 300 million out of Medicare last year alone… put it back. All of it. Save it S.S.? All the money given for welfare? Give back what was stolen from the lockbox… and if we need more? From the General Fund. We worked for this.
If what I put in S.S had been invested through the years I would be a rich person.
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I’m thinking what they spent on my hip replacement last August was probably more than I’ve ever paid in, but maybe not!
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In a truly free society, social security would be considered illegal, so why do we have it? Around 1935 during the Great Depression, I remember seeing homeless families sleeping in their cars. Remember, those old Model T and A’s didn’t have heat or air conditioning, many older ones even without wind-up windows, only side curtains. So President FDR came up with a tax-deductible, voluntary program (which later became involuntary and taxed income). Even at that, if they’d left it alone, it might’ve survived, but Congress just can’t keep their grubby mitts off of it. They see a fund with money, and POOF! It’s gone! Need funding for something? OH! Here’s money not in use.
I’ve said many times before, instead of electing those with political science majors, we need those with MBA degrees and accounting majors. We need to run our country like any business or household.
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MAL, Thanks for that….American kids are still taught what a fabulous president FDR was while many experts on the economy say he prolonged the Great Depression….I don’t know enough about it, or really want to, to understand it all.
What would you have done with all those sleeping in their cars because there was no work and no help?
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We’ve discussed the medical situation here before, also. Medicare was the worst possible program ever! Medical treatment was SO much more affordable pre-medicare, even considering the average wage earners income at that time. Today, there is SO much waste and fraud going on. With my wife having been in either a hospital or urgent care facility 7 or 8 times in 2022, I’ve seen double billing, non-existent visits by doctors, many billing 30 to 50 minute visits that were MAYBE 5 or 10 minutes……or none at all. SO much fraud going on. I give up!
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In response to what I would’ve done, dunno, Z. It was a different time then. Most of us have seen the film “The Grapes of Wrath” that pretty accurately depicts the Great Depression. In a true democracy, folks are independent and on their own. There was aid from churches and other organizations, food banks, etc. Again, in a truly free society, aid would be voluntary, not mandatory. That way, people could volunteer aid and show their true nature, not become a right or crutch so the recipient can laugh and take advantage of it. BIG difference.
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It is inevitable. They scaled up the age bracket before. Mr. B collected SS younger than I could start – by months. And I thought then it ought to be increasing by maybe a week per year or more. Even when it affected me. There is also increasing the income limit on which SS taxes are paid. This is a sneaky way of raising it which they’ve been doing for years. Then there is income qualification which lowers the amount you can get when all income is factored in.
Some want to tie later collection dates extended lifespans. Two problems there.
1) How much of the extended lifespan is functional working life? Perhaps a bit, but it’s not a 1 for 1 increase. Originally, it was set to kick in the last year or two of life.
2) However, what to do with the large drop in life expectancy we’ve had over the last 2 years. I think it was something like 2.3 years! At first I thought “well, Covid took out a lot of older people already on SS (so fewer payouts) and we’ve had a large excess mortality figure (not covid) after those deaths, so this could affect more payouts.” I will, but unfortunately, most of those ‘excess deaths’ were working age people paying IN to the system still. So hard to know what the calculation could be, especially with sharply increased disability too.
We’re screwed. The riots in France only incentivize governments to maneuver behind the scenes to transition people to CBDC’s and ‘raid’ their savings, like our retirement funds. It happened in a crunch in Cyprus. A little practice there. Took nearly 10% of peoples’ savings (depending on amount). Add in the the creeping ‘guaranteed income’ payments to select groups, starting with ‘helping the poor’ along with all the ‘income equity’ blather. The table is being set for a rollout of a modest guaranteed income (well, guaranteed if you do what you’re told possibly) in exchange for what you thought were “your” assets.
Surprise! It’s 2030, and you own nothing, and you’re happy.
Even better, Surprise! It’s 2030 and Jesus Christ is on the throne and now you get to answer to Him for your stewardship of positions of authority He permitted you to have. (Baysider’s version 🙂 )
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BAYSIDER and MAL; thanks for the excellent input.
And MAL, YES YES YES, it was voluntary; churches helped, etc.
I often think the negative treatment of faith today has something to do with how churches used to help more…..’get rid of them…we can’t have people dependent on anything but the gov’t”.
As BAYSIDER says “We’re screwed”
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There’s another factor we’re not considering: Those that died before collecting S/S.
My youngest daughter died at age 56; My sister’s daughter died before retiring from the state with over 30 years credit. A friend here in our Sun City died in 2021 at age 69 and was going to retire the end of that year. SO many have left their funds for the rest of us to have. It was all suppose to average out and probably would if it was kept solely for those that’ve contributed, not illegals, etc.
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Mal, that was the idea. If those were your private funds … I can see an extension of options with redefined meanings to marriage. Quick. You get that diagnosis and get ready by “marrying off” the money, since spouses collect after the deceased. I can see quite a business for this, with willing and unwilling partners (drugged into a legal marriage and offed later). We have sunk so low.
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Exactly, Bay. I guess nothin’s perfect, huh?
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BAY, my husband was one point from SS…..we didn’t get it for him. Very upsetting…but working here and in Europe and the amount of points you need didn’t work out.
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