Re: Bush and O'Reilly, in denial.


"Jim Blair" <jeb@xxxxxxxx> wrote

> Its not just the dividends and interest from those stocks
> and bonds. I also have Social Security (for me and my wife)
> plus she is now collecting a pension from the state of Wisconsin
> and I will beginig next year when I plan to retire.


I'm truly glad for you both. And I'm delighted that guvmint, state and
national, will be a significant contributor to your comfortable retirement
:-)


> But anyone can do what I did: save and invest 5-10% of income
> while working, and put it into a mutual fund retirement account.
> And that was easier for me than for some because
> I could deduct it from my taxes. I say give that same break
> to those with lower incomes as well.


Jim, I am pretty sure your income was more than 5-10% above the poverty
line. For many people, it's not. So I resist your "anyone" claim. And
even if "anyone" (meaning, logically, "everyone") _could_ save that much,
some of them would see lower ROI than you have. Unless, of course, your
average returns have been at the extreme low end of the ROI distribution :-)


> You are confusing GDP with wages. The US Social Security
> system is not funded from the GDP, but from wages only.
> That is why Bush had the right idea: fund retirement
> from the global GDP.


Are you talking about Iraqui oil, or what? :-)

Seriously, Jim: right now, as we both know, SS is funding the general
federal budget, not the other way around. Wage taxes are being used to pay
the $5B monthly bill for Dubya's little war so that people with huge cap
gains and inheritances can get "tax relief". Well, if SS can fund the
budget as it has for a couple of decades now, then the budget can goddam
well return the favor some time. And the budget _is_ funded from taxes on
all parts of the GDP.

Of course, Dubya and his crowd (aren't you embarassed by their antics yet?)
have a very clear program: untax everything except wages. They're almost
there, so I may soon have to concede your minor point.

Your major point, I have addressed before: a massive net flow of capital
_out_ of the US _to_ "the world" is what you are asking for, if you want the
average American to invest in "the global GDP". Trade flows need to be
reversed on a grand scale. The average American needs to stop buying
Hyundai Elantras, and start buying Hyundai stock. He has to buy sewing
machines and wafer probers _for_ the Chinese, instead of buying shirts and
cellphones _from_ them. He has to spend less at Wal-Mart stores and more in
the Indian venture-capital market.

Now, these may be desirable trends to wish for. But I have no idea why you
think privatizing SS will encourage them.

Enough for now. I will address your remaining points in another post.

-- TP




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: THE COUNTRY of TEXAS
    ... How about a budget that doesn't run the national debt up to 82% of GDP ... coming years -- deficits that have nothing to do with the current ... $4.8 trillion to the baseline deficits over the 2010? ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Unions are Not US Labor Problem
    ... The ten states with the lowest union ... increase in private sector jobs and a 69.9% increase in GDP. ... employers will always go where it's legal to force wages down. ...
    (misc.news.internet.discuss)
  • Re: Russia threatens Lithuania on US missile defense
    ... the US military budget is already long time ago ... If GDP is growing much faster than inflation as until recently ... growth of a particular expenditure despite its shrinking share in GDP %%. ... which doesn't btw include the nuke due to some weird tradition. ...
    (soc.culture.baltics)
  • Re: OT our fearless leader
    ... We do know for sure that in 2009 the GDP dropped into the sewer, ... almost every year to keep up with the increase in debt. ... Is the CBO another one of those "fringe partisan sources", ... Obama's Budget Would Increase Debt by 26.3 Percent of GDP Compared to ...
    (rec.gambling.poker)
  • Re: Budget Deficits Lead to lower or higher GDP?
    ... >> However with a growing GDP, ... >spending on items other than interest plus interest payments on the debt. ... >Where B is the budget that is expenditures on items other interest. ...
    (sci.econ)