Very interesting posts on Gov. Perry.
To reform S.S. we are going to need somebody who appreciates the role it plays in providing a floor under the working class. But, generally speaking, people who are born into Republican families are tone deaf with regard to the working class. They tend to think everybody is able or should be able to buy insurance, save for retirement, and so forth. When, the truth is, there’s a percentage of people who somewhere in between being truly self-responsible and not being self-responsible at all.
We can transform S.S. from a Ponzi scheme into a funded, actuarially-sound and fair system, as well as introduce a degree of choice and privatization. But, it is going to take modern day versions of people like Pat Moynihan and Bill Bradley, and the pre-2000 Joe Lieberman who are truly for the working class and not socialists.
If Rick Perry came over to the Republican Party because he realized the Democrats are no longer the party of the working class within the context of a capitalistic society, then he sounds o.k. to me. Let us, in the Republican Party, represent both those who sign the back and the front of a paycheck, and let the Democrats represent the intellectual elite and the moocher class.
But, generally speaking, people who are born into Republican families are tone deaf with regard to the working class. They tend to think everybody is able or should be able to buy insurance, save for retirement, and so forth.
You make it sound like one must have insurance and savings for retirement. Civilization has been getting along fine for millennia without those things universally enjoyed. In its proper context, insurance and retirement savings are desired luxuries traditionally obtained as a reward for diligence and responsible living.
I remember a money guy talk about a client of his, a pastor and his wife, who served a rural community for most of his life and while he was compensated no more than ten grand a year wanted to know if he could afford to retire on the amount he was able to save and invest. The investment planner looked over their accounts and discovered by frugal and responsible living they were indeed millionaires. Now we have this gross obscenity called "pensions" that permit deadbeats to retire and live on guaranteed income for decades being granted literally millions in dollars of benefits over their retired lifetimes. And to think that pensions and SS didn't kick in until one reached the average life expectancy age.
When, the truth is, there’s a percentage of people who somewhere in between being truly self-responsible and not being self-responsible at all.
So? What is your point? That despite every advantage that civilization offered them, they still didn't manage to squirrel enough away to enjoy the lifestyle of the rich and responsible? I'm guessing that there are two things running through your mind: (1) That insurance and a pension are Human Rights, (2) You don't understand what moral hazard you are making by saying that NOT finishing the race still earns you a prize.
From a historical perspective, modern Americans have no excuse for not having insurance and retirement simply because up we haven't had the asset dissolving activities that everyone else throughout time and space had to endure. Specifically, we have had K-12 education guaranteed to all. We haven't had wars that turned our industry and homes into rubble. We have had the most stable economic environment since Ancient Rome, which has provided to all the most leisure time per capita known to mankind. In other words, because of our Christian Heritage, the united States has been blessed more than any other nation. And yet here you are bitching about some hypothetical group that despite all of the Divine blessings and every advantage somehow can't star on Robin Leech's program without first pillaging someone else.
We can transform S.S. from a Ponzi scheme into a funded, actuarially-sound and fair system, as well as introduce a degree of choice and privatization.
Guaranteed pensions are a plot from the Pit of Hell. Reorganizing it doesn't cleanse the smell of smoke and sulphur from it.
We are told in Scriptures that the poor will always be among us, that if one doesn't work he shouldn't eat, and not providing for one's own and family is worse than being an infidel. God also says that He is not mocked, "Whatever a man sows, that is what he shall reap". Yet, you are open to people sowing cell-phones, lottery tickets, liquor/drugs, bling, fashion, cars, big homes, sloth, serial broken families and then praying for a crop failure.
Whatever happened to all of those Proverbs? What about Aesop's fables - the whole "Ant and the Grasshopper" thing? For whatever reason, it seems that sin, recklessness and irresponsibility should always be rewarded. The Marxists and Progressives simply add "at the expense of the Productive and Responsible". People like you simply don't add that necessary ingredient the Progressives realize is true.
Don't pretend that wishing universal health and retirement is noble. It requires breaking at least two commandments of God "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's goods" and "Thou shall not steal". Pretending that it doesn't have to happen that way adds "Thou shall not bear false witness."