The Political Discussion Thread

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

"The Government"

Like it's a static never-changing thing..

I had no idea Obama was in charge for so long

[Annoyed]

"The Government"

Like it's a static never-changing thing..

I had no idea Obama was in charge for so long

Child, our government has been screwing the pooch for a good many years before you were even a knowing gleam in your father's eye. And I will freely admit that it was my generation, the baby boomers, who triggered a lot of the changes we are reaping the rewards of nowadays.

[jelgate]

If I had had the option of privately investing the money that was deducted from my pay throughout my working life for SS, I would be set. But it was more important for the government to take it so that I wouldn't fritter it away and the government could fritter it away instead.

You can slice it up any damned way you want, but the government mismanaged this starting sometime in the 70s and getting worse as time went on.

Maybe instead of relying on such an abused system you should have saved money like the other generations since Social Security will no longer exist when PH and myself retire

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Silly Jelly, the student loan system that Annoyed's generation created, and then pushed us into because it's so important to get a degree, (and then they call us lazy after destroying the jobs market and refusing to retire) means we'll never be able to afford to retire.

..........

[jelgate]

I guess i will become a work hermit with my monkeys, dogs, and rodents

[Annoyed]

Silly Jelly, the student loan system that Annoyed's generation created, and then pushed us into because it's so important to get a degree, (and then they call us lazy after destroying the jobs market and refusing to retire) means we'll never be able to afford to retire.

..........

Interesting that you are affected in the UK. I had no idea the woes of the US govt. also affected yours.

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

Interesting that you are affected in the UK. I had no idea the woes of the US govt. also affected yours.

Your generation exists everywhere.

[jelgate]

Did they ruin the UK too?

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

They did.

They called their massive increase in university course fees "top-up fees" to appeal to the young folks and their pay-you-go mobile phones.

They tripled the cost of going to university.

And that's after replacing the grant system (which they used to cover the cost of their own university education) with student loans.

[jelgate]

I love the hypocrisy

[mad_gater]

Maybe instead of relying on such an abused system you should have saved money like the other generations since Social Security will no longer exist when PH and myself retire

I don't think he has much choice in the matter of whether or not to pay into the Social Security system....being that it gets forcibly deducted from pretty much everyone's paychecks

[Annoyed]

They did.

They called their massive increase in university course fees "top-up fees" to appeal to the young folks and their pay-you-go mobile phones.

They tripled the cost of going to university.

And that's after replacing the grant system (which they used to cover the cost of their own university education) with student loans.

How to give PH a heart attack in one easy lesson

I agree with you on this.

I can't speak for the UK, but in this country, the education industry (and make no mistake, it is an industry) has grossly oversold the importance of their product; businesses want college degrees for the most simple jobs, regardless of whether or not they are actually needed. There are a great many occupations that require no college whatsoever, but our society has been conditioned to consider them less than ideal, poorly paid and so forth. Gotta sell that sheepskin, don't you know.

At the same time, college costs have outpaced inflation for decades, to the point where many people are simply priced out of the market. It's a pretty stupid decision to go 50K+ in debt to train for a career that may not even be able to support you after college. But who cares? The schools have their money by then. Much of it financed through the graces of the government. People talk of the evils of the military-industrial complex, the government-educational pairing is equally evil.

It has basically evolved to the point where an often totally irrelevant degree is just "paying your dues" to join the club of middle class existence. In my more cynical moods, I wonder if it's simply revenge on the part of the management of corporate world. "I paid my dues, so you can too".

[garhkal]

Maybe if you didn't spend six hundred billion dollars a year on defence you would have money for other things?.

And how much do we spend on welfare programs?

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

And how much do we spend on welfare programs?

Why don't you look it up and tell me?

The military budget makes up 54% of total spending. So it will be less than $600 billion. The rest of the entire government budget for everything is less then the military budget.

So the $1,100 billion figure you're going to come back with from a Bannon quote is wrong.

[mad_gater]

So, what amounts to a single payer system?
Dude, you must be pissed at republicans right now

don't know what definition of "single payer" you're operating under....but usually when most people refer to such they're referring to a government-run health care system, which is not what I'm advocating for at all....in fact we've had de facto government-run health care for years now ever since those HMO's and insurance carriers first came on the scene and got into bed with the government in order to maintain their 3rd party power over the doctor-patient relationship

kick them out and let's go back to what we had before: self-pay for routine things, optional catastrophic care insurance if you wish to plan for things like bad car accidents and cancer and the like, and PRIVATE donation-funded non-profit clinics that can help the truly indigent

and I pretty much am since both parties are little more than 2 sides of the same bad penny anyway