On Nov 16, 10:13*am, John Galt wrote:
Beam Me Up Scotty wrote:



John Galt wrote:
Beam Me Up Scotty wrote:
John Galt wrote:
Beam Me Up Scotty wrote:
John Galt wrote:
dave wrote:
Beam Me Up Scotty wrote:

Freedom is Libertarian, and it may be gone for ever, Socialism has
never
worked and was extinct before it ever lived.

What? *Don't tell the Europeans.
Why not? They're not socialist. They're social democracies.

HUGE difference.

JG

Do you think the Europeans will decide to defend themselves and pay for
their Socialism?
Eventually, yes. The younger generation in Europe is much more concerned
about fiscal responsibility (and sustainable social welfare systems)
than their parents are.

Oxymoron: "sustainable Social welfare"
No. You can do social welfare sustainably. That's just arithmetic.

Social security and Medicare....

Doesn't mean it can't be done. Lift the payroll tax cap, raise the
retirement age to 70, and

- change the way the COLA is calcuated

An 'honest' COLA is just that : Keeping People
Even {Equal} with the Cost of Living on an Annual
basis; and nothing more; and nothing less.

Changing the 'calculation' by some Arbitrary Rules
to Short-Change the Retirees is just that Robbing
from the Retirees. {Violating the Social Contract}

and
you've got SS' funding mechanism fixed. Medicare is harder, and probably
will have to be reformed to being a high-deductable plan OR experience a
significant (400%?) increase in its payroll tax.

It's just arithmetic.



Whether it's wise or not is another matter entirely.

Eventually all the money will be spent and it is no longer sustainable
and cuts must be made.... *that's unsustainable.

There is no practical way to indefinitely redistribute wealth,
eventually there is no wealth to distribute, the
*law-of-diminishing-returns* .

Yet it must occur. Adam Smith was correct, in my view, when he noted
that without redistribution, you'll eventually return to a feudal society..

Conservative economics acknowledges the need for redistributive mechanisms.

JG