Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
On Wed, 25 May 2005 00:05:49 GMT, "Jim Hampton"
wrote: Hello, Dave I've been really laughing over this thread. Yep, the deficit is *huge* ... and when folks wake up, the Democrats will get blamed for "raising taxes". If. in fact, they do "raise taxes", it would be their fault. I do not let a large deficit bother me. We've had large deficits before, and it didn't kill us We are in deep doo - doo here. Reaganomics didn't work then and it doesn't work now. I don't know about that. The end of a recession and the beginning of the biggest period of economic growth followed "Reaganomics". As to the marriage protection act that Bush was for, have we heard anything else about that, or was it to get a big reaction (along with votes) from the religious folks? That's a good question. One answer might be that there are more pressing issues right now (Run away filibusters, the war, getting an energy bill passed etc.). One question begs for an answer: what is the divorce rate in this country? According to the stats from: http://www.census.gov/population/soc.../tabA1-all.xls the percentage of divorced people is 9.6%. For some reason, Frank was unable (or unwilling) to read the columns and see the actual numbers, but if you believe the census bureau, that's what it is. Care to help Social Security? The best way to help it is to remove it, and divert all former SS withholdings into individual 401K accounts. Of course that penalizes those who have already given into the SS program for their entire working lives. So the transition has to be gradual so to be fair to everyone. I'd suggest that once a couple divorces, they can no longer give nor receive Social Security benefits from another person (sole exception being to children). I've heard the divorce rate is close to 50%, but I honestly don't know. 9.6% according to the 2003 census. I worked for a manager who was on his third or fourth wife. Hmmmm .... I'm wondering if a woman (or man, for that matter) ever questions why their intended has been divorced three times. That would certainly send up a red flag for me. But, like they say, love is blind and it's hard to be rational when all of your blood is rushing to another organ in your body. I knew a guy (he passed away over 30 years ago) that was marrying his *fifth* wife! When he passed away, he was living with a girl friend a good 20 years younger than he. Then hopefully he died a happy man, although I would question his inability to remain faithful, and wonder if there weren't some "issues" affecting him. A lot of interesting questions come to mind with many of these threads, but few answers. That's the nature of debate, especially on subjects where answers are elusive and somewhat subjective. There would be no point is debating if the earth is round or whether the moon is made of green cheese, as we know the answers to those questions. Nope, I'm not for gay marriage, but I question what is it that drives these big knee-jerk reactions. I usually apply Newton's law of action vs. reaction. Someone does something extreme and the opposite side responds with a equal and opposite reaction. There wouldn't be such an outpouring of opposition to gay marriage if there wasn't such a push to legalize it. I fear that once folks wake up and smell the coffee, it will be too late. In fact, it may already be too late. If other countries stop "lending" us money and allowing our deficit to continue, we are in for a crash. That won't happen, because, like it or not, we live in a global economy, and if we "crash", we take the rest of the world with us. 1929 will look like a picnic. Many countries are fearing us. Not only for the "Rambo" style of Bush, but our deficit. If we crash, it will have a huge effect on the rest of the world as well. Exactly! I don't doubt for a minute that the pseudo-elitist socialist Europeans would pass up any opportunity to put the screws to us economically. But even they realize that if they do, they do so at their own peril. Why do you think OPEC doesn't peg their target to the US dollar anymore? By basing their target price on another currency, they get more U.S. dollars if the dollar is weak. OPEC knows that the dollar will rise again, and so will the value of their "investment". It's no surprise that oil prices have been falling as of late, which is coincident with a strengthening dollar. (hint: the dollar is falling and OPEC wants to make more. I read an article that Saudi Arabia wants to build an indoor skiing resort (talk about an air conditioning bill!) as well as an underwater hotel. Hey, if they have the money, more power to them. Although, that sort of materialism smacks against the core values of Wahabbism and radical Islam. Maybe we are affecting the middle east more than we thought.... Dave "Sandbagger" http://home.ptd.net/~n3cvj |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|