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It's the End of the World As We Know It

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roxiejules Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-20-10 10:53 PM
Original message
It's the End of the World As We Know It
Go read the whole thing:

http://www.philstockworld.com/2010/07/17/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/

There are some brilliant pundits who believe cutting retirement benefits will fix our economy. How will that work exactly? Pay old people less money, don’t cover their medical care and what happens? Then they need money. If they need money, they need to work and if they need to work they increase the supply of labor, which reduces wages and leaves all 308,367,109 of us with less money. Oh sorry, not ALL 308,367,109 - just 308,337,109 - the top 30,000 (0.01%) own the business the other 308,337,109 work at and they will be raking it in because labor is roughly 1/3 of the cost of doing business in America and our great and powerful capitalists have already cut their manufacturing costs by shipping all those jobs overseas, where they pay as little as $1 a day for a human life so now, in order to increase their profits (because profits MUST be increased) they have now turned inward to see what they can shave off in America.

How does one decrease the cost of labor in America? Well first, you have to bust the unions. Check. Then you have to create a pressing need for people to work - perhaps give them easy access to credit and then get them to go so deeply into debt that they will have to work until they die to pay them off. Check. It also helps if you push up the cost of living by manipulating commodity prices. Check. Then, take away people’s retirement savings. Check. Lower interest rates to make savings futile and interest income inadequate. Check. And finally, threaten to take away the 12% a year that people have been saving for retirement by labeling Social Security an "entitlement" program - as if it wasn’t money Americans worked their whole lives to save and gave to the government in good faith. Check.


That is how the largest theft in the history of the world was carried out. 300M people worked and saved their whole lives to set aside $2.5Tn into a retirement system that, if it were paying a fair compounding rate of 5% interest over 40 years of labor (assuming an even $62Bn a year was contributed), would be worth $8.4Tn today - enough money to give 100M workers $84,000 each in cash! The looting of FICA hid the massive deficits of the last 30 years in the Unified Budget. Presidents and Congresses were able to reduce taxes on the wealthiest Americans without complaint from the deficit hawks, because they benefited. The money went directly from the pockets of average Americans into the pockets of the rich.

Social Security is not "broken" the money is in the Trust Fund. But the people who manage the finances of the United States don’t want to repay the bonds held by the Trust Fund. They want to default selectively against average people, their fellow citizens, who paid their taxes expecting to be protected in their retirement

So, what is this all about? It’s about forcing 5M people a year who reach the age 65 to remain in the work-force. The top 0.01% have already taken your money, they have already put you in debt, they have already bankrupted the government as well so it has no choice but to do their bidding. Now the top 0.01% want to make even MORE profits by paying American workers even LESS money. If they raise the retirement age to 70 to "balance" Social Security - that will guarantee that another 25M people remain in the workforce (less the ones that drop dead on the job - saving the bother of paying them severance).

It’s a new world, America, and you’d better get used to it - we were sold down the river on a slow boat to China long ago and we’re only just beginning to feel the first effects of waves that wash back to our own shores. The people who own the media don’t want CHANGE. That’s why you never hear this stuff in the MSM - things are going exactly according to plan and the old money crowd is playing a long, patient game and they already have most of the chips - the last thing they want is people questioning the system.

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Cleita Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-20-10 10:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. I agree and I'm one of those old people who
have re-entered the workforce because I need the money. I don't think it's a good thing and I'd rather not work. I'm too tired.
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Hydra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-20-10 11:46 PM
Response to Original message
2. Just wait
In this brave new world, people will literally FIGHT other people to get a job.

They'll have to- it's either work, or starve.
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villager Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-20-10 11:50 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. If only people were smart enough to get together and fight the elites...
n/t
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Hydra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-20-10 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Nope
Too many people are too invested in our society for one reason or another. Some want to be the elites(never happen, but they'll fight to protect their 'chance'), others think it's somehow 'wrong' to fight these people, and still others like me are considered too far out there to be listened to.

Reality has a way of coming to people, regardless of what they think of it all.
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costahawk1987 Donating Member (97 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-21-10 04:32 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. The elite get us to fight each other as always
They want and get people to focus their anger and resentment towards minorities--especially Mexicans (right now)--and the glbtq community. And most of the people who fall for it share far more in common with those they're led to hate than with those who lead them to hatred.
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rrneck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-22-10 10:20 AM
Response to Reply #2
11. Jay Gould once said
"You can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half."
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LiberalEsto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-21-10 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
6. But...but....but...
Nobody wants to hire us because we're "too old"

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roxiejules Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-21-10 05:11 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. The grey ceiling

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JDPriestly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-22-10 05:31 AM
Response to Reply #6
10. Which means that we will end up on government welfare or will starve.
Great choice, wouldn't you say?

Meanwhile, Wall Street is paying bigger bonuses than ever.
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ShamelessHussy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-21-10 05:10 PM
Response to Original message
7. excellent article and that this isn't being debated night and day says a lot
about the control of the elite over all our media and politicians :puke:
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truedelphi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-21-10 09:30 PM
Response to Original message
9. The problem with this OP is in its basic premise --
Does anyone really need to argue against a totally pointless premise?

If the Repugs all stand up tomorrow and declare that the earth is flat - do you or I or anyone need to get out the photos from outer space and prove other wise?

Stupiditity is just stupidity - and the Powers that Be might start to come unglued when they find out that many people they thought would buy every one of their smug contentions will not buy this one.

Tea Baggers are living on their pensions, just like older Democrats are.


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