or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 22, 2004
Some People Hold The Irresponsible View That Robots From Mars Aren't Coming To Eat Us
The New York Times loves to inform us what is and isn't "reasonable" regarding Social Security. Similarly, the Washington Post helpfully tells us that, when it comes to Social Security, certain people are "irresponsible" (via the Daily Howler):
AT HIS NEWS conference yesterday, President Bush restated his reasons for wanting to reform Social Security... This call to action puts Mr. Bush ahead of many congressional Democrats, who cling to the irresponsible view that little or no Social Security reform is necessary and that all future benefits are untouchable.
I had no idea people with my perspective were so unreasonable and irresponsible. But I guess that's no surprise. The Washington Post is like a wise, wise parent, while we are essentially children. Frankly, if left unattended, we would accidentally set the country on fire.
Thank goodness we have such parents to guide us. I know we benefitted from their extraordinary foresight on Iraq. For instance, here's a Washington Post editorial from an October, 2002 editorial (not online):
[No one should] demand that the challenge of Iraq again be postponed. Instead, critical Democrats, in and outside Congress, should be pressuring the administration to work harder on postwar planning, to take steps to head off trouble in Afghanistan and to ground its campaign more consistently on the enforcement of U.N. resolutions... It would unite Congress behind [President Bush] and offer a responsible way forward for those critics who worry about his course but have no other to offer.
$PECIAL BONU$ MATH $ECTION #2
As I pointed out below, Wall Street's trade group believes the financial industry will have revenues of $3.25 trillion over the next 75 years.
By coincidence, the Social Security Administration recently estimated that over the next 75 years the shortfall in Social Security revenue will be $3.7 trillion.
Hmmm.
Of course, as gigantic as both these sums sound, they're not that big when compared with the US economy as a whole. At the same time the SSA came up with the $3.7 trillion number, they said this was only .72% of GDP during that period.
3.7 divided by .0072 equals 513.8889.
So, over the next 75 years, the US economy will produce $513.9 trillion in goods and services. I won't be satisfied unless I personally get at least half of it.
Posted at December 22, 2004 07:12 AM | TrackBackOh God, yet another definition of "reasonable" from one of the leading daily newspapers. When will it end?
Posted by: Anna in Cairo at December 22, 2004 08:00 AMIsn't it wonderful how responsible it was to pay practically no attention to social security in the first half of the Bush reich? But of course, in 2000 the U.S. wasn't 2.2 trillion dollars in debt.
Hm. An accumulation of 1.5 trillion debt in the space of two years, and we need 3.7 trillion over the next 75. If the total tax break and cost of war was reduced by 3.3% per year, that would cover the cost of social security easily.
Alternately, the U.S. could resist from invading foreign countries. Or privatize social security into the hands of Halliburton, who could use the plundered wealth of Iraq to fund it.
Perhaps the U.S. could attack a significant gold producing country. It wouldn't have to be as South Africa. Ghana would do. Perhaps a Florida yacht registered in Ghana could be plowed into a dock somewhere in Chesapeake Bay to provide a justification. It wouldn't matter if the yacht had been previously owned by an Enron executive--in fact, that would probably demonstrate that we needed to live in fear of foreign insurgents in our sacred institutions, thus increasing the need to be sure that no foreign-looking individual would have any right to hold a position of responsibility in an American company.
Once we plunder the gold of Ghana, we can use that to rebuild the social security system. Of course, by that time we will have dismantled the system, and we might use that gold for some other purpose. But its the thought the counts.
Posted by: alexis at December 22, 2004 10:29 AMJon, go check out the Double Quotes website you recommended a couple of months ago. His new entries are AMAZING.
Posted by: Anna in Cairo at December 23, 2004 05:33 AM
