Trying something out

[The Mad Moderate]

I am not a crook!

[SQLGeek]

Ahem...

I love lamp!

I lava lamp!

Yep!

So how many nested quotes can we get?

There is a limit, but I don't remember what it is. 5 is 6 I think. Why?

FIne, I made my own...

Because I was wondering how many we could get....

[unhappycamper]

Social security should be ended now. Just because the boomer generation got suckered into a Ponzi scheme doesn't mean my generation should pay for their mistake.

My father's parents' generation got suckered into a Ponzi scheme by FDR. The rest of us were required, by existing law, yourself included, to contribute to it based on a promise made. I will be 59 in a couple of months, just 8 years away from the promise which I have paid into, by law, for all of my working life. I don't have a problem with privatizing social security, but if that is to happen, I want each and every living taxpayer to receive every penny they paid into it refunded to them so that they can then invest it according to their own choices. If that means that some poor person can't have government funded abortions, too bad. If that means that some corporation loses a tax loophole to pay for it, too bad. That fund was supposed to be secured (as in Social Security). Instead, Congress has been treating it as revenue. If they had not done so, the system would not be anywhere near insolvency today. However, the payout is now a lawful obligation of the federal government. If they can't meet that obligation, then something else will have to go so that they can meet it—whether that payout takes the form of monthly retirement income, or whether it takes the form of lump sum payouts to investors so that they can reinvest it more securely.

If you're younger than me, then it is safe to say that I am vested to a larger degree in the outcome of social security reform than you are. That "rob Peter to pay Paul" kind of snarkiness can cut both ways. You don't want to pay into my retirement. Fine. I want all my money back. All of it. I want you to get your money back too, but since I'm a bigger investor than you by virtue of having been in the work place for far longer, I should be ahead of you in the payout line. I'll get mine. If there's any money left, maybe you'll get yours. How do you like that? We're not talking about a bad investment in a private corporation here. We're talking about the full faith and credit of the United States of America. I whole-heartedly agree that SS is a ponzi-scheme. I whole-heartedly agree that the system needs to be reformed. I whole-heartedly agree that reformation should consist of privatizing it. But, I also insist on getting paid back every penny of what I put into it, since I had no legal choice in the matter. Anything less is highway robbery. So, if you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet (which seems to be your POV), better that your, smaller, less valuable egg be broken than my, larger, more valuable egg.

How do you like that?

The system needs to be fixed but nobody wants it to start with them. So reform is delayed again and again, until reform is not an option, only revolution.

[74novaman]

your avatar is very disturbing. Why did you select it?

[sjfcontrol]

The system needs to be fixed but nobody wants it to start with them. So reform is delayed again and again, until reform is not an option, only revolution.

Yes! That's why Ponzi schemes are illegal. The first ones in make out like bandits ('cause they generally are). The last ones in get screwed. All this was well understood in the 1930s when FDR implemented it.

Again, take a look at the jackpot that Ida May Fuller received. Almost $23k off a total investment of $24.75. That's a total return of almost 100,000%

The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. Her first check was for $22.54. After her second check, Fuller already had received more than she contributed over the three-year period. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92.[26]
[edit]

[SQLGeek]

your avatar is very disturbing. Why did you select it?

Seriously...that nut job needs no promotion.

[LikesShinyThings]

The system needs to be fixed but nobody wants it to start with them. So reform is delayed again and again, until reform is not an option, only revolution.

I would quite happily release the government of any future "liability" to me relative to Social Security payments if they would stop today taking any taxes out of my pay for SSI. I've paid in for over 20 years, full employment that entire time except for a few months between jobs (yes, I've gotten the axe a couple times). I've still got lots of employed life ahead of me (I hope). If the government would let me keep the SS money and invest it myself, I would be MUCH happier than I am with their "promise" to repay me after I retire. Especially now that they are talking about "means testing" ... having been fiscally responsible, not spent myself into debt oblivion, and saved responsibly for retirement, I have no doubt that should they ever implement means testing on social security, I will be deemed unworthy and not receive a dime, and it will become just one more income tax.

But I digress onto topic again. Sorry for that.

[apostate]

I am not a crook!

I am not a cook but some meats just need grillin'.

[7075-T7]

I am not a crook!

I am not a cook but some meats just need grillin'.

Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One.

And Saint Atila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying,
'Oh, Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow
thy enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and
people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies,
and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats, and large --"
And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the
Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three
shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting
shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two,
excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once
the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou
thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty
in my sight, shall snuff it.'

My recipie for Rabbit stew.

[SQLGeek]

Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One.

Second verse, same as the first....I'mmmmm Henry the VIII I am!

[LikesShinyThings]

Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One.

Second verse, same as the first....I'mmmmm Henry the VIII I am!

My name's not Henry, and I'm not the eighth of anything. However, I am the first of my parents' children to establish residence in this glorious state of Texas.

[SQLGeek]

Same here...my daughter is a native born Texan....lucky squirt.

[sjfcontrol]

When cutting
Whiskers
You don't need
To leave one half
Of them for seed
Burma-Shave

[apostate]

Second verse, same as the first....I'mmmmm Henry the VIII I am!

My name's not Henry, and I'm not the eighth of anything. However, I am the first of my parents' children to establish residence in this glorious state of Texas.

Something tells me you're into something good.

[sjfcontrol]

The cannoneers
With hairy ears
On wiry whiskers
Used tin shears
Until they found
Burma-Shave