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Strategies & Market Trends : The Art of Investing

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Dec 18 4:00 PM EST

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To: Sun Tzu who wrote (10623)	11/24/2025 10:39:00 AM
From: Kirk ©	2 Recommendations Recommended By DinoNavarre nicewatch Read Replies (1) of 10701

Very interesting. So many issues you are considering so here is a short riff of my thoughts on a few. Lots of talk about extending the SS retirement age which I think makes a lot of sense, but in my state, California, public pensions are far more generous, under funded and people can retire at 60% of salary in their 50s... The math and the history both say “something big” has to give; the main uncertainty is who holds the pen when the new deal (lowercase) is written. A lot of public workers go on strike for better wages while backing this or that excuse to raise the sales tax and added items to the property tax with talks of taxing the rich even more than the 13.3% top income tax rate now. transparentcalifornia.com Note the top pay is VMC or Valley Medical Center... a county hospital. This month "we" voted to raise the sales tax by another 0.625% to keep the county hospitals open after Trump and Newsom cut funding for illegals. Trouble is the advertising said it was to keep hospitals open yet the money will go into the general fund with no strings attached. I'd argue on NextDoor that is was going to fund pensions and keep over paid administrators employed transparentcalifornia.com People complain about high prices at fast food restaurants but don't object when Gov. Newsom (and presidential wannabe) raised the min wage for MacDonald's workers to $20/hr. A real issue is the high cost for health insurance that discourages fast food places to favor the young over the elderly who want to work for the health insurance until they qualify for Medicare. There are so many "entrenched" problem groups that I'm not sure there is any political force that can force a solution. Many believe Trump and his wrecking ball ways of operating might be the best hope... but he's also fallen into the trap to use the power to reward loyalty rather than performance... A BIG issue is there are so many ways to "help" low income people that it traps you into being unproductive... ObamaCare/ACA has some very steep cut-off limits. My last set of housekeepers that came once every two weeks both were legal citizens in the US under Regan's amnesty. They had several kids each and "husbands" who were fathers that lived with them but not legally married so they could get the extensive single mother benefits, vouchers for housing, free public school education including college, etc. They were well paid, drove nice cars and did good work. The oldest sister eventually "retired" and bought a home with her "husband" outside Sacramento with their savings. They played the system to perfection and did well but it highlights how "the system" encourages doing things under the table. An article in today's paper talked about how one county is spending tens of millions on legal bills rather than settle cases for far less that they eventually lose in court then appeal with what sounds like to me a way to get job security for highly paid prosecutor positions. I have no idea how to fix all this.

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