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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (141913)	1/19/2002 5:00:32 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1585130

They can't seem to get it thru their collective heads that there are people who need medicare or social security...that not everyone is independently wealthy You're so confused. No one doubts the need or desire. The question is, "Is it possible for an economy to sustain incentive traps like Social Security and Medicare over an extended period of time?". The answer is, NO, it isn't. Once you've answered that question, then it is a simple matter to conclude that the programs should never be instituted to begin with. Because it IS an incentive trap, there is no way of getting rid of it once it has burned itself out. Unfortunately, both of these programs were designed to collapse within 100 years, which both will have done before their 100 years are up. When governments dream up these beasts, it is necessary to think VERY long-term -- 100s of years, not 50 years or a 100 years. This is the fundamental problem with SS, and will be with MC as well. What's your bet they blow it? I think it is entirely possible Bush will lose ground, perhaps enough to lose the election, to the liberals. Not because Bush "blew" it, but because the liberals (Begala, Carville) have no hesitation to lie, and the gullible American public hasn't the good sense to reject the lies. As a result, we get crap like "It's The Economy, Stupid" which was maybe the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the American public (well, there was, "I never had sexual relations with that woman"....)