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

To: Amy J who wrote (180651)	1/16/2004 1:15:03 AM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572336

Amy, are you empathetic to the disabled. Of course I am. I'd support moving some of the money over from, say, environmental works over toward helping the blind and disabled. Of course, then I'll be accused of trashing the environment. Tenchusatsu

To: Amy J who wrote (180651)	1/16/2004 6:02:24 AM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572336

Amy J, a) require all companies to offer health care that employees may buy May help a bit, but the biggest problem is cost. Most people without insurance just can't afford it. The costs are also blowing holes through the budgets of localities, states and federal govts. Over regulation, excessive litigation, lack of direct control of patient of what he is paying for are reasons for high costs (also, politically connected unions have their hands in the cookie jar). b) Remove fica cap talked about it already c) Start replacing some government with volunteers It seems like a good idea. Again, unions will put up a fight, and it will take a Terminator to overcome them. They tied up NYC government in litigation over use of welfare to work program. If you look at finances of most states, you will find that a huge chunk of money goes into highly uncompeititive, union workforce. The unions, unlike the old days, when they were organized against the "bad capitalists", now (having bankrupted their former industries) they are in government, organized agaist the citizens of their states, trying to extract every last drop of blood from the taxpayer, and then some (force governments into borrowing to pay for excessive union pension benefits). d) Increase technology to drive down labor costs. What will the unions say about this? e) Allow the head of a State Dept to fire an employee for poor performance. Currently, it's really hard for government heads to fire people due to poor performance. Make the govt more competitive, including K12 schools. Unions again. Basically, the unions are running most of the state governments. Certainly New York State and New York City. They are well organized, so well that no politician (other than Rudy Giuliani) will cross them. Business groups, that at some point used to be a counter weight, fell off the map, are completely ineffectual. g) Make stock options mandatory at every company, so everyone starts becoming an investor, so they gain as the country gains. That is not practical, since most people work for companies that are not publically traded, not to mention having options offered against their stocks. Profit sharing plans create as much incentive and good will as they create mistrust. 401Ks have definitely made a lot of unlikely people investors. At one point, Bush talked about a portion of Social Security going to individual accounts that could be invested in the market funds. But that was at the top of the bubble, when everyone thought there were more money to go around, then there were in reality. The Social Security is in such a hole that I don't see any way getting out of the hole. A victory will be if we don't go deeper. h) Make anyone who earns more than $35k, pay $2000 into a savings account when they get married. (The median cost of the American wedding translates into a million in retirement, so why not require the people to spend some of their wedding money on their retirement savings!) While I agree that the cost of weddings (and rings) is completely crazy, and so is everyone who spends this kind of money, I don't think this opinion you and I have can be legislated. Joe