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

To: SilentZ who wrote (215454)	1/20/2005 11:22:02 AM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573857

Z, Easy -- you should always have a contingency, a "rainy day fund" -- that's just smart business. That's how you make up for unforeseen circumstances like a baby boom. Of course you realize that the federal government will just spend any sort of "rainy day fund" like it's funny money. Because poor (I use the term loosely) people are too wrapped up in their own everyday lives to have as much power as they should, and wealthier people end up with more of a say. Actually, you're missing the biggest voting block: the middle class. It all depends on who's left holding the bag. Switch to a need-based benefit system, and those making $40-80K a year and approaching retirement are going to complain. Not to mention similar people who are already in retirement. They paid their dues into the system, so why shouldn't they get what they're "entitled" to? Or maybe you'd rather just change it for us GenXers. But then how do you determine "need" at retirement? Someone making minimum wage all his life is obvious, but what about the guy who made a decent living for most of his life, yet spent it on wild living or ran into some sort of hardship and retires bankrupt? Should he be "punished" for not having a 401k or IRA when he was able to? I'm sure you can come up with some other plan, but the bottom line is that "welfare for the elderly" is problematic. Many people will fall through the cracks, while many others will game the system, and you'll still have poverty in society. Tenchusatsu