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

To: SilentZ who wrote (224340)	3/16/2005 12:19:01 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584252

>> You have to book the income too, DR.... WE ARE booking the income; every nickel that is collected in payroll taxes and investment income is booked every year. That's the entire problem. We book income the day it is collected. But we're not booking the expense at the same time; we're booking the expense years down the road. Which is nice, since it gives politicians a "surplus" to talk about. But it is why we have the problem. Get any Principles of Accounting book, and chapter one will describe a basic accounting principle called "The Matching Principle" -- essentially, that expenses must be reported in the same accounting period that the related revenue is realized. It is a fundamental element of accounting, and meaningful financial statements cannot be prepared without it if there are material differences. Yet, Social Security does not use "Matching" in its accounting, and the difference is mateerial -- measured in the MANY TRILLIONS of dollars.