Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (90390)	9/24/2007 11:11:42 PM
From: alanrs	Respond to of 306849

I think the opposite. Well, usually when you pay more for something the market provides more of it. I can easily see people who are almost needy shifting assets around to qualify, for example. I hear ads on the radio all the time for some come on about how to get the government to pay for X in your life. I don't remember the specifics, but there is one playing regularly on news radio here (WMAQ) for some lawyer. There's also one on TV from a lawyer regarding social security disability benefits. People view themselves as victims a lot, and this plays to that. Old, young, in between doesn't matter. I saw this with my dads wife who was a very nice person who had cancer at age 75. They went to extremes to try to beat it, including some experimental programs. I know experimental programs need subjects too and all that, but really when it came down to it the rational I heard-and it was expressed in exactly so many words-was that they would do everything the government would pay for through medicaid. People without economic training of any sort do not equate "the government" with your and my taxes. People who are desperate to live a few more days or weeks also decide not to make that connection, even if they really do know better. I don't find that a particularly appealing human characteristic, but it is what I see. This woman, by the way, left 500K to her kids, none of whom were poor or needed the money. In fact one of them is a stock broker for Merril Lynch. Don't know what will happen with social security. Wish some sort of personal savings account for younger workers had been instituted, but no one from either side stepped up to the plate on that one. Oh well. People get the government they deserve, and not enough people hold their representatives accountable for larger social issues. You've seen the studies, I assume, where everybody is unhappy with the politicians, except their own representative. Nobody likes some one else's pork, but they'll be damned if they give up their own. ARS

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (90390)	9/25/2007 1:48:47 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Respond to of 306849

I see this problem permeating American society. The problem I have with my parents (who are now deceased) retirement community is that there is NO SHAME in extracting as much as you can out of the government in the form of medicare and SS, although all of them are quite aware of the high taxes their kids pay and mostly vote against new taxes for their community such as schools- until it comes to THEIR BENEFITS that they have convinced themselves they "paid for". Ten years ago or so in Australia, one of the senior Senators in Australia was forced to quit politics, by his party and public revulsion, when it was discovered that he had been over-reimbursed on his expense account by roughly $5,000 - over a period of three years. I think its safe to say that this kind of minor graft would not even raise an eyebrow in the United States, even if it were reported in the newspapers. People would probably even wonder why it was mentioned and claim the revelation was "politically motivated". The corruption and sense of entitlement seems universal in American society. .

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (90390)	9/25/2007 11:45:01 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

<<< The problem I have with my parents (who are now deceased) retirement community is that there is NO SHAME in extracting as much as you can out of the government in the form of medicare and SS>>> There are two issues here: Social Security is like auto insurance. It has to be mandatory. Your parents paid into social security and they deserve whatever they can get out of it. Social Security works. Everybody pays into Social Security so that they would not later in life become a burden to the next generaation. You probably didn't have to help support your parents or even payback the investment they made in your education. Social Security probably even helped in your situation (where you are probably fairly well off financially). Of course for the Social Security system to work, they have to continually adjust the system so that it is funded without outside sources of income. It is impossible to be able to forecast economic realities far into the future. The Social Security system is financially sound. Even Alan Greenspan will attest to that. He is as financially as conservative as any rational human being can be. As far as medicare is concerned, that is a big problem. But, the problem is more political than anything else. Healthcare and education are two things that have to be universally accessible, but it has to be efficient. Healthcare and education has to have a higher priority than wasting money on wars that we do not have to start.