You’re never too disgraced to have an op-ed in our liberal media. Here’s Dick Armey, coming for your social security:
Americans should ask, if Social Security is such a great program, why is it mandatory? Workers should have the choice about whether they want to remain in the current system or invest in a personal saving retirement account, which would allow them to have complete control over their retirements funds and pass the remaining balance to family members. Let’s have Social Security compete against other investment options.
In fact, dozens of other countries have developed similar and successful retirement plans that promote freedom. Australia’s popular retirement program, which includes personal accounts that have provided more income for retirees, increased national savings and reduced pressure on the budget.
With U.S. lawmakers proposing tax hikes and benefit cuts to Social Security, the program is increasingly becoming a bad deal for workers and retirees. Americans should be free to choose an optional personal retirement account that allows them to take their retirement into their own hands.
If nothing else, you have to admire the brass balls of this clown, still pushing the market after a collapse brought on in large part by his deregulatory actions.
Obligatory Vagina Coast Guard SNL/Family Guy reference.
Xecky Gilchrist
dozens of other countries have developed similar and successful retirement plans that promote freedom
These bastards have gotten me reacting to the word “freedom” like it’s an obscenity anymore. When did the wingnuts start owning it?
Allison W.
Does this include France? ’cause I don’t want to be like France. Isn’t that what the GOP has been telling us?
Mark S.
Cause this proved so popular the last time they proposed it?
Stuck in the Funhouse
That’s all right, The wingnuts can talk this shit all they want. It’s the wingnut version of a circular firing squad, and they know it, but every so often they just can’t help themselves.
Now how long will it take for one of our resident brainiacs to come by and tell us Obama wants to push Granny under the bus also too.
Jared
Before he took a total dive into crazy-town, Dennis Miller had a couple of good, Armey-like zingers on Dick Lugar. My favorite is “Cock Baretta.”
joe from Lowell
It’s mandatory so that rich bastards like Dick Armey can’t hoard their wealth and screw everyone else.
StonyPillow
The Dick Armeys and Tom Delays lead the Republican Party. Bring ’em on.
Omnes Omnibus
As my father has always said, “I don’t have to do anything of the kind.”
Robert
If education of children is so good, why is it mandatory?
If vaccinations against measles/mumps/whooping cough/etc are go good, why is it mandatory?
If glibertarianism is so good, why doesn’t it have better spokespersons?
Michael
Imagine the bonuses that could be gained from all that mandatory participation in the unregulated and free stock market….
Roger Moore
@Allison W.:
FTW! Isn’t it funny how we have to be our own country and not follow those weird foreigners’ ways when anyone proposes increasing the safety net, but other countries’ experiences prove that we could do things differently when it comes to shredding it?
BrYan
I’ll bet dollars to donuts that’s not the full story of the Australian retirement program. It’s a very typical liebritarian trick to reference some foreign system that nobody knows anything about so they sound well researched and no one is familiar enough to, you might say, refudiate them. Then these assholes all self reference each other to sound more knowledgeable. Will Wheaton or whatever his name is had a BS post about the free market healthcare system of Singapore which was nothing like the real healthcare system of Singapore.
Mike in NC
Every time I think Newt Gingrich is the biggest stinking sack of shit in American politics, I have to pause and think about Dick Armey.
Corner Stone
@joe from Lowell:
Isn’t there a cap on tax for SocSec? What are you talking about?
Omnes Omnibus
@Robert: Per wingnuts the answers are, it shouldn’t be, it shouldn’t be, and it is so good it doesn’t need better spokesmen, so there, neener neener.
Hal
Wait, what? Is that a rhetorical question? Cause if there’s one thing Americans are great at, it’s saving money.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: Do you hate yourself?
Hal
P.S.
Dick Armey. hehehe
Mark S.
Also, I’d rather read Palin’s Facebook than hear from these discredited assholes from the 90’s like Armey and Gingrich.
PurpleGirl
Peru changed their program to a privatized one. When people lost money in the financial markets the government STILL had to support them because otherwise the people would have starved. Also the fees in the Peruvian system were so high that much of peoples’ savings went to paying them and were not saved.
Edward G. Talbot
If being heterosexual to get married is such a good thing, why is it mandatory?
I swear a decent sized segment of America uses this kind of simplistic logic. I sometimes wonder if our biggest problem is not fundamental disagreement, but a lack of ability or desire to apply reason to a complex situation.
Comrade Mary
@BrYan:
Wil Wheaton? Of Trek and Stand By Me and this awesome painting? Or Will Wilkinson?
Dave
Okay, so we should emulate Australia’s retirement system. Tell ya what, Dick, we can go that route if you agree to following Australia’s universal health-care system. Deal?
Oh yeah, and take a closer look at their plan. Australia regulates the hell out of their “superannutation” program. And they still have an age pension as well. You really put the dick in dick, Dick.
Dave +3 (and rising)
Mark S.
@BrYan:
I bet you’re right. I don’t believe for a second Armey did any research on the Australian retirement system.
Dave
Australia has universal health care that is publicly funded. So I am guessing Dick is on board with that as well?
Omnes Omnibus
@Dave: Now don’t get ahead of yourself.
WereBear
Oh, yeah, I’m going to listen to whatever Dick Armey has to say. Right after I get this bean out of my nose.
Calming Influence
Americans should also be allowed to choose between Social Security and a weekly lottery ticket. You’re never going to get rich on Social Security, but just imagine if you decide to make your own investments an pick up the next Google at 7 cents a share? That’s Easy Street, baby! Sign me up!
Dave
@BrYan:
He fails to mention that Australia still has an age pension and that they regulate the hell out of their retirement investment funds.
Apsaras
Yeah, and if the Army is soooo great, why can’t I join and then leave whenever I want?
freelancer
@WereBear:
That’s the most racist thing I’ve ever heard. Please, it’s “right after I get this
beanHispanic out of my nose.”We have to mind the brown peoples’ fee-fees if we expect to get their votes, fyi.
joe from Lowell
@Corner Stone:
There is, but it still works out to be progressive, for most people. Those who earn a lot pay more than those who earn a little, even if those who a holy-crap-load still pay more than those who earn a little.
Davis X. Machina
An option is a choice. Since most of them spend 100% of their net just to get through the week, they’d save nothing. Then they would starve, and die. Optionally, of course.
But did I mention the freeeeeeeeeeeedom?
Rob
So Dick’s argument is that because there are assholes like him wanting to cut your benefits you should just give them all over to him?
joe from Lowell
Also, Corner Stone, the benefits are progressive. Rich people pay in more than they get out, and poorer people get out more than they pay in.
It should be more progressive, but it does serve to make sure those who ain’t got, get at least a little.
JGabriel
OT, but as an addendum to today’s site complaints, even though I’m using Chrome, the site is slow today and it makes my mouse stutter. None of the formatting problems other people reported, just performance issues.
Are there any new advertisers, or new types of advertising, or newly complex scripts, that have been added within the past week or so?
.
jharp
“Americans should ask, if Social Security is such a great program, why is it mandatory?”
What a fucking dick. And a third of Americans will buy it. The third that wouldn’t know the difference between a balance sheet and a list of things in their apartment,
If speed limits are such a good idea why are they mandatory you fucking jackass?
Americans are the dumbest fucking people on the planet.
fasteddie9318
If the values of the teabaggers are so universal and popular, why does Cock Military’s piece of shit lobbying firm have to astroturf the movement so that those teabaggers can con the public into thinking that they’re important?
D-Chance.
Workers should have the choice about whether they want to remain in the current system or invest in a personal saving retirement account, which would allow them to have complete control over their retirements funds and pass the remaining balance to family members.
Did someone abolish the IRA while my back was turned? It’s not like I was told I couldn’t have one without the other…
LanceThruster
Vagina Coast Guard already taken?
There’s no Dick Armey any match for Pussy Marines either.
Lev
The only downside to stuff like this is that the right-wingers who believe this stuff will actually want to do it come next year. Let’s see how seniors react when Social Security privatization comes up again in 2011.
Last time, they voted for the Democrats by 9 points.
Calming Influence
Pee-Pee Platoon.
kay
It’s mandatory because it’s an entitlement program, not a social welfare program. It shouldn’t have to compete with investments because it isn’t an investment, it’s an insurance program, and unlike an investment, it spreads risk.
There’s two back door ways to turn Social Security from an entitlement to a social welfare program, without taking any political risk.
One is means-testing (what Mitch Daniels wants to do ) and the other is making it voluntary, (what Dick Armey wants to do).
They’re both too dishonest to go at it directly, so they’re hoping to trick people, because once it’s a social welfare program, and not an entitlement program, it’s gone.
I think it’s interesting, and probably not a coincidence, that Daniels was out yesterday with means-testing, and here comes Armey with Plan B.
fasteddie9318
Next time on “Army Dick”:
If you unemployed losers all want to work so bad, why do you keep insisting that you get paid for it?
If laws are such a fucking great idea, why do we have to have all these penalties for breaking them?
If oxygen is so necessary for us to live, why do you have to go out of your way to breathe that shit in?
MikeJ
@jharp: I don’t know about a third, but I know he’s got 27% sewn up.
El Cid
@fasteddie9318: For a while I had one of those innovative jobs in which we worked for promises instead of actual money. It was awesome. If it hadn’t been for all my stupid bills which I so loosely incurred, I could have kept working there forever.
suzanne
@Edward G. Talbot:
Yes. That is the problem. Uneducated, unenlightened thinkers like simple ideas. The world is decidedly not simple. (And I genuinely think it’s an education and socialization issue, rather than a genetically transmitted disease.) The more education one has, in almost any field of knowledge, the more likely one is to vote Democratic and align politically with the left wing. Reality and its well-known liberal bias.
KG
I wonder how many people would actually opt out if Social Security was made optional. Or how many would choose to invest in the stock market under something like what Armey is suggesting.
In an ideal world, I’d prefer the options. But I just don’t see how this turns out well in reality.
mr. whipple
Hey Dick: move to Australia.
beltane
Any so-called liberal or progressive who does not vote in November had forfeited the right to complain when they spend their golden years trawling through dumpsters. The Republicans might be evil or they might be crazy, but either way, they should not be put in charge of any branch of government right now.
Davis X. Machina
“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat — and wrong.”
Mencken never disappoints — apart from the misogeny, anti-semitism, racism and such, that is….
General Stuck
@Comrade Mary:
Will Wheaton, or Wesley Crutcher came by and commented here a few years ago. I forgot what it was about, but he is basically a libtard. I do remember he hated people here calling him Wesley however.
Pug
Deep down Dick knows that when the old Tea Partiers find out where all that out of control spending really goes, Medicare, Social Security, the military and interest, marginal income tax rates will look like FDR just won big.
NobodySpecial
The best cure for brass balls is a power drill, applied to the correct area.
Zach
I think you mean “deregulatory actions akin to/such as those Armey advocates” … unless this Dick is more powerful than I think he is.
KG
@NobodySpecial: cure? really, once you get use to the clicking, it’s not really that bad.
Bill Murray
@Edward G. Talbot: Like “Drill Here,drill now,pay less” although it’ll take years to build the equipment to do it, especially offshore, where 80% of the leases aren’t being used anyway?
fasteddie9318
@El Cid:
Exactly, and now, because of your own irresponsibility in getting yourself a place to live and food to eat like you’re some kind of bigshot, you’re probably insisting that one of society’s Winners take precious money out of his or her pocket just to compensate you for your labor. You might as well be holding a gun to that poor plutocrat’s head.
NobodySpecial
@KG: Cure. I like to save my hearing for good music, not the sound of Dick Armey talking stupid.
Calming Influence
Schlong Squadron.
evinfuilt
I love that… paraphrased “Republicans want to cut Social Security, so your only protection from them is to allow Republicans gutting Social Security”
Calming Influence
Rod Fleet.
RSR
(haven’t read all the other comments, so if I’m duplicating, sorry)
I emailed Atrios on this specific point nearly four weeks ago: “Isn’t one of the ‘features’ of the catfood commission that there’s a likelihood they’ll make the benefits of SS so poor that more and more taxpayers will just say “fuck it, I can do better investing it myself; better returns and earlier access to $$”??? shrinking gov’t and bathtubs and all that?”
It’s really the great wealth transfer of our time, although in the opposite direction of what Palin et al rail against–they raised the SS taxes in the ’80s on the entire workforce then quitely used the money (took it from the “lock box”) for the benefit of a select few, and now tell us that SS is a lost cause.
As for the canard that if something is obligatory it must be so for bad reasons, puh-lease.
J.W. Hamner
Do we have any guesstimates on how many people had to make some serious adjustments to their retirement plans based on what the stock market has done the last couple of years? I would think even a fair number of relatively wealthy are counting on that SS check more than they thought they would.
jeff
If it weren’t mandatory, it wouldn’t work, and we’d be faced with a more expensive way to assist impoverished elderly people on an emergency basis, which is, I think, a possible goal of the Republicans. Is that right?
Frank
@jharp:
Bush tried this in 2005 and it fell totally flat. Heck, I do hope Wiener Navy and the other mouth breathers try it again. Seniors, unlike young people, do vote regularly. And they are very much against what Armey is preaching. As shown in 2005.
bemused
How many times did George Bush go around the country pitching the same crap? It didn’t go over well then. After we’ve seen what happens to our money when wall street gets their hands on it, this should be even less appealing to most americans now but this country has gotten even dumber since then if that’s possible.
stuckinred
@J.W. Hamner: Try “beaucoup.”
SiubhanDuinne
OT looks like Blumenthal is winning/has won in CT
Jeff Darcy
Australia’s retirement system is based on mandatory contribution to private “supernnuation” (retirement) funds – exactly the same in principle as mandatory contributions to private health-insurance companies. As the teabaggers never tire of telling us, it’s utterly unacceptable for the government to mandate such a purchase, so it should be a lot of fun when Dick tries to explain to them how great Australia’s system is.
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: And the mouthbreathers are coming down to the wire under the golden dome!
Martin
@Jeff Darcy: You realize he’ll just lie, like he always does. “Australians pay NO taxes. They are given a free firearm by the government, and they banned the construction of mosques!”
Who the fuck on the right would know any better?
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Workers already have the choice to invest in a personal savings account with as much risk as they like. Social Security is mandatory because some nominal amount has to be set aside at essentially zero risk as a social safety net. Only idiots find this a difficult concept.
Of course, it can be argued that workers don’t have anything to set aside for personal savings after Social Security is deducted. But then maybe they would if they weren’t constantly subjected to propaganda telling them they can’t live without a $250 a month telephone plan and that maybe the $150 a month plan is adequate and the balance doesn’t all have to go to Stouffer’s and the Comcast Platinum Plan but instead could go into an IRA.
In other words, this horseshit is just part of their larger plan to steal as much of our money as possible.
demo woman
@stuckinred: Not all of Fulton has not been reported.. Handel could pull this out.
She’s scary…no state income tax and charter schools
stuckinred
@demo woman: Less than half, I think you are right but maybe OUR goober can beat their goober?
did you see Chipper’s knee injury?
arguingwithsignposts
Some workers already opt out of social security. Their retirement is supposed to come from … Wait for it … Public employee pension funds. And we all know how that’s working out about now.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred #69: Yup, just announced McMahon won the GOP primary. This fall is going to be FUN!
Joseph Nobles
Another friend of Noah Cross agrees: He should be given custody of his daughter/granddaughter.
Chris
Armey (and Republicans in general):
More accurate version: “I’m stealing your money! Ha ha! Look what a bad deal you have! Why don’t you make it even easier for me to steal even more!”
demo woman
@SiubhanDuinne: Looks like you escaped Hice. Now you’ll just be represented by a far right rep rather than a far right crazy rep.
Redshift
Penis Air Force (h/t to Jim Ward of the Stephanie Miller Show.)
Redshift
As expected, the true name for Mr. Armey triggers moderation.
Jager
@Calming Influence:
Joe comes home from his construction job and says to his wife, “Honey, how much do we have in the checking account until payday”?
Wife says, “just enough for groceries, gas so you can get to work and a new pair of shoes for the baby, about $140.00, why do you want to know”?
Joe says, “The other carpenters and I were going through Investors daily today at work and I think I want to stick a $100 in Google at .07 a share, the guys all agree it will be a good investment for us down the road”.
Wife, “Take that Investors Daily and shove it, you moron, if you stick a hundred bucks in stock, you won’t be able to get to work and we’ll starve”! Proceeds to beat the shit out of Joe with a frying pan.
Redshift
@jeff: Absolutely. They want to split it into one system for people with money, where their Wall Street contributors can extract fees (and give people lower returns relative to risk) and one for people without that can be demonized as a welfare system.
Batocchio
Americans should ask, if K-12 education is such a great program, why is it mandatory?
Americans should ask, if the police and fire departments are such great programs, why is paying for them mandatory?
Americans should ask, if I, Dick Armey, had an actual decent argument to make, why do I feel that lies and bullshit are mandatory?
El Cid
@fasteddie9318: Every day I feel guilty extorting my company for money just because I show up and do work which makes them money.
What’s worse, then the victims of my daily mob attack have to pay taxes to the government, which is exactly what Stalin did in the Gulags.
I wish we had a confessional onsite because it would help me clear my conscience just a bit.
I know it’s not fair to use the excuse that all the other people working in the same joint are just as cruel and heartless to the owners / producers as I am, but I just don’t have the gumption to break their racket.
Calming Influence
@Jager:
Yup. If I had a nickel for every time that happened to me, I have no idea how much money I’d have; I’ve suffered too many skillet concussions.
mai naem
I want to round up all these republitardos, put them in 2 C-17s. One goes to Somalia and all of them are parachuted into Mogadishu. The other one goes to Afghanistan and those idiots are parachuted along the Pak border. Let them deal with no taxes and freedom there.
Debbie(aussie)
Haven’t read all the comments, so hope I am not repeating somebody else. We have compulsory employer provided superanuation (9% likely to increase to 12% very soon) and it is true that we can have this money where ever we choose (but not to touch until retirement). BUT we also have a much fairer social security program of benefits that include Aged and Disability pensions as well as unemployment benefits, with no time limits. All these benefits are income and assets tested as well. Which from what I understand of the US system is vastly different.
SiubhanDuinne
@demo woman #78: Yeah, lucky me, eh? Toobad, I think Hice would have been a bit easier to tackle in the general.
So still 50-50 in the GOP gov. Think it’ll go to a recount? Any prayer for a MN-style neverennding appeals process?
(Oh wait, that could mean Sonny for another couple of years!!)
demo woman
@SiubhanDuinne: Do you know why the AJC can post results before the Secy of State? It seems odd to me.
SiubhanDuinne
@demo woman #78: But sorry we missed out on the rhymetastic PRICE-HICE duo!
SiubhanDuinne
#demo 88: Um, because the SoS is a FOOL??
Srsly, no idea.
demo woman
@SiubhanDuinne: Deal is still ahead but it looks as though they will do a recount. I’m surprised that Fulton didn’t deliver more votes for Handel.
ColoRambler
Poor fella, guess he’s never heard of these, then.
Brachiator
@Hal:
I cannot possibly Dick Armey’s plan until I know what his counterpart, Pussy Navey, thinks about it.
SiubhanDuinne
@demo woman #91: anything less than an out-and-out unambiguous victory for Handel is a refudiation of Palin. And Barnes can beat Deal in Nov, I’m pretty sure. So I’m not feeling too bad tonight.
patrick II
I expect this kind of crap from Dick Armey, however since the subject is social security and today Gibbs went off on liberals because he can’t understand why liberals aren’t always thrilled with this administration, let’s talk about the deficit commission for a moment. The one co-charied by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. The commission Obama told to take noting off of the table, and the one that had their co-chairs talking about the necessity of cutting social security the first thing out of the box.
I know it is not fashionable to be too much of a leftie hippie on this blog, but you know, people paid into that social security fund for yeaers, and now its time to start being paid back and Simpson says the social security fund not really a fund, but a bunch of iou’s, evidently one’s he doesn’t feel obligated to pay back.
Lord knows we need to lower taxes even more and raise the retirement age so the very rich can keeep their gardener until he hits 70 or breaks his back, whichever comes first.
Jim Yeager
I agree, with one stipulation: if you opt out of Social Security, you can never opt back into it. Under any circumstances…
Comrade Kevin
It takes a Dick Armey to lead a nation of teabaggers.
Mojotron
Americans should ask, if Social Security is such a great program, why is it mandatory?
It’s not hard to see this being asked by two rapping juggalos
El Cid
@Mojotron: If speed limits in neighborhoods are such a good idea, why are they mandatory?
Silver Owl
LMFAO! I’m giving my money to any f*cked in the head emotionally stunted does not even understand business or people conservative.
I yanked all my money out of the market because even I know when I’m screwed by ass wipes spewing shit rather actual business sense. Republicans/conservatives are the dumbest mother f*ckers on every issue in this era. When they evolve I’ll reevaluate their skill sets and actual performance. Until then no f*cking way will I take the advice of conservative/republican on anything. Not even dog chit.
Calming Influence
If looking both ways before crossing the street is such a good idea, why is it mandatory?
Silver Owl
LOL! Based on performance and standards, if it’s coming out of a republican/conservative mouth it’s unreliable and bullshit.
I pulled all my money out of the market. Too many stupid irresponsible bloviating ignorant people, business and product stupid morons. Most of them Armery ilk, which is the new “I am chit sludge in your sewers” standards.
Not f*cking over anyone for today’s crap people in business.
Nylund
Because that -23% the stock market returned over the Bush years woulda been way better than SS?
If anything the last couple years proved how GOOD a program SS is. I kept thinking THANK GOD Bush didn’t pull off privatizing that. Everyone would’ve lost their 401k AND their social security.
Mike G
Lying fucktard Armey either didn’t care to research or didn’t bother to mention because it would puncture his propaganda, but while Australia has a compulsory 401k-type setup, it also has a pension system to support retirees on low incomes, similar to social security.
Let’s play the Armey game with some other government spending —
Americans should ask, if
Social Securityno-bid contracts for Halliburton are such a great program, why is it mandatory? Workers should have the choice about whether they want to remain in the current system of corporate welfare orinvest in a personal saving retirement account, have their tax money spent elsewhere,which would allow them to have complete control over their retirements funds andor pass the remaining balance to family members.Phoenician in a time of Romans
Americans should be free to choose an optional personal retirement account that allows them to take their retirement into their own hands.
Translation: Wall Street needs to pick up more profit by charging people massive fees for their retirement funds, and since I’m their rent boy, here I go whoring for them again…
asiangrrlMN
FH#1, you out there somewhere? Care to chime in?
Malaclypse
If our military is so great, why is paying for it mandatory?
mclaren
American conservatives want to accomplish what the shock therapy privatization in Russia attained in 1991-1995: delivering the entire assets of a whole nation into the hands of seven oligarchs.
The American right looks at the Russian oligarchs and drools with envy. This is what they want, and they’re going to keep pushing for it no matter what. Before Larry Summers destroyed the Russian economy by handing it over lock, stock and barrel to 7 superwealthy billionaires, no one in America knew it was possible to loot a nation on that scale.
Now the American right realizes what is possible, and they’re champing at the bit to loot America just the way the oligarchs looted Russia.
redoubt
@demo woman: Because she’s too busy running for governor to do her damn job?
A Conservative Teacher
Typcial liberal- your response to Armey’s questions and comments about a massive problem facing our nation (the bankrupting of Social Security) by calling him various names and blaming him for Social Security’s demise (which itself is so stupid you can’t even be serious about it).
Social Security is a failure. It was a giant liberal pyramid scheme that many liked, but is now collapsing and when it does it will result in theft (generations like mine that pay into it and get nothing out of it without a choice is theft) and broken promises.
Scott Supak
Funny, in the RSS feed, the blockquote formatting is messed up, but it’s OK here…
mclaren
@A Conservative Teacher:
Cool! That means Social Security is the epitome of conservative economics!
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Typcial liberal- your response to Armey’s questions and comments about a massive problem facing our nation (the bankrupting of Social Security)
Social Security isn’t bankrupt.
It has a vast buffer of Treasury Bonds as an investment asset, the same Treasury Bonds which are sold in America and all around the world and regarded as one of the world’s safest assets because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.
Social Security isn’t bankrupt. Rather, the United States Government is facing a problem in that they chose to borrow in order to finance tax cuts, and one of the places they borrowed from was the Social Security fund.
But it’s a problem that can easily be resolved – raise taxes on the rich and cut military spending. And then you can finance all your Treasury Bond obligations, including Social Security.
Nancy Irving
@PurpleGirl:
True, but I think it was Chile, not Peru.
Nancy Irving
If the info on wikipedia is correct, Armey is (surprise!) being disingenuous (or really just lying) about Australia’s old-age pension system.
According to wiki, Australia’s version of social security is really a welfare program, rather than the insurance program we have in the U.S.
It is not paid for by dedicated taxes that all pay during their working lives, and benefits are not received by all after retirement.
Rather, Australia’s elderly are afforded old-age benefits on a needs basis, and the benefits are paid for by the general fund, i.e. income and other taxes.
Thus their system is significantly *more* “redistributive,” to use a word Armey’s army love, than ours; and everybody IS forced to participate, in that the income and other taxes they pay are partly used to pay out old-age benefits to the elderly poor.
If we had this sort of system Armey would be even more hostile towards it, if possible, than he is towards Social Security which, after all, is a program that benefits middle-income retirees as well as the despised poor.
He’d call it “welfare,” which it would be.
Incidentally, conservatives often argue for changing Social Security into a means-tested program. They know that as soon as this happens, and it becomes “welfare,” the overwhelming majority of middle-class Americans will push to get rid of it entirely.
Then we can go back to the freedom-loving days of Apple Annies and gramps living in Bowery shelters.
Nancy Irving
@Calming Influence:
Or Schlong Division
Nancy Irving
If brakes on your car are such a great idea, how come they’re standard and not an “option”?
Nancy Irving
C*nt cavalry.
Nancy Irving
@El Cid:
At least you can feel good about not being a waiter who makes more in tips than the restaurant owner.
Nancy Irving
@mai naem:
We could call it GOoPer Outward Bound, LOL.
Nancy Irving
@A Conservative Teacher:
SS is not a pyramid scheme and it is not bankrupt.
If some quite minor adjustments are not made in the medium-future, SS may, acccording to the most pessimistic forecasts, go very slightly out-of-balance in a couple of decades’ time.
There. Fixed that.