tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post3584314886290194175..comments2024-03-29T00:24:13.128-04:00Comments on Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org : The Death of the American Welfare StateDaniel Greenfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-58897850805462918072015-11-28T04:07:55.959-05:002015-11-28T04:07:55.959-05:00Scarely, but the truth.
Amen to that. Scarely, but the truth. <br /><br />Amen to that. francishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14038683989399624242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-50905994092686074092015-11-17T23:58:12.885-05:002015-11-17T23:58:12.885-05:00A belated comment. People in the old days knew tha...A belated comment. People in the old days knew that they needed to produce children in order to sustain them in their old age. Not in retirement homes, but by producing food or whatever. <br />Somehow social security seemed to sever this connection, as if the government was managing an annuity for each citizen. But the truth, as you demonstrated, is that nothing changed and we were fooled.Ben Jacobshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00929184767568736400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-85613357203245590282015-11-03T01:13:13.367-05:002015-11-03T01:13:13.367-05:00Poetry digs under the surface of events. It is pro...Poetry digs under the surface of events. It is prophecy. It holds our inmost being up in front of us and demands we inspect it. Some truths can only be accessed that way.<br /><br />Leonard Ha'Kohen Ha'Navie has foretold our future:<br /><br />"Destroy another fetus now, we don't like children anyhow.<br />I've seen the future, baby: It is murder."<br /><br />"Things are going to slide, slide in all directions.<br />Won't be nothing, nothing you can measure anymore.<br />The blizzard, the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul"<br /><br />"Your servant here, he has been told to say it clear, to say it cold:<br />It's over, it ain't going any further.<br />And now the wheels of heaven stop, you feel the devil's riding crop<br />Get ready for the future: it is murder"<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D97OxHZzBeQFat Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554029467445000453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-27317341244305958772015-11-03T00:53:44.809-05:002015-11-03T00:53:44.809-05:00I wrote a long erudite comment, and hit the wrong ...I wrote a long erudite comment, and hit the wrong button and flushed it down the bit bucket<br /><br />Sultan: I think you have hit on a very deep issue in political theory. We have known the theoretical reasons why socialism must fail since Ludwig von Mises published the "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" in 1920. The theory was confirmed in the real world circa 1990, when the Soviet Union and its satellites collapsed. <br /><br />But, you (and Mark Styne and David Goldman) have demonstrated that even the mild forms of Socialism practiced in Western Europe and North America, destroy the family, which is still most fundamental institution of society, and blunt the incentive to reproduce.<br /><br />These socialist societies are now looking at not just bankruptcy, but at complete disappearance. Clearly, the lucky ones will go bankrupt first.Fat Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09554029467445000453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-24629245994648968522015-11-02T02:10:34.252-05:002015-11-02T02:10:34.252-05:00I seem to remember a famous revolution's motto...I seem to remember a famous revolution's motto being: "no taxation without representation". Does anyone here feel they're being represented by the current regime? Does anyone here want their tax dollars going to support islamic apartheid terrorist states like Pakistan or the PA?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-73146433808489853312015-11-02T00:26:51.946-05:002015-11-02T00:26:51.946-05:00Here in NYS fully half ( HALF ! ) of our citizens ...Here in NYS fully half ( HALF ! ) of our citizens are receiving State/taxpayer funded healthcare. About 3 million Medicare and 6.4 million Medicaid. Most frustrating to me is that most 'folks' and organizations CHOOSE to remain blissfully unaware of this FACT. I belong to an organization known as Farm Bureau. This issue is discussed not at all - not in the local county organizations nor at the state level - and I am fairly certain many other associations and union organizations CHOOSE to ignore the situation as well. At least Medicare has a payroll dedicated funding stream workers can see in their pay stubs. Medicaid - a far larger juggernaut - comes out of the general fund and property taxes. It now swallows up nearly half (about $60 Billion) of the State budget. Oddly -one of the reasons the Governor is pushing for the $15/hr minimum wage is to staunch the sign ups for Medicaid. A wondrous side benefit to the federally forced signups for healthcare 'insurance'. Since enactment of ACA Medicaid rolls in NYS have increased by about 2 million. Only about 850,000 qualified for the insane paid/subsidized plans -- a minor abomination used to enact ACA that I predict will be eliminated -- an adjustment in income requirements will force all into Medicaid at some point. The effective Federalization of healthcare by ACA enactment will see to it that ALL States comply with this reality - no one can escape from her on out. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09754016412113562713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-85214063232151888572015-11-01T20:17:07.352-05:002015-11-01T20:17:07.352-05:00Anonymous, I first stumbled across Kotlikoff in t...Anonymous, I first stumbled across Kotlikoff in the late 90's. His analysis then was that the US Government was about $60-$70 trillion in the hole. An amount that he then thought was about equal to all the national wealth if an interested buyer could be found.<br /><br />As sure hell, that''s no longer the case.Bilejoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15426920337506809987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-63169642674112196172015-11-01T13:36:31.932-05:002015-11-01T13:36:31.932-05:00It is a mistake to think the left is well-meaning ...It is a mistake to think the left is well-meaning but wrong. Economic collapse resulting in chaos and revolution is not a bug for them, it's a feature. Cloward-Piven and Marxism explains a lot.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-1682902486209898522015-11-01T13:10:35.914-05:002015-11-01T13:10:35.914-05:00The leftists OWN most of the blame. They're th...The leftists OWN most of the blame. They're the LBJ "Welfare State" crowd or whatever they called it (Great Society). Leftists LOVE to set up entitlement systems for themselves but they never budget for any of them. Same with social security, same with Medicare and Medicaid. <br /><br />Do you think Nanny Pelosi (who doesn't know how to read) can do any math? I mean it's very easy math at that and the democrats never did it. Then they conveniently blame the GOP.<br /><br />Same with obamacare. No one did any math and the GOP didn't have ANY say in it. Now notice, the GOP will get blamed in Congress because it's not funded. <br /><br />The democrats set up ALL the entitlement programs to wipe their behinds that's not what our federal government was created for. It was created to mind our commerce and protect our shores.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-56953015013665252102015-11-01T12:54:57.481-05:002015-11-01T12:54:57.481-05:00Rand Paul is exactly right. It works both ways. If...Rand Paul is exactly right. It works both ways. If the greatest generation didn't have 10 kids each, and only had 2 or 3 like previous and current generations, you wouldn't have the big bulge of boomers in the middle.<br /><br />On the other hand, if the boomers had 10 kids each, they would have enough children to pay for their generation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-16641271023164211552015-11-01T11:38:05.278-05:002015-11-01T11:38:05.278-05:00When the CCCP imploded there was nothing to replac...When the CCCP imploded there was nothing to replace it for more than 10 years. Life expectancy dropped 10 years and diseases no one had seen in a century reappeared. When totalitarian social welfare states eat themselves up the trail of destruction they leave in their wake isn't pretty. Empress Trudyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06073538968722986065noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-38128917202634467652015-11-01T06:07:47.204-05:002015-11-01T06:07:47.204-05:00Common Tater:
The system could have sustained its...Common Tater: <br />The system could have sustained itself, but Johnson started taking the SS fund around 1968 to use for other purposes (like Vietnam War) in a large Ponzi scheme. There is no Social Security Fund. It goes into the general fund to support foreign aid and everything else under the sun. It's just another tax and they print the money to cover it. In fact, the way they print money there is no reason for any tax on anything... other than to mess with us and keep us under control. The gold standard is long gone and the tax we pay is staggering to imagine. We pay so much, you would go nuts trying to figure it out because you wouldn't have any money left and would quit working.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09518677967627217789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-70050223332130378492015-11-01T02:03:11.341-05:002015-11-01T02:03:11.341-05:00I had thought the Social Security system was still...I had thought the Social Security system was still in the black (i.e. not spending more than they were taking in)?<br />Does the federal government or state government have any idea what percentage of welfare dollars are being scammed? I've heard of people using their food stamp debit cards at Indian gaming casinos. I've heard of couples who are deliberately unmarried so that they can maximize their welfare subsidies. I've heard of people buying groceries on their food stamp debit cards for other people then basically selling the groceries for cash at cut-rate prices.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-53338799404700762552015-10-31T19:17:20.721-04:002015-10-31T19:17:20.721-04:00Daniel, thank you for that great analysis and desc...Daniel, thank you for that great analysis and description of the welfare problem. However, from what I can see as one heading into the retirement horizon and from my years in healthcare, you have told only half the story, and I am not aware of anyone publicly saying what I intend to say below. Also, I apologize for a longer than usual post.<br /><br />Disclaimer: While I do have some working knowledge of statistics, I am not a statistician, mathematician, nor an actuarial type person. So, if anyone out there does fit into one of these categories, please do let me know if I am wrong.<br /><br />According to the info I gleaned from "info please" and that appears to be from the US bureau of statistics (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005148.html) the average life expectancy in the US in 1935 was about 60 for men and 64 for women. Remember that the minimum age to collect SS was 62, and full retirement was 65. I am assuming that there were enough data points there to make a "bell shaped" or "normal" curve for the data used to project those life expectancies. The other assumption for my following opinions is that the mean (average) and the median (midpoint) are pretty close together if the data base was large enough. These would indicate that at least half the possible recipients of SS born in that year (1935) would be dead before collecting a minimum payment let alone a maximum payment.<br /><br />But wait, there is more! For those that do look at statistics, if indeed the average life expectancy tables were extracted from data that gave us a "normal" curve, then how did we end up with 62 as the minimum benefit age and 65 as the full benefit age? I strongly suspect, but cannot verify since I do not have access to the data, is these numbers represent the first and second standard deviations of that data. If that is true then the system was predicated on the assumption that at least 68% of the potential SSI recipients born in that year would be dead before collecting a minimum benefit at age 62. 95% of potential recipients would be dead by age 65. I could be wrong.<br /><br />Next though, is based upon actual observations and incidents. There are many families dependent upon the disability income from the disabled children. In addition to the disability monthly payment, many states actually pay family caregivers to stay home and provide care to that child to keep the child out of the hospital or long term care. The economics of that can be debated, but it points out that there are many (not sure of actual numbers) families out there that receive money from taxpayers and these entire families will not put in much, if any money into the system for many years, if at all.<br /><br />So, there you are, Happy Halloween, and the trick is on us taxpayers as we pay out the treats into a system designed to fail. We have exchanged our liberty and self-reliance for a guaranteed secure future but will end up with neither.<br /><br />By the way, if the Mzlm immigrants destroy our system and we end up with the same kind of medical and social support systems they left, they will just say, "Inshallah." If grandma or the new baby die from malnutrition or disease due to the failure of infrastructure or the medical system, it will be "Inshallah." In the meantime we will be blamed for not rescuing them from the systems they created and perpetuated.Common 'taternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-59423650338142630262015-10-31T16:29:39.607-04:002015-10-31T16:29:39.607-04:00Outstanding, albeit bitterly depressing, summary o...Outstanding, albeit bitterly depressing, summary of our Magical Thinking monetary policies. We're currently staving off the collapse with the twin shenanigans of printing and borrowing money. I wonder if that (lack of) solution could sustain us through several more decades, until eventually a loaf of bread costs $1000 and the SHTF.Amy Armadillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05427981174660012145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-42355502976337893772015-10-31T12:40:31.471-04:002015-10-31T12:40:31.471-04:00AMEN brother. AMEN brother. MikeNnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-65578299288387069712015-10-31T12:24:35.457-04:002015-10-31T12:24:35.457-04:00Agree mostly, but when it comes to the decline of ...Agree mostly, but when it comes to the decline of economic opportunities for the middle class, that is a bipartisan phenomenon that is not the fault of the Left. It wasn't the Left's idea to outsource our manufacturing to low wage countries. It wasn't the Left's idea to replace all the mom and pop stores with Wal-Marts. fizziksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-41870959523497108902015-10-31T11:48:10.062-04:002015-10-31T11:48:10.062-04:00AMEN Brother. AMEN Brother. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-72566210993693122442015-10-31T10:42:55.986-04:002015-10-31T10:42:55.986-04:00You are so right. There is one more thing sucking...You are so right. There is one more thing sucking the money out fo our economy, and that is the so called "non profits". The Nature Conservancy alone has over a billion dollars worth of "non taxable" assets. Money going to non profits is free of taxes to both the donor and the recipient, that is money individuals and businesses have to make up by higher taxes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-24760466467408562352015-10-31T07:49:12.092-04:002015-10-31T07:49:12.092-04:00It's like the 60s movie Wild In The Streets, s...It's like the 60s movie Wild In The Streets, starring a guy named Christopher Jones who only made one or two movies. In that movie, with Jones as President or whatever, anyone over 35 was to be eliminated for the good of the welfare state. They would kill off the old people and have plenty of money for the young. By the end of the movie there was a movement to get rid of anyone over 14 because over age 14 the people were all government parasites. Same basis as the Liberals. They make sure their families are taken care of, old and young, and place their elderly in place with 24 hour care after raiding their assets, but everyone else must do what they say and when because everyone else is less important.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09518677967627217789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-32005182409663072142015-10-31T00:10:55.948-04:002015-10-31T00:10:55.948-04:00Renowned economist Laurence Kotlikoff recently tes...Renowned economist Laurence Kotlikoff recently testified at the U.S. Senate about the runaway U.S. budget. How bad is it? Kotlikoff says, “I told them the real (2014) deficit was $5 trillion, not the $500 billion or $300 billion or whatever it was announced to be this year. Almost all the liabilities of the government are being kept off the books by bogus accounting. . . . The government is 58% underfinanced . . . . Social Security is 33% underfinanced . . . . So, the entire government enterprise is in worse fiscal shape than Social Security is, but they are both in terrible shape.” So, how much is America on the hook for in the future? Kotlikoff contends, “If you take all the expenditures that the government is expected to make, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), all the spending on defense, repairing the roads, paying for the Supreme Court Justices’ salaries, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, everything and take all those expenditures into the future . . . and compare that to all the taxes that are projected to come in, and the difference is $210 trillion. That’s the fiscal gap. That’s our true debt.”<br /><br />Professor Kotlikoff goes on to say, “It will collapse. It is just a matter of when. I can’t say when, but all I can say it’s going to be too late. . . . <br /><br /><br />http://usawatchdog.com/financial-system-will-collapse-just-a-matter-of-when-laurence-kotlikoff/<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-80814986605691361302015-10-30T16:45:14.549-04:002015-10-30T16:45:14.549-04:00Can I get an AMEN.......Can I get an AMEN.......Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com