Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

I mean, there is a multitude of reasons why people don't like Trump, but LMAO at people genuinely questioning his cred when it comes to creating wealth.

[CGVT]

Starting with his "small loan of a million dollars"?

[Wild Hoss]

I mean, there is a multitude of reasons why people don't like Trump, but LMAO at people genuinely questioning his cred when it comes to creating wealth.

He has cred at increasing wealth. That's a whole different ball of wax from creating it.

[The Oracle]

He has cred at increasing wealth. That's a whole different ball of wax from creating it.

Right.

And I probably dislike Trump less than most.

[Hannibal]

Trump just praised Urban Meyer and OSU. FUCK TRUMP. HILLARY 2016

[iam416]

When you pull a 3* from Pioneer, the world takes notice!

[hack]

LOL!

Seriously, Trump is a very odd case. That art of the deal/builder mentality is long gone. He's not chasing the big-ego windfall profits anymore. He'd rather take little percentages to lend his name to something these days. His business model is to build his brand on TV and milk it with naming rights. I'm not sure what that says or how precisely how its relevant, but possibly if he's too lazy to do what he claims he's great at then I seriously doubt he actually wants to take on one of the world's most demanding jobs for four years. Either way, he's not going to be president. If he wins the primary millions of moderate Republicans will vote for Hillary, and millions Democrats will vote who might otherwise be too lazy or uninspired to do so. So just get him off the stage before he turns back the clock even more with the zenophobia.

[Da Geezer]

I agree with Mike about raising the SS age by five years. I'd do it immediately in one shot. That one change would make more difference than all the other proposals to save money combined.

I'd do it all at once, because I doubt if any politician would be able to screw up enough guts to do it piecemeal. Some of you guys fought in Vietnam, and my recollection is that if your number came up, you were on your way to SE Asia. We have a pretty good social safety net now, and SS retirement benefits are seldom the only income a retiree has. It is high time for we old farts to quit hogging the money.

[Hannibal]

The sad thing is that if you did that, it probably still wouldn't make it solvent. It's a complete disaster.

[Mike]

The cap needs to be raised as well. It seems like a natural compromise.... Oh now I see why it won't happen.

[Ghengis Jon]

A big part of the issue was Congress always borrowing from the SS Trust fund at discounted rates. Had it been left alone in an index fund, it'd be a lot more solvent. This is no reason to privatize SS, but it shows what happens when you elect children to Congress and tell them to borrow from a piggy bank whenever they want.

[hack]

Abolish the House, or abolish the Senate. One of the two. Things would only be different in that there would be less snouts buried in the trough.

[Ghengis Jon]

... SS retirement benefits are seldom the only income a retiree has...

I don't know about that. I have to dig for the source, but I thought I read that (in 2000) slightly less than half over 70 had anything beyond SS.

When SS first came out, it was designed to be supplemental. My how it's morphed.

[Hannibal]

When SS first came out, it was designed to be supplemental. My how it's morphed.

When it came out the ratio of retirees to workers was also much lower and life expectancy was shorter. It's just a fucking terrible program but it's pretty much untouchable now.

[Mike]

Yep. The retirement age (to receive SS) was higher than the life expectancy at the time. I think it was like 65 for SS and life expectancy was 63 or somewhere thereabouts.