I Should Become a Democrat

[adios]

I was just thinking I should really become a Democrat and get with the program. Hell let's increase Social Security and Medicare benefits. Not singling out Taxman but I doubt if he pays very many taxes at this point in his life. What a rude awakening that will be when he starts making a living. His generation will be the one supporting the baby boomers at current entitlement levels. He will certainly be paying a lot more in taxes than what is currently being paid now to maintain these benefits for me. I'm a lot closer to receiving them than many of the liberal members on this forum methinks. Here's the ironic part, the aged baby boomers will outnumber them and will carry a considerable amount of voting power. Why do I oppose this? I really don't know the more I think about it.

[HDPM]

I think there is some chance that there will be a major problem between the generations. Younger people will have to be very effective politically to keep from being totally enslaved by boomers. This is why welfare is simply immoral at any level. A majority of baby boomkers can vote to consign other generations to the task of taking care of them. So the other generations will have to do something to retain what freedom we have. Ideally cuts will start now and old peoople will see there is only so much a rational person will tolerate. A possible outcome will be that younger generations will do their best to avoid taxes. Many might remain voluntarily underemployed or try to have a cash business on the side. Of course, the people who will be trapped the worst are those who work for wages and don't have the ability or desire to work on the side. They will need every cent of their income to live, don't make enough to get over the theft threshhold in the law, and every cent they make will be taxed. So the middle class will get hammered.

I don't think the problem will get so bad that there is a generation revolution or rioting and such, although our Founding Fathers would never have tolerated the socialist system we have now. They wouldn't put up with a small tea tax, let alone a huge tax that went to unearned prizes based on old age. Perhaps we can have some demonstrations where we burn AARP cards or dump Depends and Ensure in the Boston Harbor or something. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Seriously, we could be in for a very bad problem. I hope we can cut the programs enough to avoid major problems. But I doubt it.

[Taxman]

Why the sudden direct attack? I thought we had reached some sort of understanding with eachother, but you have been suprisingly combative with me recently. I thought you were above such a pointless attack on my age and relative lack of experience. Are you embarassed that you did not understand my posts and thought I was supporting communist Russia? Are you annoyed that I did a good job defending my stance on environmental issues? Have I always secretly bothered you for some reason?

I would like for you to tell me one time I advocated increasing social security or medicare benefits, because if I ever did I must have been drunk off my ass since I don't remember it. In fact if I remember correctly, my stance all along has had relatively little to do with tax increases and more to do with a restructuring of spending. Please correct me if I'm wrong here. As a matter of fact the baby boomer generation will deffinately pose problems in that respect (obviously) and I do not doubt things will have to be changed one way or another. I think you just struggle to believe that a babe such as myself might have any sort of grasp on the big picture. That tends to be a problem that you old folks seem to have.

You see, I readily admit that I don't know everything, but I also do know a little bit more than nothing. I like to explore various possibilities because ultimately that is a much better way to learn and to grow than stubbornly sticking to one political/socioeconomic paradigm. It seems to threaten others, especially those who are older and "wiser" (certainly wiser than some punk kid) that I like to push the envelope. I will happily accept all arguments against any point I make. I will happily play devil's advocate even when I agree with a particular post. I will happily do anything to broaden my horizons and poke the eye of those who refuse to do the same. I will not happily accept personal digs when I have done nothing to provoke them.

One thing that I am 100% certain of is that I will keep my open-mindedness even into my crotchety old age, because that is a fundamental part of who I am, it always has been. I don't mind paying taxes because taxes are a necessary part of running a government. Whether I pay large amounts of taxes now is irrelevant. As a matter of fact I intend to enter a high paying profession, which obviously will place me into a high tax bracket, yet the thought of paying more money to uncle sam doesn't bother me in the slightest. Hell, I would be happy in a socialist country, where all of my healthcare and my children's education is provided by the state at the cost of higher taxes for me. I would be most happy in a state that spends prudently, has relatively low taxes and spends that tax money in the right places, but that of course is wishful thinking.

If you want to engage in lively, thought provoking (I hope) and occasionally agressive discussion, I will always be here. If not, then I will not be offended if you ignore every post I make. I don't need to have things explained to me by the table coach.

I do not intend to start a fight here, but I feel like I'm being treated unfairly. I know you are not trying to call my character into question, but you certainly seem to be patronizing me in a most ungratifying manner. If you think that I am mistaken, go ahead and tell me why.

[adios]

You call this an attack?

I wrote:

[ QUOTE ]
Not singling out Taxman but I doubt if he pays very many taxes at this point in his life. What a rude awakening that will be when he starts making a living.

[/ QUOTE ]

I sure don't. Who's the one that's touchy? I didn't criticize you at all [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Your post is nonsense and you come across as being conceited IMO. HDPM got the point of my post but you didn't.

[sam h]

Do you think the Republicans have a good plan for dealing with Social Security and Medicare?

I don't really see this one as a partisan problem, more like a systemic government problem that nobody in Washington seems capable of dealing with.

[adios]

"Younger people will have to be very effective politically to keep from being totally enslaved by boomers. "

This one made me chuckle because it's so true. The boomers could be the special interest group to end all special interest groups [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

IMO you're observations are spot on. Excellent post.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think the Republicans have a good plan for dealing with Social Security and Medicare?

[/ QUOTE ]

No I don't to be honest. I like the noises that the Republicans make better than the noises the Democrats make and methinks that younger members of US society should too. At the end of the day the Republicans don't really have a plan to deal with it either.

[ QUOTE ]
I don't really see this one as a partisan problem, more like a systemic government problem that nobody in Washington seems capable of dealing with.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with you it will take a bi-partisan effort.

[Taxman]

Conceited? How so? You had been getting pugnacious with me in our environmental discussion and then you follow up with a post patronizing me by stating that at my age I supposedly can't understand how taxes work. In the midst of my response that you so breezily dismissed, I agreed that social security will be problematic. If that was the only point (and it was an obvious one) you wanted to make then it was the only thing you needed to say. Flippant remarks about my age have nothing to do with the issue at hand.

[ QUOTE ]
Not singling out Taxman but I doubt if he pays very many taxes at this point in his life. What a rude awakening that will be when he starts making a living.

[/ QUOTE ]

Aw shucks, thanks for pointing that out coach.

In my post, I also addressed the fact that you implied I had taken certain stances that I obviously had not. This is something you did not seem to even consider. You may not even realize how patronizing you have been acting. Very rarely have you told me that I made a good point, or simply argued your alternative view. Instead you have mostly decided to make comments about how vague I'm being (legitimate, though not always acurate) or idealistic I am (not legitimate) or some other bullshit (ditto, though also vague). When I seem to make a very strong point, you tend to not respond or else go on some tangental line or occasionally make an umbrella statement like "I don't agree with everything, but interesting points.". I respect you and I think you've made some good arguments in the past, but believe it or not, you are persistent in dismissing me as "just a kid." You may be less blatant than some about it, but the sentiment is there just the same. You treat me like I'm coming in and acting like I'm the man, but all I've done is made my points as I see them. You may think I'm speaking from some inflated sense of self worth, and that's your perogative, but all I want out of you is an acknowledgement that you will treat me with the respect that you would any other adult and that you will watch the dismissive language. I wouldn't even make the effort to say this with some other posters, but I thought you at least held yourself to a higher standard of civility.

[Taxman]

It has always been one of the greater areas of government ineptitude in my opinion. In some respects I deffinately see the appeal of eliminating social security all together or at least significantly curtailing it. But alas, there is no solution so simple as that.

[Taxman]

An agreement on the plight of the middle (as opposed to upper) class? I shudder to imagine all of the old fogies that I'll have to deal with every day when I'm in the Whitehouse. We should just ship them all to Canada [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].