Social Security – Who needs it?

Except maybe these people.

As a good, God-fearing republican/conservative,… I think I’ll scream “Free Stuff!!!”, … and maybe “Constitution!!!” a thousand or so times, —– and try to get rid of it. Or at least pare it down some.

Because, as we all know, it severely restricts my freedom.

Source: CBPP

 

Ranking America

Interesting Site – RankingAmerica  Some funny, some sad, some surprising

A few choice bits.  The US ranks …

14th in government debt

36th in public debt

34th in child poverty (in the bad way)

2nd in extinct birds

39th in income inequality (in the bad way)

17th in credit worthiness

47th in infant survival

2nd in out of pocket health expenses

1st in oil consumption

148th in gasoline prices

30th in per capita hospital beds

and one of the saddest statistics, #1 incarceration rate

 

50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

From Business Insider

Here are some of the more choice ones in my opinion:

• A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.
• According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
• If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000
• One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt
• The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined

How are tax breaks for the wealthy, the Keystone XL pipeline, gutting environmental regulations, etc, going to help with all this?!? You can believe if you feed a pony a penny it will shit a dime, but that don’t make it so.

 

 

Dick(s) of the Week

The Toph man asked me if I could do (what is likely to be the 1st of a few, there seems to be an abundance of ), Dick(s) of the Week today. It seems he’s gotten himself involved with this thing called a job,— which periodically takes up quite a bit of his free time, apparently. Sounds like a nasty business to me, I’m glad I’m not involved.

Luckily, I didn’t have to look much further than this article that comes from  Richard RJ Eskow’s blog. It actually provides several D of the W’s all in one fell swoop.

The Greatest Hoax in the History of Money: The Fed, The Banks, The Lies

Just a couple of examples……..

>It took the journalists at Bloomberg News two years – and presumably lots of legal fees – to pry information out of the Federal Reserve that should have been made public long ago. We now know that the Fed’s secret $7.7 trillion lending program wasn’t just the most massive bank bailout ever seen, and it wasn’t just free money for mega-bankers – though it was certainly both of those things. It was also the greatest hoax in stock market history.<

Robert Rubin made an estimated $155 million during his tenure at Citigroup.

One in four mortgages in this country is still underwater.

Brian Moynihan at Bank of America got promoted, then made that ‘homework’ wisecrack.

Twenty-four million Americans are un- or under-employed, including record numbers of young people and African-Americans.

The CEO of Goldman Sachs , Lloyd Blankfein, still has his job.

Poverty has soared to record levels since the financial crisis.

Erin Burnett, who made fun of a young demonstrator for not being aware of the misinformation she had repeated, still has an evening news program on CNN. She is engaged to be married to a Citigroup executive.

College graduates’ unemployment rate rose last month, while the total amount of student loan debt in the United States is now greater than the total amount of credit card debt.

Jamie Dimon made a second career out of complaining that bankers are being unfairly criticized, even as Chase became the largest bank in the United States – and the world.

Jefferson County, Alabama, where Chase was forced to settle charges of bribing local officials, recently declared bankruptcy.

 

Spent

There’s the fantastic online game Spent. Created by the Urban Ministries of Durham, Spent walks you through a month as a low-wage worker, offering you dilemma after dilemma, detailing the realities behind them and not letting you pretend that there are perfect choices. In Spent, you have a kid, and even if you can pretend you could go to work sick, refuse any pleasure, eat ramen noodles—could you say no to sports or a gifted and talented class for your child? Spent makes clear that your answer to each question might have a backlash just a little down the road. And it uses Facebook to integrate the moments when, in real life, you might need to ask a friend for help. Still, when Spent asks you to go grocery shopping, it can be a lot easier to tell yourself that sure, you could live on ramen noodles and beans than it would be to actually live on those things day in and day out.