wrote in message ...

On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:01:41 -0700, "Califbill"
wrote:

That's not clear that it's done. SS will turn around in the next few
years as employment and the economy improve.


Not with the Obama payroll tax cut. It can never recover from that,
even if we had 2006 employment levels.

Oh come on. That's so nonsensical to not past the sniff test.



OK prove it. Tell us the number of employees that rate would add, the
lesser amount you get with a 14% tax cut, then factor in the extra
boomers who have entered the SS benefit program since 2006 and get
back to me.
The projections SSA gave were based on people waiting until full
retirement age (66 right now) and I do not know ONE person who waited.
I am the only person I know who didn't take SS on their 62d birthday.
I waited until I was 64.
If you run the spread sheet, taking at 62 breaks even at age 78 or so
for most people. By waiting until 64, I pushed that out to 84 or so.
Of course that assumes you spend the money. I am investing it. That is
a win-win. I get a better return and if I really need it, I have it.


Reply:
The problem is the spending. We can double the amount of income tax
collected and we are still $100 billion short of a balanced budget. first
thing for Congress should do is kill base line budgeting. Who else in the
real world uses a guaranteed 13% increase each year as balanced? Then
when
they say they are cutting a program, they will actually cut the money going
to the program. Now they state they are cutting 5% and the program still
gets an 8% increase in money. The US is in really deep ****, and I do not
really know if we can recover without a really bad recession. 1928 bad.
Bob says we can just print more money. Only as long as we are the world's
"Reserve Currency". Was British Pound Sterling for a long time, until they
devalued the pound. World bank is already talking about using SDR's
(Special Drawing Rights) as the new "Reserve Currency". A conglomeration
of
weighted currencies. We have over consumed for years. Look at the trade
deficit for the last 40 years. The credit card is overdrawn and we can not
really declare bankruptcy. What we can do is quickly drop to 2nd or 3rd
world nation in purchasing power. Government is way to big, and consuming
way too much resources. We have about 2 times the amount of Federal
employees as we have manufacturing employees. Service Industry? Who will
be able to pay for the services? Obama is proposing a 4-5-6 Trillion debt
reduction over the next 10-12 years. At the most he will be in charge for
5
years. What is he proposing right now? Reductions? Nope, more excess
waste of money!

I heard a report the other day about the number of central banks that
are pulling back on their dollar investments and holding more gold.


Reply:
Chicago Commodity Exchange used to require T-bills for payment. Gold is now
also accepted. China is on a buying spree in the world. They are using
T-bills as quick as they can to buy commodity stuff. Repsol in South
America. China now owns. As well as other oil companies in S.A. What are
they using? T-bills or US dollars. They have reduced their holdings from
about 75% to about 60% of our debt. If they can get it to less than 50%
they may accept killing the dollar and most of America's power. Cheaper
than a shooting war.