There are a disappointingly low amount of those people with half a brain, though. And we see what happens when people without half a brain mess up in large amounts. They take down everyone else in the world



1 is a real bummer, but we can learn from the mistake. Don't invest in your own company if you can help it. Don't rely on one source of income. Invest in the market/other things in an IRA in addition to whatever you do through your employer. Losing a ton of money blows, but you won't lose everything. Especially if you were forced/force yourself to save for retirement your whole career.

2, something else would have to be done.

I'm also not sure how you can restructure Social Security so that more money comes in then is going out, without just raising the amount of time required before you are eligible to receive it, which is quite undesirable for most I'd guess. Something I've never really understood.

I see the salaries in the Legislative Branch went up rather significantly, yet there are so many other areas that had a decline from the previous year that most definitely needed a boost, like sectors under Education. No surprise there.

I've never seen that before. Will have to save that to pass along

I hate to say this, but I only know the internet definition of that so I don't know what Estarra said...

I so saw something like that coming, but I didn't know it existed.

Its ok because the office of governmental ethics got more funding these year. I'm sure they'll be on top of it.

Today there were teaparties in america to protest the massive government spending of this and the previous administration.

Acrune your sig reminds me of something Kim Jong-il would say. Only replace Taint with US.

Don't look at me, it was Raziela.

I saw it posted on another thread earlier today, and it's already become my favorite website ever.

There's currently a right wing movement to lower taxes and they are calling it the teabag movement (i.e., from the Boston Tea Party). This has led to no end of jokes from ultra liberal media types. Most notably, Rachel Maddow has just a little too much fun (watch it to the end, it just gets more ridiculous).

The poor right wing!! Just after the "teabag" brouhaha, the conservative National Organization for Marriage decided to use the acronym 2M4M for their new campaign. Oh, Rachel!

I don't know what I'd cut, but I'd certainly try to repair the mess that is the healthcare system. I'd know, cause I'm part of it.

Caution: the following reply from me might generate some controversy. So please, do not take personal offense at what I am going to say.

If you have to ask me what I'd cut in today's government spending if I was in charge, I'd say without a doubt that I'd cut military spending.

Why is that? Well, back in my college days (which were 2001-2005), I watched an educational documentary from the Media Education Foundation called Constructing Public Opinion. The documentary was about how mainstream media and politicians try to skew actual public opinion to suit their ends (which often deviate very much from said actual public opinion). And in that video I learned something kind of startling.

As of 2002 (when the documentary in question was made, I think), the US had seven officially declared enemies. These enemies, taken all together, at the time had a combined military budget of approximately $60 billion. The video argues that a reasonable fiscal response would then be a military budget of $120 billion, twice that of all the officially declared enemies.

At the time of the making of the video, the military budget was around 18 times that of all the declared enemies combined. And between the time of that documentary and the present, military spending has increased. What does that tell you?

There was also a short Ben & Jerry's sponsored Flash cartoon on the subject narrated by Ben Cohen that said basically the same thing. If I find it later I'll post it here.

Note: in no way am I saying that soldiers' pay and benefits should be cut here. Soldiers deserve to be compensated, especially in medical areas including mental health. What I am saying is that there seems to be a lot of unnecessary military spending that seems to be feeding a beast that is overnourished as is. I'm not claiming to be an expert on military spending here, but I think one can argue in light of this evidence that it's excessive.

That 1) the world picks too many fights, 2) the Western world has come to rely on American military might, 3) getting tangled up in stupid fights is a huge blow to public trust, and 4) the only way to get away with stupid fights is to basically ensure that enemy combatants die at a ratio of like 75:1, which takes some pretty expensive toys.

Never thought I'd see Xavius argue FOR social security.

At least the old "America is the Top Dog" is still there. :>

It's how it works if your 401(k) is a targetted (by date) retirement mutual fund.

Or you could do it yourself by buying mutual funds that are stock heavy at first, then start buying mutual funds that are bond heavy as you get older. Really depends on what your company offers. Some plans have more options then others. Thats why IRAs are useful. Lots of options.

My character might be well categorized as right-wing, but the person behind that character is most definitely not.

A basic safety net for all taxpayers is an essential government function. There comes a point when a benefit becomes an excessive handout, but unless you were wealthy for most of your life, Social Security does not allow you much more than a survivable poverty.

Ideally, Government only serves two functions. Protection and Infrustructure. So I would expect the government to spend most of it's money on the Military, police, roads/rail and health services. Everything else can be paid for by private desire.
The reletive percentages doesn't matter, and in this case, the "teabagging" crowd is upset about very different issues.

Wait, whose "ideal" is this? Doesn't sound like any I'm familiar with. The market sucks at a bunch of things.