Dean over at Blue Hampshire is kvetching again. Over Social Security. Figures:
If we Gen Xers had a nickel for every Very Serious Older Person in the Village who clamors for Social Security "reform" that doesn’t affect those nearing retirement – but is mum on those Gen-Xers who have been paying into it for decades – we’d have enough nickels to fund our retirement outside of this allegedly secure and social system.
So fun to read (between the lines) over and over again how I’ll be in the first wave of those who gave more and are left with less!
Hey Dean – meet the "Mother of all Ponzi Schemes" – no, not Bernie Madoff, but your US Government. Started by the most wonderful Progressive of all (or second, your choice), FDR.
And no, you aren’t the only one – I figure that I will have paid into that scheme for FAR longer than you – but am doubting that it will be able to pay anything. Frankly, the time of "retirement for the common folk" based simply on government dependency is probably over. Simply, a casualty of demographics – not enough rich people to tax, and certainly not enough workers of any strip to tax. The system works with "large family culture: (you know, the kind that the Progressive environmentalists hate – 4,5,…15 kids) that continually add to the base of the Ponzi pyramid to pay the previous generation. But our current culture looks down upon that type of thing.
Add to that, the massive stealing by the Political Class of the money that was in that "Trust Fund" – yeah, that’s working out real well now, isn’t it? And you have only you, and your philosophical brethren that never met a government expenditure on social issues you didn’t like, to blame. Suck that money out, replace it with…
Economics in One Lesson, Power and Market, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—but most of them for the past 20 years or so. But life has a way of filling up every nook and cranny, so you don’t have much time to read. I don’t like that. So I figure one of my New Year’s Resolutions (oh come on, they’re fun, not serious…even if they are carried through on) will be to read more. Dont’ know where I’m going to find the time. But I’ll do it. 
The December New Hampshire labor report, period ending October 2010, is not all that remarkable. Coos County is still suffering while overall the state is hanging in at 5.4%. This number is still reflective of issues with the size of the labor force versus mid 2009 numbers. We have to watch that as we head through the November and December reports into January, where holiday hiring will add to the labor force, and then most likley drop off.