Consider an elderly widow, say 70 years old, with a modest retirement income of $18,000 living in a $300,000 house that’s fully paid for. She might receive local property tax forgiveness, medical and prescription drug subsidies and other federal, state and local subsidies based upon her age and income.
When subsidies are provided for this lady, whom are we truly benefiting? It’s not the lady but her heirs. Conceivably, the lady could make a deal with a financial institution to pay her property taxes, allow her to live in the house for the rest of her life and give her a lump sum cash settlement so that she can live without the handouts. Upon her death, the house becomes the property of the financial institution, not her heirs. Giving the widow handouts allows her to bequeath to her heirs her assets, a $300,000 house. If her children want to inherit the house, they, rather than taxpayers, ought to take care of their mother.
We can start getting the federal spending under control by ending subsidies to people with high net worth that can be ready turned into cash such as a home or business. While seniors might say that they support reduced government spending, they, like other handout recipients, believe they have a right, through government, to live at the expense of others. What’s more, they have considerable clout — they vote in large numbers. Only 50 percent of young people vote, but up to 70 percent of seniors vote.
Political guts have always been in short supply and politicians fear senior retaliation at the polls. Moreover, it’s a practical matter for seniors and politicians. The true economic calamity won’t hit the country until 2030 or 2040. By that time, both today’s politicians and seniors will be dead so why should they make sacrifices now to prevent an economic calamity decades off into the future? Seniors might protest my cynicism but they can easily prove me wrong by waging an effective campaign to end handouts based on superannuation.
This picture of Obama makes him look like "il duce", which is his normal pose. Those of you who do not know what that means are not qualified to enter into this discussion because you do not know your history. Mussolini was a dictator during WWII who had a similar pose, one of arrogance and authority.
Back to the article. I think either way the state will get their pound of flesh. They can get it either by taxing grandma or in the end through a death tax. I am no financial expert but it may be a wash.
Or is it "il douce"?
I think the proper term is Il Douchebag
I stand corrected.
so what you are saying is that people who dont know all about all of history and all about politics should not be allowed to discuss anything to do with it ….. you sound exactly like the kind of guy that the govt needs to run its propaganda program …only us smart people are allowed to speak our minds … you stupid people are only here to serve us smart people ..so shut up and know your place , you dummies … oh , and i see that you have commented on financial matters without being an expert …. well .. now isnt that against your own rule …why dont you take your twofaced B S and go sit on your thumb…you arrogant piece of crap
Well, it WAS a large number of ignoramuses that voted in this douchebag and his demonrat minions…I really believe we need to go back to qualifying voters: Foodstamps? welfare? no job? Government employee? (except military) NO VOTE! Can't explain in simple terms at least 5 of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights? NO VOTE! BTW wouldn't it be a SHAME if our Il Duce met the same fate as the Italian version. I CERTAINLY WOULDN'T want to see THAT!
He was setting a minimum knowledge requirement, basically saying if you don't even know who il duce was, go watch ET or American idol.
People know the truth about OBAMA but dare not come out and say it.
Besides being the apple of the eye to the left, leftist academia and Gestapowitz George
Soros (by his own confession), other that saying HERE !, was OBAMA's such special congressional record to have earned him the Presidency ??
I dare bet, would the Republicans have chosen ROMMNEY, HUCKABEE instead of MC CAIN, we would have watched any of them sweeping the floor with OBAMA in any of the televised debates Mc Cains so painfully botched…
But as a Democrat lady told me before the election when I asked her about, she told me she would vote for OAMA because he was her party's choice.
I asked her then whether if her party would choose a donkey for President, wold she vote for him as well ??
And her answer was : YES !!!
I rested my case
What is proposed is just what will happen under the present regime if they had their way. That is, regardless that you old folks sacrificed your entire life to get what you have today, and regardless that the meager discretionary income you secured through those various sacrifices (like working for a living), the Government will not subsidize your medical or perscription needs if you have property. In essence that property could be redisitributed. The monies witheld from you (old person) could support someone that hasn't worked like you did
On a related point, in the past generations were closer together, and tended to take care of each other. The absent children who want little to do with their aging parents is a post WWII phenomenon. We could save a lot of money in many respects by turning people back toward a family orientation.
The title "Destroying Us From Within" is clearly illustrated in another area of American life — the Rifqa Bary case. Who would have thought forty or fifty years ago that America would begin to look more like the Land of the Islamo-Fascist and the Home of the Dhimmi. And here's the irony: many of the destroyers are not Muslims but non-Muslim, bleeding-heart, pro-Islamic dhimmi liberals. America!…grab your head and give it a good shake; you're going to hell in a hand basket.
Stop the WAR'S bring home the "kid's". Give them the jobs illegals have. Stop all the wastefull spending obama and the congress are engaged in. Leave the "elderly" alone and controll the congress and the FED.!!
How are you going to get aq and the mad mullahs to stop killing us? The war's not over until they say it is.
He does look like "Il Duce". Just add a little wieght to him and put a "Il Duce" beretta on his head and there it is.
He is a fascist in the same frame.
Weight is spelled W.E.I.G.H.T.
Felix Palma, dear, may I explained to you that the men and women you call "kids" are highly trained professionals? Soldiering is their chosen profession and keeping our country (and you for that matter) safe from our enemies (believe me, they are out there, even if you are too shortsighted to see them) is the missionfor which they voluntarily put their lives on the line. And you would have these brave professionals (I am repeating this word deliberately) deployed in lettuce picking and taking out the trash jobs?
I usually agree with Walter Williams but not today. The government did not build
my small home, it did not give it to me, tax payers did not subsidize it, I paid the
property tax. Now where Williams goes wrong is that property tax should be paid
by the inhabitant no matter what. Thank you Walter, who says that property you
own should be taxed forever, it means you never really own it, it is owned by
government, confiscated because you wind down in years and strength. Williams
would create a new feed pool out of the aging in our society. Is it not enough we
mostly can not leave what we worked for to our posterity, why should government
crooks get it. Taxation is killing America so Walter please do not stab us with your
pen and misinformation about property tax, it is not Federal it is on a State by State
basis and mostly unfair. You want to sack the elderly you become a hack
for the government, why don't you just suggest they be euthanised. God is the
supplier of my needs and has not failed me, He is God of the good times and still
God in the bad times, not the government nor plunderers of the elderly………William
Make passing a drug test MANDATORY (on a random basis with each person being tested a minimum of 3 times per year) to recieve ANY type of government assistance. That includes unemployment checks, food stamps, medicaid, medicare, student loans, child care credits or ANYTHING funded by the working taxpayer. That would cut enough out of what we are spending that we could actually help those that deserve it help.
IF EVER THERE WAS A POSTER "CHILD" FOR RETROACTIVE ABORTION THIS MAN DESERVES THE POSITION!
Sorry, but I disagree with Mr. Williams on this particular subject. After having paid taxes for a lifetime, it seems to me that a senior citizen of modest means living on Social Security and a small retirement should have earned the privilege of being able to live tax-free in their own home until death and be able to pass on their property to their heirs. The heirs will be paying taxes on the property anyway as part of the inheritance taxes.
Making "a deal" with some financial institution so as to be able to live in one's own property until death in exchange for a lump sum is not a satisfactory solution as "deals" can and are often broken. I have seen too many seniors driven out of their homes by developers who couldn't wait to get their land despite having made "a deal" that would allow them to live in their property until death. Moreover, we have reached a point where property taxes are truly excessive and burdensome. It's time for government at all levels to cut expenditures, starting with our spendrift school boards.
The solution is to privatize Social Security and Medicare immediately and set up a real SS "lockbox" funded from the general tax revenues for those like myself who are too close to retirement age and therefore would not be able to contribute to a privatized account. Privatized social security is working very well in countries like Chile. Our legislators should look there for a model that could be applied here.
The difference between the older people on retirement and the young is that the older did not have opportunity taken away from them. The young people have had their opportunities ripped away from them by the H1b programs which discriminate against Americans in favor of foreign workers. The younger have had their opportunity out sourced to foreign countries where child labor, which is illegal in our country, makes the things we buy. The illegally made products should be embargoed from the US however the WTO can over rule our laws.
The very poorest of our young citizens are feeling the full brunt of NAFTA and CAFTA .
These treaties have impoverished the Mexican which has driven them north to work.
Being illegal workers they are made to work for much lower wages than is legal for Americans. Southern Blacks can show up for work as usual and find they have all been fired and replaced by illegal workers.
On top of that, the theory of Faith Based Economics has not only created massive real estate fraud which has created a massive recession. The young are thrown out on the street,unemployed and homeless because of this big time financial fraud.
On top of all this misfortune the very people who knew they were pumping worthless securities to the world have rested easy. They have been bailed out.
On top of all the misery the young are told they are a worthless bunch who just want entitlements and should have the spunk of their parents who lived during bad times.
Not really, those people born after the 1960s had parents who benefited from the prosperity of 1950s, 1960s and even the lesser prosperity of the .1970s 1980s and 1990s.
What their 'so called' Spunky Parents did not have was the deliberate destruction of their opportunities.
The Great Recession which we are now in did not just happen out of the blue. It was the result of a congress and administration being ruled by the lobbyists , especially those of big business. The young and unemployed are the victims of what should be identified as "Criminal Corruption of the Democratic Process".
If you refuse to hire Americans then they will not have the money to buy your products.
If you loan them the money,since they do not have jobs, they can't pay you back.
SS funds should be invested in indexed funds the way indexed annuities work – some of the upside year to year locked in year to year with zero downside exposure as an option. That takes risk off the table and pumps billions into the economy, creates jobs, reduces the sucking of SS funds from the economy etc. Cures things. Williams is wrong again. He pays zero attention to the fact boomers pumped billions of more valuable dollars into to it and got lousy returns for decade after decade. What was that worth? The much higher return would raise the net for the SS recipients and there is no risk to this whatsoever.
We are avenging ourselves on US corporations. We are not buying their products.
Boy, are they pissed! They would fire us for it, but they already did.
Love it!
If you refuse to hire Americans then they will not have the money to buy your products.
If you loan them the money,since they do not have jobs, they can't pay you back.