A private pension holding government bonds is not holding “pretend” assets. If I loan you $100 and you give me a valid promise to repay me, that promise is a real asset to me (albeit not one necessarily valued at $100 - could be more or less depending on interest and your creditworthiness). If you spend $100 cash from…

Oh and some private pensions may be underfunded, but even the underfunded ones hold actual assets. They aren’t simply being run as pay as you go schemes with pretend assets.

It is pay as you go in now. At least in any rational view of the system. An IOU from the government to the government is an accounting gimick. The government holding it’s own IOU is meaningless - so it is very much unlike private citizens (and China) holding government bonds. Those are assets with value - the real…

Private pensions are generally in much better shape than the public pensions. The government actually enforces the rules when it comes to private companies. They largely have ignored the rules when it comes to their own pensions. Not to mention, pensions are much less relied upon in the private sector.

God no. Please. God. No.

Stop confusing people with facts. It’s a “Trust Fund” - it most be good. ;)

Lol. Don’t bother understanding the issue, just get mad at the “enemy”. And make sure you don’t bother looking into the $1 Trillion unfunded liability the Feds have run up to all the Federal Employees who are owed pensions.

It is not in surplus anymore. It hasn’t been for several years. The excess benefits are already being funded out of other tax revenue and borrowing.

The Trust Fund isn’t an actual fund. It’s a bunch of IOU’s the Federal Government gave itself when it took all the excess SS taxes and spent it on other stuff.

When you see “Trust Funds” read it as “IOU’s the Federal Government gave itself to replace all the actual Social Security tax revenue it used on other stuff over the many decades.” There is no “Fund” in any normal sense of the word. The money to pay all the benefits which aren’t covered by current workers’ Social…

You should work for the City Tourism Board. :)

“Apparently the city also said the same thing about public urination, which I suppose makes sense” for those who love the pervasive smell of piss as they walk down the street.

If you have a front loading washer that has the habit of rocking or vibrating a lot on the spin cycles, I’d add one other upgrade - foam or rubber padding under the feet. You can use some dense foam you might have left over from something else, or buy a specifically designed set. http://www.amazon.com/Anti-walk-Sile…

What’s more telling is your unwillingness to even begin to address the factual points being made. Especially considering the AEI link mostly quotes from a Forbes article that deals with the issue in depth. I’m guess the only “unbiased” source would be an environmental group or someone posting on the Huffington Post. ;)

The “subsidies” that people talk about to oil companies aren’t subsidies. They are simple tax rules that deal with how all companies account for research and development. Oil companies get almost no direct money from the Federal Government. If you really care about analyzing the issue fairly, you could start with any…

Where is the evidence that global warming could “kill us all” in any reasonable time period? They are talking about best guess (and that is really all it is) of 1-2 degrees Celsius over the next century. That will most certainly not cause humanity to go extinct. If anything, it will support a larger population by…

Your completely scientific estimate based on?

Just a quick list of failed (or failing) green energy firms and the amount of money tax payers wasted on them:

“Survival of our species”? So if we don’t spend an extra 6 Billion dollars on politically connected (and likely failed) “green” energy research and projects, humans will go extinct?

No. You are supposed to see the forest — Through the trees, I think. :)