“The dilemma of advanced democracies, including the United States, is that they’ve made more promises than they can keep,” Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson wrote about the labor protests in France. “Their political commitments outstrip the economy’s capacity to deliver.” And the political dilemma, he notes, is that “to disavow past promises incites public furor; not to disavow them worsens the country’s future problems.”
Hence, Congress still hasn’t reformed Social Security.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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21 Comments
Very interesting piece. The problems of an aged work force retiring, and a young work force having to support them, as well as being saddled with an outrageous national debt, is going to cause social security problems regardless of what pundits think. If not us, than our children. How to handle that is a good question.
A very clear example of Leftist Socialism. Yet many people in the USA are very content in living a life as those in France.
Who cares about 30%+ unemployment rate, so long as I have a job. That is socialism in France. Another stat you might want to know. If France was a US State, its economy would rank as the 4th lowest. This is compared to American States, not country. That should tell you something.
I heard a great economist make a great comment on television yesterday. To get a low unemployment rate and a high standard of living, you have to trade that for job security. You have to be willing to move on, change careers, and being laid off and downsized in order to have the luxury of low unemployment and a good salary. Socialism and gaurenteed job for life will result in the opposit.
When someone makes a promise that they cant keep, Southeast Texans call that having your mouth write a check that your ass cant cash.
In Louisiana, they call it “letting your alligator mouth overload your tadpole brain”.
With bushco, we call it good government and the second coming of “morning in america”.
I think that should be MOURNING in america.
In kansas, we simply call it the legislature.
School finance anyone?
I think what we should be mourning is the death of the brains of voters who are DESPERATELY seeking someone to tell what to think, what to do, and how to live.
It is one thing for candidates and elected officials alike to lie, make false statements about the future, provide “disinformation” and generally pander to the lowest common denominator among us.
Oh, and did I mention fear mongering? Government by who can conjure up the biggest boogey man? The biggest STRAW boogey man?
But what THEY do isnt the saddest part. It is the stupidity of voters who send them back, year after year and time after time, after they lied, rang the cash register for themselves and their cronies, and generally made fools of the voters for years.
You know who you are.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and you can get elected to office.
Shame on us!
“Leftist Socialism” - like the massive Bush deficits that Joe Williams never complains about.
Ben Huie,
Ha ha! Indeed. It ain’t the little guys larding the system–it’s the big guys.
Want to know how to shut JoeW up?
Here’s how–
Joe, you got a link for “France would be the fourth lowest state in the Union” stat?
This should be good . . .
Brownlee parrots the line that SS needs “reforming.”
Hmmm . . . how much are we spending on the long-discredited “missile defense” (read taxpayer funded transfer of funds to large corporations that support BushCo.)?
How much are we spending on an elective war in Iraq?
How much revenue are we losing because of tax cuts to Paris Hilton?
How much income has been given away to big oil by not requiring them to pay royalties for pumping on PUBLIC (i.e., your and my) lands?
Oh, no . . . it’s Social Security that’s the problem. Just listen to our great President. He’ll tell you what.
PL, you are forgetting something about Phillip…
IOKIYAAR
Ben
I’ll complain about the massive deficit. I believe that is the second largest problem next to terrorism that we face.
Bush and the Republican Congress have been a miserable failure of being financial stewards of the treasury. It’s a shame! The Republican Party has basically lost me as a supporter. The RNC called me yesterday trying to raise funds for the 06′ congressional race. They wanted me to donate $150.
I told them exactly how I felt about the deficit, told them I’m no longer a Republican or a supporter, and to take me off their list.
For Proubneoliberal:http://www.demographia.com/db-gdp-gsp1998.htm
http://www.timbro.com/euvsusa/
Joe:”The RNC called me yesterday trying to raise funds for the 06′ congressional race. They wanted me to donate $150.”
Joe, you should have told them you were doing your part when you gas up at $2.50 a gallon. There’s hope you for yet.
“…hope for you yet.”
Joe - check out this Naval study that assessed the scientific progress of China. They don’t appear to be doing too badly for a “Lefist/Socialist” government. But you might want to attack the source; Steven Aftergood is with the American Federation of Scientists (a group that was started by a avowed communist many years ago).
THE STRUCTURE OF CHINESE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The People’s Republic of China is making significant strides inscience and technology areas related to national security andcommercial enterprise, according to a new “bibliometric” study ofChinese scientific publications performed by the U.S. Navy’s Officeof Naval Research.
“China’s output of research articles has expanded dramatically in thelast decade. In terms of sheer numbers of research articles,especially in critical technologies (e.g., nanotechnology, energeticmaterials), it is among the leaders,” according to the study.
“In terms of investment strategy relative to that of the USA, China isinvesting more heavily in the hard science areas that underpin moderndefense and commercial activities, whereas the USA is investing moreheavily in the medical, psychological, and social problem (e.g., druguse) science areas that underpin improvement of individual health andcomfort,” the authors said.
The 500 page study proceeds from a series of straightforwardobservations and analyses to several increasingly densemethodological appendices that are unintelligible to non-specialists.
A copy of the study was obtained by Secrecy News.
See “The Structure and Infrastructure of Chinese Science andTechnology” by Ronald N. Kostoff, Office of Naval Research, et al,2006 (3.9 MB PDF file):
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/china/docs/science.pdf
Hey Editors,Can we have a thread on the latest Bush excuse: “Sectarian violence is Saddam’s fault, not mine”?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/30/BL2006033000886.html
Okay, thanks for the links, JOE!
These are absolutely hilarious!
Here’s a snip:
“If the European Union were a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states. France, Italy, Great Britain and Germany have lower GDP per capita than all but four of the states in the United States. In fact, GDP per capita is lower in the vast majority of the EU-countries (EU 15) than in most of the individual American states. This puts Europeans at a level of prosperity on par with states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. Only the miniscule country of Luxembourg has higher per capita GDP than the average state in the USA. The results of the new study represent a grave critique of European economic policy.”
Odd, I went to England two years ago and Germany and Switzerland last summer. I’ve been to Paris twice. And Northern Italy. And I lived in Japan for two years.
I would say that virtually everyone I met was better off than the average Joe Bob in Arkansas.
The idea that these countries have a lower standard of living than Arkansas is just insane.
What they DON’T have is the filthy, stinking RICH (that should get the conservatives’ panties in a pinch) who pull up the averages.
If you’re sitting in a Wichita movie theater with 150 people in attendance, the average salary might be, say, 45,000 dollars. Now in walks Bill Gates. The average salary just went up to 3 million dollars.
You however aren’t any better off than you were before.
The United States is a much better place to live if YOU’RE FILTHY STINKING RICH than any European country, there’s no doubt about that.
But as for the middle class, they are much better off in Europe.
(Japan is another kettle of fish entirely, because of their ridiculously restrictive trade, their absurdly under-valued Yen and their capitulation to farmers not to develop land.)
I think I’ll send this to a college teacher friend of mine who can use it as an example of how to lie with statistics.
Just remember PL: It your head is in the oven and your butt in the freezer, ON AVERAGE you are comfortable.
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/7000/20060327/2125000001.htm
Fiscal responsibility - GOP style!
Political promises are also outstripping racial realities.
Viva la Raza Blanco!!
Wow. I thought ProudLib was cosmopolitan when I knew only that he lived in China. But Japan, and for two years! And Paris — not once, but twice! Why do any of us even try to keep up? ProudLib will always trump us with his worldy experiences.
Nah . . . I just like to travel and I’m in a job where I have a lot of opportunities to do that.
I’m nothing special, nor am I trying to be.
If you saw the rooms that I stay in when I go to Europe, you would know I’m not bragging, bunk beds over a bar with a bathroom down the hall . . . way, way down the hall, heh.
BTW, when you live in the Far East, Europe and Hong Kong and Taiwan are just “stop overs.”
You end up travelling whether you want to or not.