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Originally Posted by Ustwo
We are in uncharted territory here, even historically. I don't' think any current democracies can call themselves 'long term' yet. I think its going to be one possible natural evolution after the failure of the socialist democracies, the US included in that. The other possibilities, not so favorable.
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What are you talking about? The US is so far from being a "socialist democracry".....
"Republican Eisenhower was president when the top rate was <a href="http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php">91 percent</a> (on annual income above $400,000), when new college graduates often worked for less than $4000 per year....and the <a href="http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/f04.html">Gini coefficient was 35.1</a>....it's 44 now."
.....the elite have spent their capital building a US "system" that raised the tax on 100 percent of most workers wages, in a Reagan era, 1983 SSI "reform":
<h3>View How Much The SSI Surplus Grew During Bush's Terms...and it's GONE....SPENT TO DISGUISE THE SIZE OF BUSH'S ACTUAL DEFICITS:</h3>
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4a1.html
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http://www.slate.com/id/2093707/
The Unlocked BoxHow Bush is plundering Social Security to close the deficit.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Friday, Jan. 9, 2004, at 1:51 PM ET
......In fact, if we adopt the president's policies—which include a host of new tax cuts and massive new spending programs—the deficit won't fall 50 percent in the next five years. It will grow substantially. <h3>And if President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress weren't already quietly using every penny of the massive and growing Social Security surplus to cover operating expenses—and planning to continue this habit—the deficits would be even larger.</h3>
Back in 1983, as part of a deal to save Social Security from impending demographic doom, Congress enacted <h3>legislation</h3> to essentially increase payroll taxes and reduce benefits. As a result, the government began to collect more Social Security payroll taxes than it paid out to beneficiaries each year. The theory was that the government would use these surpluses to pay down the national debt. That way, when baby boomers retire—and comparatively more people are collecting benefits while comparatively fewer people are working—the government would be in a better position to borrow the necessary funds to provide the promised benefits.
So much for theory. The reality? For the first 15 years, every penny of the surplus was spent, first by Republican presidents and then by a Democratic president. According to figures provided by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the surpluses were relatively insignificant for much of this period. Between 1983 and 2001 a total of $667 billion in excess Social Security payroll taxes was spent—about $35 billion per year. <h3>It was only in fiscal 1999 and 2000, when the government ran so-called on-budget surpluses, that excess Social Security funds were actually used to retire debt.
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Quote:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/TR07/VI_c...y.html#wp91489
.........All contributions are collected by the Internal Revenue Service and deposited in the General Fund of the Treasury. The contributions are immediately and automatically appropriated to the trust funds on an estimated basis. The exact amount of contributions received is not known initially because the OASDI and HI contributions and individual income taxes are not separately identified in collection reports received by the Internal Revenue Service. Periodic adjustments are subsequently made to the extent that the estimates are found to differ from the amounts of contributions actually payable as determined from reported earnings. Adjustments are also made to account for any refunds to employees (with more than one employer) who paid contributions on wages in excess of the contribution and benefit base...
.......Another source of income to the trust funds is interest received on investments held by the trust funds. That portion of each trust fund which is not required to meet the current cost of benefits and administration is invested, on a daily basis, primarily in interest-bearing obligations of the U.S. Government (including special public-debt obligations described below). Investments may also be made in obligations guaranteed as to both principal and interest by the United States, including certain Federally sponsored agency obligations that are designated in the laws authorizing their issuance as lawful investments for fiduciary and trust funds under the control and authority of the United States or any officer of the United States. These obligations may be acquired on original issue at the issue price or by purchase of outstanding obligations at their market price........
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....Ustwo....what kind of "socialist" PARADISE....has a Gini co-effienct of 44, and runs a "Ponzi" scheme which taxes 100 percent of the mahjority of workers pay (under $105K annual eanrings...)...at a rate much higher than what the social insurance near term requirments are......all deposited into the general fund....with the surplus intended to "pay down" the national treasury debt....in exchange for low interest yielding treasury bills....(under 6 percent), in an era when the Harvard endowment enjoys a 22 percent annual return....
The current president took office with no borrowing of surplus SSI collections necessary.....he promptly granted his wealthy patrons a huge tax relief, and for six years,,,,,all of the SSI surplus collected has been borrowed....with bonds issued to the SSI trust fund as compensation for the surplus spent, and for the $100 million annual interest owed to the trust fund on the $1850 billion outstanding debt.....
No socialist democracy here, to fail, UStwo.....instead, we live in a system coming closer every day in similarity to the one in pre-Hugo Chavez Venezuela.....and the solution is always a populist revolution.....
You don't recognize the excess....it's an effing crisis now......but you want to protect a broken system where the day is coming....especially with the emerging destruction of housing valuations.....where the elite ten percent will own 90 percent of total US wealth.....Would that figure be enough to effing convince you that something is "amiss"......THE DENIAL AND REFLEXIVE BRAIN DEAD POV's posted here are effing astounding...... The US is becoming an economic twin to a South or Central American debt slave country...ala Mexico, Brazil, or Venezuela....and nobody even views it as an effing problem....because we're tooooooooooo "socialist".
When you're working for tips and the wealthiest own all of everything, mayber you'll wake the eff up and wonder why you didn't use your sheer numbers of voting power to tax the wealth and the stranglehold against labor organizing, away from these elite maggots.......DON'T the Trend and the Numbers....44 Gini vs. 35 in the 1970's....vs. 24 in Japan and in Denmark.....and the rising US poverty rate....even cause you to have a Clue?????
We're headed for an economic status quo that looks like Manhattan. Huge numbers of low wage servants.....serving a super wealthy establishment. They suck up a low cost living of cheap cab rides, restaurant meals, domestic help, and a plethora of other inexpensive services.....fed by a wave of immigrant labor that makes no demands and is paid whatever employers feel like paying. The labor has no bargaining power, and cannot afford to live in proximity to their low paying jobs...... UStwo's "socialist" democracy !!!!!!!!!!