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Re: Schakowsky tears into Cantor for saying Social Security ‘cannot exist’ in a futur
oh, I have an answer to the volatile market thing, take out the volatile part that has to do with greed.....
Nearly all market busts, serious busts, were caused by greed. Make betrayal of the public trust a crime punishable by very long prison terms, and forfeiture of all gained thru such betrayal. The law would apply to politicians as well as Wall Street.
Politicians get one term at a generous salary, but no "stock options", aka personal gain thru bribery.
Insider trading would be a minimum of 2 years for first offense under a certain dollar amount, and barred from ever handling other people's funds.
Major amounts of money, an extra 2 years for every million dollars involved.
Federal level Lobbyists have to register in ALL states since what they do affects all taxpayers. Lobbying fees should be a million dollars, per state, per year.
I would throw in a public whipping post for more serious offenders.
Economics and govt are current half year subjects in most high schools. Each should be a year, and required for graduation. Every student should have to write at least one subject related paper per semester, and present it orally to the class.
We can't say ignorance is no excuse if we purposely keep them ignorant....
Hmmmm...where have we heard this "take responsibility for yourself or pay a penalty" line from recently?
Oh, yeah...health care reform law and the individual mandate.
Sarcasm aside, I suppose there could be a shared responsibility between government and private citizens over social security, but any attempt to privatize same entirely would never work primarly due to the high risk associated with volitile markets. If the 2008 recession taught retirees anything it was not to put all their eggs in one basket. That said, 401K plans already come with a penalty for early withdrawl. I suppose if people were given the opportunity to invest up to half of their social security deduction maybe more people would take the risk. I'd say you'd have to have the safety net of a 401K plan or guaranteed pension plan to remove the fear people would have in allowing the stock market to absorb their investment dollars and see nothing in return due to their enormous risk taking. Maybe market investors should be made to invest with caution when using retirement funds and held liable for taking undue risk. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that most laymen who don't know that much about the stock market or investing and, as such, will never take the gamble if it's a "all or nothing" approach w/privatizing social security. Risk aversion is the key.
oh, I have an answer to the volatile market thing, take out the volatile part that has to do with greed.....
Nearly all market busts, serious busts, were caused by greed. Make betrayal of the public trust a crime punishable by very long prison terms, and forfeiture of all gained thru such betrayal. The law would apply to politicians as well as Wall Street.
Politicians get one term at a generous salary, but no "stock options", aka personal gain thru bribery.
Insider trading would be a minimum of 2 years for first offense under a certain dollar amount, and barred from ever handling other people's funds.
Major amounts of money, an extra 2 years for every million dollars involved.
Federal level Lobbyists have to register in ALL states since what they do affects all taxpayers. Lobbying fees should be a million dollars, per state, per year.
I would throw in a public whipping post for more serious offenders.
Economics and govt are current half year subjects in most high schools. Each should be a year, and required for graduation. Every student should have to write at least one subject related paper per semester, and present it orally to the class.
We can't say ignorance is no excuse if we purposely keep them ignorant....