Posted by
THE SCANDIMERICAN on Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:48:28 AM
The background noise in this election is deafening. Never before have so many people had so little to say about so many things. And yet, they blabber. On and on and on. No wonder it's "politics as usual" across the board. No wonder there is nothing new in this election cycle.
Nobody is talking about the real issues. The really, really big, real issues. The boring, grueling, unsexy issues.
Social security.
Uh, oh. Just lost nine out of ten readers. Yep. It's not a hip issue. Yawn factor off the Richter scale.
Why social security when there's Jeremiah Wright?
The sad fact is that most younglings in this country know pretty darn well they're not going to get any social security. During the years I taught economics at a small pot-infested liberal arts college, I asked my students every semester if they thought they would get social security when they retired. The unanimous answer was a big, rumbling NO, PROFESSOR.
Hello? This is one of the biggest scams in our time. The government - dudes, listen! - the government is grabbing more than 12 percent of your earnings and spending it on something that you will never, ever even see the tail lights of. Twelve percent! Do you have any idea what you could do with that money?? If you're fresh outta college and land a $30K job, those 12 percent are $300 every month that you: a) don't get to keep, and: b) won't get back.
OK, so what's $300? Well, for starters, it is the difference between having three room mates in a cramped apartment in Sunnyside, Queens, and one room mate in cool Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Or split it over four weekends and see how much more you can do on nights out with friends. You can keep your MasterCard holstered for most of the night and avoid those calls to Mom for emergency cash.
Or put it in the bank, ferchrissake. In just one year you have a nice down payment on a Scion tC.
This is what big government is about. It makes a very real, tangible difference in your everyday life. But nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about how your daily life is affected by the do-gooders in Washington.
And since nobody else is talking about it, I will. I have very little patience with politics. Patience is for humans. We freedom-loving Klingons prefer action. Political action. Theory that becomes political reality. Political reality that changes people's lives, that puts those $300 back in your checking account every month.
And how - exactly how - do we do that?
Stay tuned.