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Now I'm upset with you, Thom. You seem to be blinded by the fancy tinsel on the Bernie Tree. He's been a Democrat for what now, a little over a year, or less? And yet he wants to just take it over. Just like that. Just like Trump. He "points" out the same problems over and over, but solutions to the problems? No, sorry, nothing in here. Has he been a good (even great) Independent? Yes he has, for many years. But has he helped to get Democrats elected to the positions where "revolution" can really get a foothold, at the state and local level? I do not believe so. He thinks he can come in, at the top, and suddenly make all kinds of changes, paying for them with, ... well, ... a song and a dance, I guess. Ironically, the other major political party got suckered by just such a an effort from a lazy outsider, who basically found a "popular song," and beat that drum all the way to the top of the heap. Thankfully, there is still a chance for the Democrats to fight their way to another eight years of Progressive efforts, making History in the process, and getting the Country to lean ever so slightly to the progressive side of ledger. Let's hope all those who could really benefit from such an administration understand what's at stake and get themselves to the ballot box come November. All together, pushing back at the Conservative Media (why in the world do you think it's "liberal?") showing the American people why adopting the great ideas from other nations, education, health care, etc. is the way to really make America greater on into the future. I hope, Thom, that you join in that effort.
And yet, Thom is still going to turn around and vote for #CorporateClinton if she's the nominee instead of opposing neo-liberal, uber-hawkish Hillary. Forget that!
#BernieOrBust pledge-takers will vote for a progressive, one way or another. Sheep, on the other hand, will be let to the neo-liberal slaughter. BAAaaa.
http://www.examiner.com/article/analysis-bernie-sanders-revolutionaries-sheep-and-counter-revolutionaries
Suggest retired industry execs only be on the list of possible regulators.
They know all the ploys of the industry to scam the government,
but are so fat and rich there is no need to act on industry behalf.
ct
Thom, I know this is a favortite subject of yours, but please, you are smarter than this, to think we can turn the ship around on climate change. The ship has already hit the iceberg. All we can do now is slow down the rate of change by a few percentage points, and even that may well be naive! Serious but rarely quoted studies have said "Climate change is largely irreversible".
Let's take it to a larger frame, like you often encouage us to do. I am a liberal. But this is a major flaw in liberal thinking - that we can control our entire environment, if we simply educate and focus our efforts and spend. Not always true. We would need to return to an agrarian lifestyle this afternoon, stop ALL carbon emissions, and still there is no guarantee that climate change would reverse, just hopeful thinking.
We are way beyond where driving a Prius or eating vegan for the masses - wishful thinking at best - will make any difference. At this point the conversation needs to focus on ADAPTING to climate change. Make the electric cars, it's the right thing to do, but few can afford them for now. Eat vegan, but don't force it on others - that's fascist. And let's stop the talk about population controls. The only part of the world with a population problem is India and parts of Africa.
Let's get you back on the radio in Portland !
Far too frequently, I have seen this lesser-of-two-evils argument applied to presidential elections. It could be a result inherent in a two-party system. Or, it could be a calculated result from party strategists anticipating voter actions when they put forth an unfavorable candidate. In the current political climate in the Democratic primaries, I believe the latter is most prevalent. This paradigm is perpetuated every time we go along with it.
Additionally, I am vehemently opposed to any form of oligarchy. The selection of Hillary Clinton by the DNC to replace Obama is by definition an act of oligarchy. The manipulation of the press, or the media's complicity, and the DNC's bias against Bernie are manifestations of oligarchy and the usurpation of the democratic electoral process.
My beef is not so much with Hillary being a centrist Democrat who is friendly with Wall Street. My beef is how the Presidential electoral process has been undermined to the point our Consitutional right to vote is practically a farce, because we don't really have any options. It's like having the right to travel but not having enough money to actually travel.
Hillary is a pragmatist. Bernie is a progressive visionary. Trump is a pseudo-conservative self-interested visionary (he's a popular scham artist in my opinion, but our culture holds scham artists in high regard.) This last paragraph is just an added summation of my views of the candidates. Lol
For all you SS supporters: It is the pyramid (Ponzi) scheme all others are modeled after. If anyone but the Gov't did it, they would be thrown in jail. It is a house of cards that at some point, must fail. The solution is simple: replace it with a means-tested dole program. (Not funded by regressive flat-rate taxation on poor workers)
As far as 401-K's go, it depends on the employer contribution level, but 99% of them are simply cost-saving measures, as most of the commenters have pointed out.
Unfortunately the Nevada situation is not over. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today printed Dana Milbank's column from two days ago, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/does-bernie-sanders-want-to-be-t... It was filled with misinformation and unsubstantiated accusations, and subtitled "Candidate's increasingly harsh rhetoric could hurt the party in November." In a box they highlight the quote from Bernie, "We are taking on virtually the entire Democratic establishment." To me the fact that they think this sounds "bad" demonstrates that the powers that be just don't get it, they are lumping Bernie in with Trump as a kook, and they refuse to deal with the fact that people are angry with what has become of our economy, government and politics.
Bernie is the best candidate for the electorate, but, evidently, not the best candidate for the Electoral College. My impression is that we have finally awoken from our complacent belief that our votes determine the outcome of elections, as evidenced by the horrendous destruction visited on us by two terms of Bush, Jr. (not to mention Sr.) and the egregious attempt by Karl Rove to flip the Ohio vote in 2012, exposed to us by Anonymous, our own Walter Kronkite of the Milennium.
Bernie has been consistently concise, has voiced the 99 percenters concerns accurately and has the passionate support of them. That said, the deck IS stacked, after all is said and done. Now the spin is that we will have full-on pandemonium as evidenced by Nevada, and the big guns are coming out and not to play.
Hillary Clinton will appease the one percenters, will hold steady for the 99 percenters, and comes complete with a known entity, Bill, who, even with a penis, did a good job as President leaving us with a surplus and hope for the future. Every Democrat will agree that as a party loyalist, the Democratic candidate is who we pull the lever for on election day.
Do we really have to choose between a Corrupt Corporatist or a Corrupt Grandiose Narcissistic Megalomaniacal dictator? I am not happy with the choices! If the elections had been fair, Bernie would be walking away with this.
There is one important fact about 401(k)'s you are all missing....Sustainability. I've retired on my 401(k). I used the money saved in the 401(k) to purchase an annuity. The annuity is guaranteed to produce a fixed income....forever. It does not stop with my demise as Social Security and employer pension plans do. The 401(k) program builds wealth. It's a great program unless you lack the discipline or intelligence to use it properly.
Remember Deep-Throat's advice to the Watergate reporters - "Follow the money". Who stands to benefit from the shift from Social Security to 401K's? Corporations, because they will no longer be obligated to match the 7.2% employee contribution. Executives, because they contribute a tiny % of their income to social security, and the amount they can put into tax-deferred savings is tied to the amount their employees' contributions to 401K's. The more that employees contribute to 401K's, the more that executives can put in their QSERP's. Wall Street, because they now get to charge service fees for all that money that used to go into SS. The rich 1% who already own 80% of all stocks. SS contributions diverted to the stock market will drive up the prices. The rich will then unload while the employees can't due to 401K trading restrictions, the market will collapse leaving workers holding the bag. This alone will be the biggest transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1% in the history of the world.
Trumpian Juggernaut
[the fault of his base base]
{… a rhyme …}
We wet our panties at the frightening thought
that that which America’s nitwits have brought
is a nitwitted Trumpian juggernaut!!
His applauders, with their fears and their hatreds fraught
with idiotic venom and brains of low watt -
- have brought to our nation what The Donald has wrought:
√ America in a shambles and in crumbling decay,
while
√ big-money interests are doing okay.
=============================================
I can confirm, the 401k/annuity things that replaced traditional pensions, screw workers. AT&T did away with traditional pensions in 1984. And I missed it by a month, and now I'm missing at least $1000 a month retirement income (I see coworkers with 2–3 years more seniority than I have getting $2300 on the pension, while mine is $1150). AT&T is profitable enough to have continued the pension program. I can confirm that the workers are losing money, so this money must be going to the CEO and stockholders instead, apparently part of the reason they make hundreds of times the money of regular workers.
I'm with you larm007!
When 401k's started my thoughts were, "This is just to help Wall Street inflate their numbers! I was absolutely on it!" Pensions are now a joke. People gave their all to corporations and expected some retirement compensation for their loyalty and what do that get? The shaft.
Working class should never have loyalty to any company. They will lay you off, streamline, downsize, all to make the shareholders happy with more money. It's absurd.
Face it folks, get ready for a reality check, because when you are old and maybe just maybe social security and Medicare can help you squeak by some sort of living? If they even exist by the time you retire? The monthly payments from SS, (which is your hard earned dollars that the government has been accumulating for all of your working life directly from your paychecks and using for God knows what), and the lame reimbursement BS from Medicare are a stipend. You will struggle if that's what you are depending on but what options do you have?
It sucks! Americas greed is a great problem that we should all try to correct. You can start by voting people into office that give a damn about you! Don't settle for the lesser of evils. Protest, call your congressman, write letters, voice your opinions! You matter! Make a difference even if it pisses people off. What have you got to lose?
Bernie 2016!!!!
But I will gladly vote Hillary over Trump!!!!!!
To quote - "greed is good!"
Wall street ethos and ethic
Sadly, emblematic of all that is bad about humanity
I was against it when it happened. 401k"s went right into Wall St.and then later came the crash. The greed in this country is outrageous and immoral. And I'm not talking about most of us.
maybe if the "non profit "we the people" network" was tri-(more or less)-partisan...
I was lucky; as soon as I passed the 90-day probation, I joined the retirement plan, and then every annual raise, half of it went into a Salary Reduction Agreement/Supplemental Retirement Account over 19 years working for CalTech at JPL (in three jobs, with broken time; 10-year vesting clock not satisfied). This gets me roughly two-thirds of Social Security (which after the 2004 layoff, I applied for early, at 62 in 2007, and kept the old house.)
SS is an absolute lifesaver, with Mama still working to keep groceries coming.
Removing the SS contributions cap will strengthen it for centuries to come. Once the numbers are run, zero'th year will be visible (and viable) as a start date.
As automation runs most production, we MUST find ways to guarantee a Basic Income, and Medicare For All, including Dental.
Paying for it all will be a knock-down-drag-out fight, but it MUST be done. Start NOW.
Bernie's one-point (0.01%) tax on those high-speed trades will barely be noticed, and take care of education for all.
We allowed privatization of pensions via "401Ks" which have enriched those at the top. Social security is our life raft and must be protected constitutionally. .....
Yah, it is scary, indeed. Fossil fuels have driven the economy for a long time and to think that will change much deliberately is fantasy. What we can and should do immediately is stop breeding! Too many people! Malthus was right, and the consequences of exponential population growth is destruction of habitat, period. ZPG! Zero Population Growth, remember?
I could never compromise my vote to support someone I don't believe in. Clinton is a flawed candidate who has been crowned by the DNC who then expected all Democrats to fall into line and accept her. I will not do that and have lost all faith in the Party I thought I knew. It's corrupt and flawed. I will become an Independent after the California Primary and work toward making a viable Independent Party. The 2 Party system is not and has not worked for a long time. I am proudly Bernie or Bust!
It get's even worse my friends. These super computers that the absolutely wealthiest (.001%) people have access to on wall street that can trade fractions of a second before the rest of the floor has access to them, sucks out over 80% of the lowest risk, highest yielding trades before the rest of us smucks (and your broker) have access to them. That means we get left with all of the sloppy seconds (about 20% left of these "good" investments), to fight over. We're getting straight fleeced in so many ways that average Americans just have no clue about. It's absurd and digusting.
This whole thing was very systematic in moving companies out of pensions, into the private market, so they could fleece us suckers. Nearly no one knows about it, and no one talks about it. It's one big scam.
Retirement issues are part of a larger situation.
With the rise of robots, the productivity per workers will vary so much
that distributing wealth by wages is going to need some rethinking.
One worker overseeing 100 robots versus a single worker will have a huge
productivity difference per day.
Yet should the wages of the one be 100 times the other?
Switzerland is considering a plan that looks like social security but it starts at
birth.
Canada is looking at another version.
Clearly our technology will require new ways to divy up the pie
without jealousy and still maintining motivation.
ct
Completely agree Willie W, there is really only one solution to the retirement crisis, and that is to strengthen and expand Social Security, and that will mean increasing the social security payroll tax. Pensions are not going to return to the American private sector, and they will soon be phased out of the public sector, as more and more municipalities and states get into financial difficulties trying to fund these pensions. Public pensions will be switched over to 401K's in the near future, and that will mean even more reliance on Social Security to fund retirment for everyone.