sykhic

8 ms·

31.
by sykhic 8y ago
Pensions are not inherently unsustainable. They exist in the private sector in other countries and there are still some well funded private sector pensions in the U.S. They don't work well if they are not properly funded. Corporatio
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by sykhic 8y ago
Yes, clearly the return on services and government investment is quite poor in the U.S. It's a situation in which people reasonably believe that paying more in taxes is throwing money at the problem. This is especially so when one of
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by sykhic 8y ago
I believe at some point in time California and other wealthy states will want to secede. They are subsidizing the poorer states and at some point they may question the benefits of the union.
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by sykhic 8y ago
I'm a public employee. I don't cause the government to write its contract with me to be the way it is. It's negotiated between my union and the state Department of Education. It is then voted on by the legislative branch a
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by sykhic 8y ago
I agree that it's largely a crisis of leadership. Both major parties are to blame. Kicking the can down the road, so to speak, has proved politically rewarding. I think that we, as a people, need to stop thinking that taxation is in
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by sykhic 8y ago
The next table (the one below, right?) shows only the relative percent of where taxes come from. It does not describe tax rates. It merely states that around 50% of U.S. tax revenue come from taxing income and profits. This is not the ta
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by sykhic 8y ago
Overal taxation in the U.S. is low compared to other OECD countries [1]. We, as a nation, decided that low taxes was the goal. As a result infrastructure is poor, toll roads are increasing, privatization of prisons, intelligence gathering
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by sykhic 8y ago
From my perspective the decline has been going on since the end of the Reagan administration. There are a number of reasons for my belief but I think it has been steadily going on for 30 years now. Prior the Civil War Alexis de Tocqueville
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by sykhic 8y ago
It's one thing asking allies to help fight a war and quite another asking them to pay for it. Japan famously was asked to pay $10 billion. It was disconcerting to see this as an American. Allegedly the war was worth fighting for Ame
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by sykhic 8y ago
Japan does not have the capability to compete with Chinese naval power. Why do you think it’s unlikely that the US will go down? What time frame are you attributing this unlikelihood to take place in? I’m assuming you mean in the next fe
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by sykhic 8y ago
I’ve started using Walmart.com for just this reason. I no longer trust Amazon. Trust is a hard thing to acquire once it’s lost. After an Amazon Basics usb cable stopped working after a few weeks I don’t even trust Amazon's own produ