It's been more than a month or so, but I got a really bad haircut from SuperCuts. I knew right away it wasn't going to be that great, but I didn't want to complain about it, because I wasn't sure if she would understand or would be able to fix it. Oh well, what can you do, they are usually OK. I pay $14 for a haircut, I don't expect too much, but Tracy does a better job than this usually and she does it for free.
World of Warcraft is out. I would play if I were unemployed, but I don't have the time right now to pick up an MMORPG. The launch has supposedly gone pretty smoothly, which might be a first for a heavily hyped MMORPG.
There was an interesting discussion on NPR about the problems of Social Security and Medicare. The confluence of several factors is driving the national debt into record territory and worse, there is no end in sight. The retirement of the baby boomers and the ever increasing life expectancy means that in a few years about 1/3 of the population will not be working. When Social Security was created, the number of working people supporting each retired person was closer to 1/12, the number right now is closer to 1/6. This is of course a disaster waiting to happen. Of course cutting Social Security or restructuring it is a political nightmare. Older people don't feel a need to give anything up and they vote very reliably.
The value of the average Social Security and Medicare benefit would be about $1,000,000 if done by a private insurer. This is money spent on people who will be less economically productive for the rest of their lives. One point they made was that the money would be much more economically effective for educating children rather than support retirees. These days, many people are living for 20-25 years beyond retirement, and the value of those premiums continues increase dramatically with the soaring costs of health care and living longer. The best way to fend of the insolvency of Social Security is to encourage people to work longer beyond the age of 60 or 62. It is a strain of course, people have been lead to believe that they should be able to retire at that age. However with better health and life expectancy it's not so unusual to continue working.
World of Warcraft is out. I would play if I were unemployed, but I don't have the time right now to pick up an MMORPG. The launch has supposedly gone pretty smoothly, which might be a first for a heavily hyped MMORPG.
There was an interesting discussion on NPR about the problems of Social Security and Medicare. The confluence of several factors is driving the national debt into record territory and worse, there is no end in sight. The retirement of the baby boomers and the ever increasing life expectancy means that in a few years about 1/3 of the population will not be working. When Social Security was created, the number of working people supporting each retired person was closer to 1/12, the number right now is closer to 1/6. This is of course a disaster waiting to happen. Of course cutting Social Security or restructuring it is a political nightmare. Older people don't feel a need to give anything up and they vote very reliably.
The value of the average Social Security and Medicare benefit would be about $1,000,000 if done by a private insurer. This is money spent on people who will be less economically productive for the rest of their lives. One point they made was that the money would be much more economically effective for educating children rather than support retirees. These days, many people are living for 20-25 years beyond retirement, and the value of those premiums continues increase dramatically with the soaring costs of health care and living longer. The best way to fend of the insolvency of Social Security is to encourage people to work longer beyond the age of 60 or 62. It is a strain of course, people have been lead to believe that they should be able to retire at that age. However with better health and life expectancy it's not so unusual to continue working.
posted by Hubert at 11/23/2004 10:35:00 AM
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