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Social Security: You are entitled to your entitlement!

  • Posted on February 15, 2011 at 9:34 pm

President Obama and the Republicans are putting their collective brains together to figure out the best way to stick it to the American people on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  All the whining about Social Security is making me just a little bit angry.  There is a constant hum of information that is being pushed at the American people through the many propaganda machines to get us ready for the big changes to come in Social Security.  It’s an entitlement program which basically means that you have paid into it for many, many years and you are entitled to receive benefits from that money when you retire.  You faithfully did your part and now they want to change the game!

In December there was no worry about Social Security when the politicians put through the tax cut bill that included a 2% reduction in what you and I pay into Social Security.  Now if there’s a real problem with Social Security, why would anyone undercut that program even more?  That just doesn’t make sense to me, but of course I’m just a middle school art teacher!

This morning on “Morning Joe” Joe Scarborough said the American people get it.  In Florida Marco Rubio was voted into the Senate and he wants to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70.  So what might be going on with Florida?  From my perspective, it sounds more like the old people that live in Florida that already have Social Security don’t much care what the young people are going to do about Social Security in the future.  As long as those old folks, that do tend to vote, get their cake, they will be happy!

More and more it seems like the young people in our country are really getting the short end of the deal.  We dump everything on them.  These two unfunded wars have been dumped on the future.  We have a big deficit that will have to be dealt with by our future generation.  The unions are dead or dying so young people have to depend on business to have a sense of honor in paying them.  If you are a young person and you want to be a teacher today, expect to jump through many hoops, continue your schooling until you die, and end up with a reduced retirement package when you retire.  It’s probably like this in most other areas as well.

What really troubles me with the Social Security debate is the lack of real understanding of the American people and their circumstance.  President Bill Clinton used to say, “I feel your pain.”  However, most politicians don’t really have a clue what the American people are feeling today because they don’t live anything like you and me.

I’ll start with President Obama.  This is open information that is posted on the Whitehouse website.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/15/president-obama-and-vice-president-biden-s-tax-returns

If you look at President and Mrs. Obama’s tax returns for 2010, they really are not anything like the average American people.  When you have an income in the 5-6 million dollar ranges, you really have lost touch with people making anything under $100,000 let alone someone making $30,000 or less!  Now let’s check out the Congressmen and see what kind of money they’re sporting.  I apologize as these are 2009 figures but you will get the point.  http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2009/guide/-38181-1.html Please note that our Representative Fred Upton is number 31 on the list.  He may sound like one of us but really is he like you?  If you want to check out another of the key player’s salary, Speaker of the House, Representative John Boehner’s net worth go here.    http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/otherdata.php?cycle=2010&cid=N00003675&type=I

You might be thinking this isn’t relevant but really it is.  We have heard for years how wonderful our government it.  You know all that, by the people, for the people, stuff.  We supposedly have gone beyond having to be property owners to vote and have a say in our elections.  However, the truth is those that have money run this country.  The rest of us just take care of those that have money.  We serve them.  They don’t serve us.  We always hear about their years of devoted service to our country.  All of us have devoted years of service to our country as well.  I teach the children of the future.  You may be a nurse, doctor, scientist, policeman, maid, waitress, soldier, or perform some other noble job, you serve your country.  You pay your taxes, you give to charity and you pay your bills.  You suck it up every time “they” want your children for war and trust me; they want your children as they sure don’t want to give their children for war!

Now they want all of us to just suck it up one more time.  Take those cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid like a man.  Do it for your country!  We all have to pitch in you know?  Many months ago I wrote a post that is worth linking back to.  http://www.ksvoboda.com/?p=317

In it I asked the wealthy to step up for our country.  It didn’t happen because the wealthy are doing the legislating!  They aren’t going to step up.  The best thing we could do is to have a revolution like Egypt and get rid of Congress and start over!  The young people really should be marching because much of what is happening and will happen will be put on them for an even bigger burden.  If you are a young college kid or just out of college a couple of years, you probably have a mountain of school loan debt already.  Do you really need to take on the debt of the clowns working in Washington D.C. too?  Every time one of them opens their mouth and moves their lips, rest assured they’re probably lying to us.  I don’t trust any of them.  At this rate we will continue to spend more money on the Defense Department and Homeland Security and less and less on education, or any of the “ENTITLEMENT” programs!  I hope I’ve given you something to think about.

What Motivates People?

  • Posted on April 8, 2010 at 11:53 am

I just watched this amazing video of a 96 year old man bungee jumping.  I found it strange but amazing.  First of all it is amazing when anyone does something that would really scare the hell out of most normal people.  However, when you’re 96 and doing these crazy, scary things one has to wonder what motivates you to do it?  This all got me thinking about what motivates people?

I know a lot of people are motivated by money either they have it and want to keep it or they don’t have it and want to obtain it.  Some people are motivated by jealousy.  They want something someone else has.  Others are motivated by thrills.  This would be the bungee jumper types and those people that want to climb every mountain they can find.  Some people are motivated by sex.  It defines their every real moment in life.  Some people are motivated by religion.  It is their center for all they do.  As I’m writing this I’m thinking this reminds me of the seven deadly sins:  wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.  Maybe these are all of the things that really motivate us.  If you think about it and plug in the word each and every one of these probably motivates many of us.

Some people are motivated by anger.  Anger gets them to do things they might not otherwise do both good and bad.  Anger can be a great motivator when you want to show someone else that you are better than they are at something.  However, then you have to worry about that old “pride” thing.  I’ve never really understood why pride is a sin unless you are holding something over someone else’s head.  You know like “I’m better than you are stuff.”  Jealousy can fall under the old greed and envy sins.  They are all tied together.  We all know people that always think the grass is greener on the other side or those that feel like life has some how been harder for them, and maybe it has.  I don’t know if people are motivated by sloth.  I do know some people that don’t want to put much effort into anything.  We all know people that want to just “get by”.  They aren’t really motivated to push themselves for anything extra.  They aren’t motivated by money or much of the other things that motivate people.  They’re happy when they’re not challenged.  They aren’t motivated to clean up their own environment as that might take too much effort.  Many of us are motivated by food or alcohol or some other vice.  We’re motivated because it tastes or feels good.  It’s a quick fix for anything that might be ailing us.

Obviously, as I’m thinking about it many things can at any one time motivate us.  I have always been motivated by my own moral code and sense of honor and duty.  There is no escaping this thing inside me probably developed from Catholicism.  It’s that little thing that constantly tells me what is right and wrong and heaven forbid that I choose what is wrong.  It’s hard to live with a moral conscious but I’ve grown accustom to it all these years.  It doesn’t mean that I sit in judgment of other people, it just means there is always something in my head weighing most important decisions that I make.

Some people are motivated by other people.  I suppose Barack Obama motivated a lot of people with his “Yes, I can!” mantra.  We know that Hitler was highly motivating as he got many people to follow him.  Other people can be motivating to us whether we realize it or not.  Sometimes when I’m teaching I see my students get motivated by the artwork of other students.  They watch and learn and sometimes it will get them working and feeling like they too can create something wonderful.

I’ve never understood what motivates a lot of people.  I don’t think I’m very good at figuring people out at all.  I am just an observer of this crazy world we live in.  I will quietly think and write about all of the things that I think about.  What motivated me to write today was a crazy 96 year old bungee jumper.  My words cannot express the exhilaration he must have felt flying through the air but I can try to understand what might have motivated him.  Humans are a complicated species that are made up of risk takers and quiet writers that can only dream of the excitement and exhilaration of the oldest bungee jumper!