a DIALOG discussing Social Security Retirement and Private Enterprise.

If you ha
ve something to say... email me at: gregvan[at]yahoo[dot]com. Be sure to give me
a hint about the topic in the subject line...
G.V. said: Re-set Social Security Retirement Age to 55. Get the entire Baby Boom
er generation OUT of the workforce and let the NEXT generation have a chance to
get a good job. This would also fix unemployment instantly. Please pass this mes
sage on to your friends, family and elected representatives. There is a governme
nt report recently recommending RAISING the retirement age to 68. That idea woul
d be bad for the Country... Email Obama here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
reply by M.D.
Greg, that sounds good, but the US is already bankrupt with 13 trillion in debt
and climbing. We can not afford it. Take France. Their retirement is currently a
t 60, but the country cannot afford it, and the country is imploding under it's
social programs. The government wants to put in certain austerity measures, one
is raising the retirement age from 60 to 62, and the French began rioting in the
streets. So, it sounds good but affording it is another thing altogether.
reply by G.V.
I heard about those riots... Good idea. I applaud the French.
We could easily pay for Social Security Retirement by simply ending the wars in
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Dirkadirkastan... saving a trillion dollars on pointle
ss wars.
I am hoping to promote a counter force to raising the age to 68. If there are no
riots here, the government will keep on raising the age... 68, 70, 72, 75, 85,
105, 125, 156, 202, 224... How high can they go?
reply by M.B.
I agree that the wars need to be stopped. Not sure how much of the $663 billion
would be saved. However, Social Security still tops the charts at $678 billion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget
I agree with Mark that lowering the age would only hurt. In fact, I'd say that m
ost people probably wouldn't retire at 55 but keep working and draw social secur
ity thus really putting pressure of the system.
The problem is jobs. The true creators of jobs are entrepreneurs. The only thing
the government can do to truly create jobs is to stop putting barriers up for t
hem.
http://www.ij.org/citystudies
Also I fully agree with you on the legalization of Marijuana. Legalize it, tax i
t, and have the money go to health care and social security.
reply by G.V.
I work for the government. MY CURRENT JOB was created by the government. I also
spent 8 years working at a defense contractor building equipment for the US Air
Force. Another job created by the government. A big employer here in Humboldt Co
unty is the college in Arcata. Another job created by the government. Your "onta
-pen-uers" have really dropped the ball this time. Timber is laying off (Pacific
Lumber)... fishing is down... Manufacturing has been shipped to China... The bi
g hiring here is government jobs.
reply by G.V.
What do you do for a living? Work for a private business? How's that working out
for you?
reply by M.D.
There are certain things government do well - defense, military, etc. That is th
e purpose of government. Not all government jobs are bad. Government is a necess
ary evil, but government should be limited in scope. I have a friend who works a
t the Livermore Lab. He works on government contracts. However, imagine if there
 were no private industry. How many government jobs would there be - none. That
is because government does not create a product, it produces nothing. Government
is supported by a tax base. If no product was created or no services performed,
taxes would be non-existant. You have to be able to create a product or perform
services to have a government. Private enterprise sustains government.
People who work for the government should be paid equivalent to what a person wo
uld make doing the same thing in private enterprise. The amount of people making
over 150K in government has doubled since Obama has been in power. When the eco
nomy goes down, the government should not grow, it should decrease. Just as when
a company loses sales because of an economy, it decreases its workforce, it doe
s not increase it. That is why California is in the situation it is in, yet we k
eep electing the same bozos back to office that got us in this mess.
reply by G.V.
My brother worked at LLL for years. He did genetic engineering and invented new
life forms that were patented. They were used for creating cancer drugs. His emp
loyer was the University of California. A government job that created things. I
got to go visit on family day and it was amazing to see the SHIVA project. An ex
periment in Nuclear Fusion. You have seen it in the movie TRON. DARPA invented t
he Internet. NASA caused integrated circuits to be invented. NSA bought the firs
t product developed by CRAY Research. COMSAT was a government project. Stating "
That is because government does not create a product, it produces nothing." is o
bviously false.
reply by M.D.
You are right, the government does create things - I take that back. You are abs
olutely right. And it has also advanced science such as with the Apollo and Shut
tle aircrafts. But, these are in the realm of what the government does. Put it t
his way, the government cannot survive without private industry and the free mar
ket, because it is the free market that creates the tax base. Our taxes should g
o and fund these types of projects, but if you have a limited government that yo
u can afford, the government will be able to continue to fund these projects. Th
e purpose of the government is not to create things maybe is what I should have
said, but the purpose of private enterprise is to make money. When you make mone
y then you create a tax base.
reply by M.D.
Hey Greg, do you work nights or something? It seems when I type something at 4 i
n the morning, you respond ha ha. I can't sleep What is your excuse? lol
reply by G.V.
I work 8 am to 5 pm Monday thru Friday but it's Sunday morning now... I sleep wh
en I'm tired and wake when I'm rested. Not unusual to be asleep at 7 pm on a wor
knight and awake at 4 AM the next day.

reply by G.V.
This is an interesting dialog. Do you object if I copy and paste it to gregvande
rlaan.com? Facebook entries just disapear in a week... I feel this should be pre
served.
M.D. not at all Greg...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a dream come true... Mark created content for my webpage without pay. Th
anks. It takes a lot of effort to create content and I've already said every tho
ught I ever had...
Here is a link to his page: http://mark24609.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
reply by J.F.
Greg, I feel you would like everyone to work for the government. I have tried th
at and I have been an entrepeneur. There has never been any thing I have done th
at I value as much as creating a business. I created jobs for 50 employees. I'll
never forget the company picnic one year. I looked around and saw over 100 peop
le playing ball, kids in a jump house etc. I thought I am responsible for doing
my job well so that these people continue to eat. Ask Jorge Arreola. He came fro
m Mexico 20 years ago with nothing. He has worked for my business for the last 1
8 years. He has his own home in Santa Cruz and five young sons. The government d
oesn't take care of him. He is proud to be a part of a team and take care of him
self. There are millions of Jorges in this world.
reply by G.V.
Great John. We need both. What was the nature of your business? I too have run m
y own business. I was a draftsman and sold drawings to the Air Force and NSA. I
worked as a consultant for one year but the billing side of the business was too
complex for me. I also had to withhold income taxes and Social Security payment
s. Once my main customer simply decided to delay a payment for a month. They had
a choice of meeting their payment schedule to INTEL or paying me... I had to wa
it... So I quit my business and hired a temp agency to handle all the money task
s.
I also was a commissioned salesman at Radio Shack for six years. It was interest
ing to realize that the more I sold, the more I got Paid. How high is UP? Some o
f my co-workers simply made deals and came to the store once a week to type the
orders into the computer. I liked the fact that we sold every possible electroni
c product. The catalog sales had 100,000 different items. Maybe more. I was in S
an Jose during the 1990's and my main store was Saratoga Ave near Westgate.
reply by J.F.
Great Greg, I'm glad you recognize the need for private employers and that entre
peneurs (however spelled) are not inherently bad. Now we have to figure out the
mix. I think having more people working for the government than tax dollars can
pay for, is a recipe for disaster. Do you agree?
reply by G.V.
Sure... I wish we had more private enterprise jobs. Especially in manufacturing.
Many people would benefit from simple factory work or truck driving. So many of
my clients cannot operate computers but would be great on a drill press. Our bi
g factory, YAKIMA was moved to Oregon by the new owner, the Sultan of Brunei. He
got a better tax break there.
Can I copy and paste your words onto my website? This conversation seems to be w
orthy of preservation and facebook just dissappears in a week.
Reply by J.F.
Certainly, and thank you for making my point. A business will move whereever it
can operate most efficiently. Taxes cause businesses to move. More government me
ans more taxes. Government is the problem. We need less government, not more. La
stly, to your point about lowering the age of social security. Older workers bri
ng experience and maturity to the work force. Their careers give them a sense of
value. If everyone were to retire at 55, I think there would be many unexpected
consequences. I think you would see older people sitting home with nothing to d
o. There would be increases in alcoholism, divorce, domestic violence and our in
dustries would be less productive. Create jobs by getting government out of the
way, and lets all work and thrive.
reply by G.V.
Actually, I believe I could find things to occupy my time. I do not need to go t
o work in order to fill up those 24 hours I'm blessed with every day. Sure, some
would just drink booze to fill the time, but I already went to AA and can go th
ere again when it's needed. With the baby boomers retiring at 55 on their Social
Security Checks, a more likely scenario would be to play farmville and type the
ir opinions into Facebook while stoned on Medical Marijuana. Is that called the
MATRIX? Singularity? Kurzweil?
and that's all we had to say...

I wonder if there is some way to use the hot air from the back of an air conditi
oner to heat the water in the water heater used for showers? Many houses have bo
th appliances. The air conditioner uses electric power to create cool air inside
the house while sending hot air outdoors. The water heater uses gas to create h
ot water for showers. Instead of both using energy, couldn't one drive the other
?
http://www.zazzle.com/waving_astronaut_button_ornament-175385485802636471