ALL THE BEST PEOPLE
and…
and
and…
Coronavirus may be a pandemic, but stupid is a uniquely American epidemic. Symptoms may be a red baseball cap and an inclination to think that carrying a gun will solve your problems.
NIT-Re Dame
The Fighting Irish, clinging to life for an NCAA berth, led No. 7 (or No. 6) Florida State by 13 points with under 10 minutes to play in South Bend. Then they were outscored 25-10, including 5-0 in the final minute, to lose 73-71.
This will be the first season since 2014 that neither the men’s nor women’s program reaches at least the Elite Eight in the NCAAs (men in 2015 and 2016, women in 2017-2019). And head coach Mike Brey, now in his 20th season, has a problem: too many other Catholic schools are either out recruiting or out-developing Notre Dame: Villanova (two national championships in the past five years), Dayton (arguably player of the year in Obi Toppin), Marquette (nation’s leading scorer in Markus Howard) and Gonzaga (perennial Top 5 team the past few seasons without a super superstar).
There are five Catholic universities ranked in the Top 14 and Notre Dame is not among them. That would have seemed unfathomable years ago.
The Irish are 18-12 and sure, six of those losses are by 2 or fewer points… but you have to win more of those. They’re NIT-bound unless they get at least to the ACC championship game. At least.
Women Of The Year
Time magazine, which for decades named a Man of the Year, went back and named a woman for the honor for every year from 1921 onward. Enjoy this gal-lery.
Of note: In 1985 the Woman of the Year is named Wilma Mankiller. And somehow in 2005 Bono made the cover. Because of course he did.
Petri Dish
We’ve been enjoying the work of Washington Post humor columnist Alexandra Petri of late. Turns out she ascended to her gig, as an op-ed columnist for WaPo, at the seasoned age of 22. The daughter of a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, Petri graduated from Harvard with a PhD in whimsy, or at least it would seem so after reading this profile on her.
You’re On Your Own
This blog’s most vocal reader is currently grooving with the MH staff’s opinions, thoughts, so we thought we’d crush the honeymoon right here. With this suggestion to bring down the deficit.
So here’s the deal: the average life expectancy of an American male is 76.1 years. For an American female, 81.1 years. Our proposal: following retirement Uncle Sam pays out Social Security and Medic-Aid (or Medicare, whatever you call it) until you reach those ages, depending on your sex. After that, the U.S. government stops footing the bill. That’s what family is for. Or your savings. Or churches. Etc.
Now if you think that’s heartless, the question becomes how much is being asked of people in the primes of their lives in order to provide care for those whose quality of life isn’t quite what it used to be. Often, not even close. Were Social Security and other government programs designed to take care of people for a full quarter century? And you might say, well why not just push the retirement age back? And my answer would be because if given the choice, I’d rather have the years from, say, 64-68 free to do what I like with government benefits than I would the yeas 77-81. But that’s just me.
No one’s giving you a death sentence. It’s just a matter of saying that this is on you, or your loved ones, or on someone who knows you and has turned AMZN into a 36-bagger. I’ll hang up an listen.
The taxpayer, by and large, is okay with being asked to contribute to social security going beyond the life expectancy because a. they aspire to live that long themselves and b. it lessens the burden of taking care of their aging parents.
I also think your plan would hit a 14th Amendment snag since it seems fairly prejudicial to pay out women and extra five years.
Women get less payout on the SAME annuity than men & yet that is “legal”.
“Turn out the lights, the party’s over
They say that, ‘All good things must end’
Let’s call it a night, the party’s over
And tomorrow starts the same old thing again”
🙂 🙂 🙂
1st of all, MEDICARE & MEDICAID are NOT THE SAME THINGS! The former is the health care “program” that helps pay for medical services (some, not all) of those 65+. The latter is what pays for the health care for those with no money, including LONG TERM CARE which will BANKRUPT AMERICA in 3 decades if something is not done NOW. Why? Let me quote Rod Tidwell – “SHOW ME THE MONEY!”
So – Right now, Assisted Living (one of the versions of LTC) cost between $4000-$9000/MONTH. That’s right, a MONTH. Nursing home stays cost even more. Medicare does NOT pay for either. Medicaid picks up the tab for those that have “exhausted their funds” or had no money to start with. The majority of Baby Boomers that are still working are the “Younger Half Boomers” (i.e. born between 1955-1964 & yes, this includes an ‘Amazonian’ you know & love…) & the VAST majority of this group (more than 75%) will NOT get a pension & the median per person savings & investments of this group total LESS than $250K right now. What do you think will happen in 20-30 years when some of these Boomers need LTC? Which will then cost between $15k-$40k/month. The “family” will pick up the tab? Millennials? HAHAHAHAHAHA. Stop it, jdubs, you’re killin’ me. The church? What church? Maybe the Catholic Church can shell out for their members (hell, they’ve TAKEN enough money over the centuries!) but what about all the folks that don’t belong to a church? Plus, you think these churches have the money for this?
When exactly would you “start” your plan? For the Boomers that are approaching retirement with FAR TOO LITTLE MONEY as it is? And if they live longer than 10 years in retirement many will have already run out of money? Or not till YOUR group, the Xers? Or spring it on the Millennials, the group that is partly responsible for why their parents don’t have enough in retirement savings & have bitched nonstop about “forcing” Boomers out of their jobs to “make way for them”?
As for not being a “death sentence”? LOL! Of course it is! Why don’t we just send COVID-19 to all the Assisted Living & Nursing Homes & wipe them all out right now? Look at all the billions that would save Medicaid! In fact, maybe this virus was whipped up in some GOP Nazi lab as a “final solution” (reference intentional) to the coming crisis?
Well, I have some other ideas! In addition to taxing the billionaires (our tax rate for those with incomes over $1 million/year should AT LEAST be 50%!), the outrageous tax loopholes on “real estate” need to stop NOW. And the tax rate on all the short-term stock market gains should also be increased. And our ENTIRE MEDICAL SYSTEM needs to be replaced. I suppose you think it’s fine that a person with “great insurance” could still go bankrupt due to an unexpected medical issue? That their insurance company can declare this doctor & that doctor & that hospital are “SO SORRY, but NOT COVERED BY THIS INSURANCE” & too bad you weren’t aware as the ambulance was taking an unconscious you to said hospital.
Here’s an idea – let’s just throw all the folks that can’t pay for their medical care into a “for-profit” debtors prison & they’ll bill the family directly. And if that family then goes broke, which they surely will trying to pay this exorbitant debt? Or if there is no family? They all get one-way tickets on a “Princess Cruise”…
And FTR, even with the recent downturn, my AMZN is currently a 53-bagger. 🙂 However, it will need to become a 500-bagger for me to pay not only for my eventual LTC but by sisters’, the younger who was dumbfounded at Xmas when I tried to explain (once again) that once invested, one never pays tax on a ROTH IRA (as long as it’s in there for 5 years). For more than 45 minutes, I spelled out that if she puts in $1000 now & its worth $15,000 in 20 years, she will owe NO TAX on the gain, she thought I was “pulling her leg”. ARGH!
Susie B. can always find a way to belittle millennials, even when topic at hand isn’t about millennials.
It’s a gift
So, YOU are saying you agree to pay not just for your parents’ Long Term Care but as specified above in The jdubs Final Solution Plan – ALL expenses for your parents after age 76 for Dad & 81 for Mom? I’m assuming your parents or either Boomers or Xers & if they are one of the vast majority of those generations, will barely make ends meet by the age of 76, when our Grand Poobah plans to cut off ALL fed funding? You better start investing 90% of your income each & every year & NOT in “bonds”…
BTW jdubs, I do see yet another problem with your “plan”. With all these Millennials on the hook for paying the exorbitant health care & other expenses for Mumsy & Pops, the, er, “murder” rate will assuredly shoot up. Which means MORE prisons, which either means more taxes or more of the heinous for-profit gulags. Why don’t you just march all the elderly to “the showers” & be done with it?!
Also, I read a piece in the NYT yesterday about how “private equity” (AKA “superrich bastards”) have infiltrated residential real estate around the country & it’s worse than I could have imagined. Not just satisfied with the OUTRAGEOUS tax advantages in real estate & the steady cashflow of rental income, these heinous sacks of shit would embarrass even ole Scrooge himself. The one thing that did give me a guffaw was this one woman who was “fighting back” on social media platforms – she’s a proud & hardcore Trump supporter & despite the men at the top of her target ALL being BIG Trump collaborators, she still thinks he’s fabulous except for “this one thing he’s failed at”. LOL! What these men are doing is EXACTLY what Trump stands for – make & take as much money for yourself & SCREW everyone else!
Susie B.,
I believe you are seeing this as a binary issue: We shouldn’t have super-rich people and if we didn’t then everything would be okay with the government taking care of the elderly for an untold number of years.
As you know, I’ve long been against the wealthiest of the wealthy having tax havens and I’ve attempted to illustrate the difference between being rich and being a billionaire. So, yes, I think we need to eradicate the super rich.
But when you suggest that I’m going to have to pay for my parents in their later years, you’re basically ignoring that in the current system I’m paying for everyone’s parents in their later years. And so are you. And ignoring that the system was not set up to take care of people for 25 or so years post-retirement. At some point the dam breaks. Now if you wanna play with feelings to make your point, go ahead. But I’d rather throw money at helping people get an education when they’re 19 than helping someone stay alive at 91. Particularly when, as you pointed out, it will cost far more per year to keep someone alive at a nursing home than it will to get a 19 year-old a year of college. And why are those nursing homes so expensive? Because they know that Uncle Sam is footing part of the bill. Which means you and I.
When I’m 84 I’ll gladly dive off a cliff. If I haven’t “lived” by then, I was never going to. Most people who are so afraid of dying never really live their lives, anyway.
I am more determined than ever to live into my 90s just so I can WAVE at you on your way down.
And you know who is even more irritating than, er, Millennials? (I jest, Jacob, I jest!). It’s folks who criticize how others want to live their lives. If some enjoy watching TV, reading books & not being as adventurous as others deem “acceptable”, SO WHAT?! It’s their choice. Not everybody is or wants to be a “big wave surfer”.
And btw, why is college now so expensive? Because they know Uncle Sam is footing part of the bill. And because teenagers don’t understand DEBT, especially the kind that can never be written off, even in bankruptcy.
Live life any way you please, Susie B. That’s freedom. I just don’t want to pay for it.
Susie B.,
I don’t know how you can come to the conclusion that I’m agreeing with what JW is proposing. To be honest, this is so complex I don’t have an opinion at it at the moment. Everybody’s life is different, so it is a hard thing to get “right.”
My mom passed away from cancer when I was 13 years old. I have three brothers and a dad. If it weren’t for social security, my life would be much different. My dad is 55 and receives disability. If you didn’t know his age, you’d think he was 70.
With that said, my family has greatly benefited from social security. Both my mom and dad worked their entire lives (with lots of overtime) to provide for their family. Should their me a safety net at the end of the road? I tend to think so. Will people abuse that privilege? Most certainly. But that will be the case for any program initiated. There are shitty out there, but I don’t think that should stop us from helping those that these programs truly help.
America doesn’t have a resource problem. America has an allocation problem.
I’m very sorry about your loss, Jacob.
JW! What would your Jesuit mentors say about your utilitarian kick-em-to-the-curb-based-on-actuarial-tables proposal?! Are you actually working on a dystopian novel and workshopping it with us on the sly?
I think my Jesuit mentors would say something about being happy about the separation of church and state. Can’t we all agree that government has an obligation to serve its citizenry up to a point? What we cannot agree on is what that point is.
As for the dystopian novel, the longview of history will show that man has been the author of it for eons. And the Western “civilized” white man for the past two millennia. We’ve managed to pretty much ruin three entire continents (and are currently working on a 4th and 5th mostly south of the equator) and in return we’ve given the planet, what? A smattering of quality paintings and Seasons 1 3 and 4 of The Wire. Not a fair trade-off.
“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
Just kidding.