Need some help with these 2 things...

[down_south]

Okay, I have two questions and since this board is full of smart people I am sure y’all can help me with this.

1) We are all concerned about the growing debt and would like to see spending cuts. When we talk about government employees getting government pensions and benefits for the rest of their life, we hear Republicans complain about it and speak badly about unions. Okay, fair enough. But if we give lifetime health care and pensions to military members, it’s the same thing. Nobody forced anyone to join the military (unless they were drafted) so my question is this……..whether it is a union member getting a lifetime pension and benefits, or a military member getting a lifetime pension and benefits, what is the difference to the taxpayer?



2) I love Peter Schiff and I agree with just about everything he says with one exception. Peter sometimes says that if you are thinking of moving to another country, you should consider such places as Canada and New Zealand. I just got back from vacation in New Zealand and our artificially high housing prices in the last decade still don’t touch housing prices in New Zealand. Gas is $6.91/gallon, food is more expensive, a lot of their food is imported from Australia and although their gas prices are three times ours, average income is nowhere near three times ours. Also they have an abnormally high teen suicide rate and many young people are leaving. It does not seem like a good place to move to, even if you want to leave the United States. My friend in New Zealand pretty much agreed and she is looking to leave.

In regards to Canada, I grew up there. What a wonderful thing it was to get a $20 birthday gift from my grandmother which I could take to the bank and exchange for $30. With the declining US dollar, things are changing in Canada. About 80% of their exports are to the United States, most tourists to Canada are from America and about 90% of Canadians live within 2 hours of the US border and love to jump the border to buy cheaper things in America and pay lower sales taxes. If the United States goes belly up, who is going to buy Canada’s exports? They can’t just sell an equal amount of exports overseas because sending your products overseas will make them more expensive than goods in those countries (shipping costs, etc.) If Americans can’t visit Canada then their hospitality industry would get smoked. If goods become even cheaper in America due to the declining dollar, then why would Canadians buy the same thing in Canada and pay a double digit sales tax when they could jump the border and buy the same thing in America for a cheaper price and a lower sales tax? And when these things happen, who is going to fund the social welfare state in Canada?

I just have to completely disagree with Peter in thinking that people would be better off moving to Canada and New Zealand when they could move to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Am I missing something here?

[oyarde]

Okay, I have two questions and since this board is full of smart people I am sure y’all can help me with this.

1) We are all concerned about the growing debt and would like to see spending cuts. When we talk about government employees getting government pensions and benefits for the rest of their life, we hear Republicans complain about it and speak badly about unions. Okay, fair enough. But if we give lifetime health care and pensions to military members, it’s the same thing. Nobody forced anyone to join the military (unless they were drafted) so my question is this……..whether it is a union member getting a lifetime pension and benefits, or a military member getting a lifetime pension and benefits, what is the difference to the taxpayer?



2) I love Peter Schiff and I agree with just about everything he says with one exception. Peter sometimes says that if you are thinking of moving to another country, you should consider such places as Canada and New Zealand. I just got back from vacation in New Zealand and our artificially high housing prices in the last decade still don’t touch housing prices in New Zealand. Gas is $6.91/gallon, food is more expensive, a lot of their food is imported from Australia and although their gas prices are three times ours, average income is nowhere near three times ours. Also they have an abnormally high teen suicide rate and many young people are leaving. It does not seem like a good place to move to, even if you want to leave the United States. My friend in New Zealand pretty much agreed and she is looking to leave.

In regards to Canada, I grew up there. What a wonderful thing it was to get a $20 birthday gift from my grandmother which I could take to the bank and exchange for $30. With the declining US dollar, things are changing in Canada. About 80% of their exports are to the United States, most tourists to Canada are from America and about 90% of Canadians live within 2 hours of the US border and love to jump the border to buy cheaper things in America and pay lower sales taxes. If the United States goes belly up, who is going to buy Canada’s exports? They can’t just sell an equal amount of exports overseas because sending your products overseas will make them more expensive than goods in those countries (shipping costs, etc.) If Americans can’t visit Canada then their hospitality industry would get smoked. If goods become even cheaper in America due to the declining dollar, then why would Canadians buy the same thing in Canada and pay a double digit sales tax when they could jump the border and buy the same thing in America for a cheaper price and a lower sales tax? And when these things happen, who is going to fund the social welfare state in Canada?

I just have to completely disagree with Peter in thinking that people would be better off moving to Canada and New Zealand when they could move to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Am I missing something here?

The only Federal pensions I am OK with is the military . There should not be no pensions for other Fed jobs including Senate , Congress, IRS , etc . Private pensions are no matter as long as there is no Federal money involved .

[oyarde]

The military is a Constitutional expense , Article One , Section Eight . Other than minting coin , post office , weights and measures , roads , ports ..there is no authorization for congress to spend from federal taxation.

[oyarde]

Unconstitutional expenses wouid be Social Security , Medicare / Medicaid ( 22 % of budget ) , Dept of Education etc etc etc

[down_south]

But does a Constitutional expense mean you owe pension plans and lifetime health care? Couldn't we just provide those benefits as long as someone is in the military? You may know more about the military benefits than I do but I've heard you only have to be in for like 8 years before you qualify for lifetime health care.

[oyarde]

But does a Constitutional expense mean you owe pension plans and lifetime health care? Couldn't we just provide those benefits as long as someone is in the military? You may know more about the military benefits than I do but I've heard you only have to be in for like 8 years before you qualify for lifetime health care.

I believe that would be twenty years , and soon there will be plans for them to help pay for it likely . If there were not a standing Army and these guys were not spending twenty years deployed in other countries on command of the govt I would feel differently . The way it is , I am OK with those benefits , but no others .

[agitator]

I've heard you only have to be in for like 8 years before you qualify for lifetime health care.

20 years, but there are VA benefits for anyone who has "served" if you are in the poor house. But neiter are guaranteed.

[Teaser Rate]

Okay, I have two questions and since this board is full of smart people I am sure y’all can help me with this.

1) We are all concerned about the growing debt and would like to see spending cuts. When we talk about government employees getting government pensions and benefits for the rest of their life, we hear Republicans complain about it and speak badly about unions. Okay, fair enough. But if we give lifetime health care and pensions to military members, it’s the same thing. Nobody forced anyone to join the military (unless they were drafted) so my question is this……..whether it is a union member getting a lifetime pension and benefits, or a military member getting a lifetime pension and benefits, what is the difference to the taxpayer?

There isn’t one, what Republicans are advocating for is not the abolishment of public pensions, but a limit on their growth because the average public sector pension is much higher than a private pension and it’s not sustainable in the long run. That kind of problem doesn’t exist with military pensions as far I know.


2) I love Peter Schiff and I agree with just about everything he says with one exception. Peter sometimes says that if you are thinking of moving to another country, you should consider such places as Canada and New Zealand. I just got back from vacation in New Zealand and our artificially high housing prices in the last decade still don’t touch housing prices in New Zealand. Gas is $6.91/gallon, food is more expensive, a lot of their food is imported from Australia and although their gas prices are three times ours, average income is nowhere near three times ours. Also they have an abnormally high teen suicide rate and many young people are leaving. It does not seem like a good place to move to, even if you want to leave the United States. My friend in New Zealand pretty much agreed and she is looking to leave.

In regards to Canada, I grew up there. What a wonderful thing it was to get a $20 birthday gift from my grandmother which I could take to the bank and exchange for $30. With the declining US dollar, things are changing in Canada. About 80% of their exports are to the United States, most tourists to Canada are from America and about 90% of Canadians live within 2 hours of the US border and love to jump the border to buy cheaper things in America and pay lower sales taxes. If the United States goes belly up, who is going to buy Canada’s exports? They can’t just sell an equal amount of exports overseas because sending your products overseas will make them more expensive than goods in those countries (shipping costs, etc.) If Americans can’t visit Canada then their hospitality industry would get smoked. If goods become even cheaper in America due to the declining dollar, then why would Canadians buy the same thing in Canada and pay a double digit sales tax when they could jump the border and buy the same thing in America for a cheaper price and a lower sales tax? And when these things happen, who is going to fund the social welfare state in Canada?

I just have to completely disagree with Peter in thinking that people would be better off moving to Canada and New Zealand when they could move to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Am I missing something here?

Well, there’s your problem. :)

Peter is a very charismatic and articulate guy, but he does he make up a lot of stuff up you’re better off ignoring. How many times did we hear him call for the imminent doom of the dollar (while its value was actually going up) in the last few years? How many times does he say “we don’t make anything anymore” while the data shows that we lead the world in industrial production and our capacity is ever increasing? (etc, etc, etc)

Peter is not really a serious analyst, he's closer to a libertarian pit bull who can be really right or really wrong on any give issue.