Social Security Problem Explained in One Picture

A lot of people seem to be confused as to how Social Security came to be based on such financially unsound practices. The answer is told by this lady. Congress paid her (and millions of people like her) 1000 times what she actually contributed in Social Security taxes. In simple terms, they bought her vote with money they stole from succeeding generations. Unfortunately for us, as with all Ponzi schemes, this arrangement couldn't be sustained forever. Fortunately for the politicians that created this liability, they're all dead, and it's now our problem -- exactly as they planned it.

Would You Buy This Product?

Would you continue to buy a service where the cost kept going up and up and the value you received for it did not?









What if the service provider told you that costs were rising because he needed to hire more and more people to serve the same number of customers every year?

Real Real Estate

When I was growing up nobody thought of buying a home as a great financial investment. It was something you needed -- like clothing or food. Then the economic Wizards of Washington (who responded with Pavlovian predictability to the lobbying of the real estate, construction, and banking industries) decided to more heavily subsidize mortgage debt. Everyone must own a home. everyone will benefit from owning a home (see "You can fool some of the people all of the time").  But, then, as it always dies, economic reality intruded on the fantasy party. Now, guess what? Real home prices have fallen back to their real economic value. It will probably be, oh, another 30 years before they'll be able to fool another generation.