What’s at Stake for PBS Viewers? Budget Cuts Could Harm More Than Big Bird and Elmo

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stinkcat_14 said:
Actually, it is very accurate in the vast majority of cases. In the 1880s, around 75% of men over 65 were in the labor force. Today it is around 17%, so at a time when we are much healthier and more able to work, we are much less likely to work.
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How does this prove that those not working are too lazy to work?
 
JonNC said:
Then don’t. But claiming that someone over 65, who has paid contributions to SS 45 years or more is on the dole is flatly false.
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Claiming that a pure welfare program is anything else, is flatly false.
 
dvdjs said:
Hasn’t the constitutionality been tested in the courts?
Helvering v. Davis?
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Indeed. Progressive jurists have done much damage to the original intent of the constitution over the last century . Perhaps I should have said "extra-constitutional ".
 
stinkcat_14 said:
Anyone who quits work to collect the dole is lazy in my opinion.
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Well, confession time. I have been working as a teacher in one form or another for about 45 years, ever since I graduated from college. For much of that time I have taught at the university, both full-time and part-time, but also at the secondary, middle, and elementary school levels. Now I am planning on retiring to spend more time with family and friends. Actually, only semi-retiring: I plan on keeping my part-time job at one university while I retire from my full-time job at another university. I am in reasonably good health but I feel I have worked enough for one lifetime and want to avoid diminishing returns since the college teaching profession is not at all what it used to be years ago. I will be collecting Social Security benefits, which, by the way, are not all that much to live on. I do not have much in savings or investments either, so my retirement means a tightening of the belt, especially living in New York.

Based on the above, do you consider me a lazy person and do you think I should continue to work until I am no longer physically able to do so? Go ahead: I can take it.
 
JonNC said:
I guess those who are retired but spend lots of time working charitably are lazy, too. :rolleyes:
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Actually, I said if people want to spend their own money, then it is their business whether or not they want to work in the labor market. The issue I raised, is that if someone wants to collect the dole, which is what social security is, then subsidiarity would require that people support themselves before lining up for the government handout. Social Security is a handout, because you have to legal right to social security. The government can end it anytime without legal consequence.
 
meltzerboy said:
Well, confession time. I have been working as a teacher in one form or another for about 45 years, ever since I graduated from college. For much of that time I have taught at the university, both full-time and part-time, but also at the secondary, middle, and elementary school levels. Now I am planning on retiring to spend more time with family and friends. Actually, only semi-retiring: I plan on keeping my part-time job at one university while I retire from my full-time job at another university. I am in reasonably good health but I feel I have worked enough for one lifetime and want to avoid diminishing returns since the college teaching profession is not at all what it used to be years ago. I will be collecting Social Security benefits, which, by the way, are not all that much to live on. I do not have much in savings or investments either, so my retirement means a tightening of the belt, especially living in New York.

Based on the above, do you consider me a lazy person and do you think I should continue to work until I am no longer physically able to do so? Go ahead: I can take it.
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I don’t blame anybody for taking advantage of the system as it is currently in place. Similarly, I don’t blame the illegal aliens who sneak over the border. That does not mean, however, that the status quo in either case is desirable. Social Security and Medicare are hugely expensive programs and if we care about the welfare of our children, we need to give consideration to their welfare. Neither program is sustainable as they are currently implemented. That does mean that those who can work, should work.

As an aside, I tend to admire professors who leave before they have passed their prime. I have worked with many professors who should have retired years ago, or maybe they did and never told anyone. That is not to say that some professors can be at the top of their game past 80, but in my experience, most can’t.
 
St_Francis said:
First, the Feds supply only 14% of PBS and NPR funding, and second, Sesame Street has moved to HBO, and third, Sesame Street had a HUGE revenue from selling Muppets and it’s brand for lunch boxes and the like.

Originally, public broadcasting was set up because they were supposed to support the sort of programming that was not commercially viable. This is no longer the case.

And they are extremely biased in their reporting; why should my taxes go to that?
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I agree. They aired a program featuring a doctor that performs late term abortions last year, and no rebuttal program. I don’t want my taxes paying for that. Furthermore, many of the programs they air mow could be aired on other cable channels such as Discovery,

Many of the British series can be found on Netflix also.
 
Many people believe that Social Security is an “earned right.” That is, they think that because they have paid Social Security taxes, they are entitled to receive Social Security benefits. The government encourages that belief by referring to Social Security taxes as “contributions,” as in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act. However, in the 1960 case of Fleming v. Nestor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers have no legally binding contractual rights to their Social Security benefits, and that those benefits can be cut or even eliminated at any time.
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cato.org/publications/commentary/is-there-right-social-security
 
stinkcat_14 said:
I don’t blame anybody for taking advantage of the system as it is currently in place. Similarly, I don’t blame the illegal aliens who sneak over the border. That does not mean, however, that the status quo in either case is desirable. Social Security and Medicare are hugely expensive programs and if we care about the welfare of our children, we need to give consideration to their welfare. Neither program is sustainable as they are currently implemented. That does mean that those who can work, should work.

As an aside, I tend to admire professors who leave before they have passed their prime. I have worked with many professors who should have retired years ago, or maybe they did and never told anyone. That is not to say that some professors can be at the top of their game past 80, but in my experience, most can’t.
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Thank you for your kindness. Insofar as teacher/professor retirement is concerned, I think a good rule of thumb is that when you can no longer differentiate the students from the young professors, it is time to consider retirement.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
Actually, I said if people want to spend their own money, then it is their business whether or not they want to work in the labor market. The issue I raised, is that if someone wants to collect the dole, which is what social security is, then subsidiarity would require that people support themselves before lining up for the government handout. Social Security is a handout, because you have to legal right to social security. The government can end it anytime without legal consequence.
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I worked for 30 years and part of my paycheck was for SS, mot my own but for my parents generation. Also, maybe you aren’t aware but SS is taxed in most states. That said, most people aren’t able to live on SS alone. They need a pension or 401K to supplement that.

I am NOT on a dole. SS has problems and they could be fixed so that wealthy people aren’t eligible for it and that the age should be higher. It is also an unfair system because even if both spouses worked, if one dies you can’t collect SS benefits that they contributed.

And, these problems could be corrected if Congress would be forced to go on SS instead of their cushy retirement benefits that we as taxpayers are forced to pay.

Also, with today’s economy, I’d like to remind you that many of us were forced to go on it earlier thanks to companies "surplusing laying off, centralizing, or being bought off by another company, as was my case or I’d still be working.
 
utah_rose said:
I worked for 30 years and part of my paycheck was for SS, mot my own but for my parents generation. Also, maybe you aren’t aware but SS is taxed in most states. That said, most people aren’t able to live on SS alone. They need a pension or 401K to supplement that.

I am NOT on a dole. SS has problems and they could be fixed so that wealthy people aren’t eligible for it and that the age should be higher. It is also an unfair system because even if both spouses worked, if one dies you can’t collect SS benefits that they contributed.

And, these problems could be corrected if Congress would be forced to go on SS instead of their cushy retirement benefits that we as taxpayers are forced to pay.

Also, with today’s economy, I’d like to remind you that many of us were forced to go on it earlier thanks to companies "surplusing laying off, centralizing, or being bought off by another company, as was my case or I’d still be working.
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All good points! Social Security is actually not as wonderful as some people may think, and Medicare, well, enough said. These programs are still better than nothing, of course, which is actually what we may end up with if Paul Ryan and his cohort in Congress have their way.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
cato.org/publications/commentary/is-there-right-social-security
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Why do you keep pushing the Libertarian agenda? All of the articles you refer to are from Libertarian organizations and therefor have a Libertarian bias. You are not up-front about that important detail.

Social Security is not equivalent to “the dole”. I have worked over 40 years and I love what I do. Unfortunately companies are becoming “corporate” - no longer caring about the employees, I haven’t had a raise in over 7 years, not even a cost of living increase. But my company expects me to work harder to get less as they get more. In talking with friends, this attitude is rampant among many industries.

I would have gladly continued to work - I loved what I was doing and the people I worked with. But management has made me miserable, to the point of falling into deep depression and requiring medical help to climb out of it. My health continues to suffer. I can not get another job given my age.

But you consider me lazy for not continuing to work for backstabbing employers.
If that is what all Libertarians are about then I am glad to remain completely independent of any party line.
 
Actually, if you have grandparents or parents collecting social security retirement benefits, or disability, you’re a beneficiary as well.

For it they didn’t have SS, they’d be forced to live with you or on the street. Your wife would probably be the one to have to stay home and care for them when they became disabled.

Not every family lived like the Walton’s where grandma and grandpa stayed in the house they inherited from their parents and the oldest son, his wife and children lived with them.

Jim
 
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