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stinkcat_14
Guest
Where did I say there was a guarantee? What does a guarantee have to do with being rigged?
White people have 13 dollars for every dollar held by black Americans
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ringil
Guest
I receive SSDI and believe that it is a very good thing!
I am legally blind and it is exceptionally difficult for me to find a job because I cannot drive.
What would those against SSDI have me do? Sink or swim?
meltzerboy
New member
Haven’t most anthropologists rejected the concept of race altogether? Certainly it is not the same as color. Insofar as Jewish people are concerned, most of them are labeled White but some are not. Most of us humans are a mix of races, for those of older generations who still talk in those terms.
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bisco1
Guest
this is a classic example of how Jesus would have us live. God bless you.
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bisco1
Guest
agreed, most racists put people to the eye test. they don’t ask their ancestry before kicking them to the curb.
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bisco1
Guest
without a guarantee, how can people trust them?
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stinkcat_14
Guest
People will trust them if they do what they say they are going to do. If you buy the total market fund, you are investing in a basket of securities, you get the dividends and capital gains that accrue (if any). Vanguard makes no promises beyond that, yet people invest billions in the fund.
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ringil
Guest
The concept of “race” is a social construction of 18th. c…English anthropologists.
“Race” as is commonly understood has no basis in biology.
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bisco1
Guest
if it’s the holy grail, just cancel the rest of wall street, and let’s all agree to put everything into vanguard.
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stinkcat_14
Guest
Actually, there are some who would argue just that. However, because of Vanguard many other companies have followed suit as well, some of them even cheaper than Vanguard.
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Ridgerunner
Guest
This reminds me of a story. Probably most will just pass on, but it was interesting to me.
Years ago, I attended a meeting of one of the old mutual savings and loan associations. They were in a rush to convert to stock and commercial banks in those days, and I thought it would be interesting because the meeting was about their proposed stock conversion. I had an account in that S&L and therefore had preemptive rights to buy under the rules, so it was of interest to me.
The president of the company presented all the facts and figures and such, and it was immediately evident to me that this was one of the biggest giveaways in history. Institutions with net worth were giving that net worth to people who would invest in the new stock issue; on a one-to-one basis. So at least the book value of one’s investment would automatically double on the day he did it.
To my amazement, employees of the company who were there asked things like “Is it insured?” “Is it guaranteed” “Can I get my money back if it doesn’t go well?” Now, keeping in mind that I wasn’t and have never been a financial genius, I was just floored. Remembering as I did that bank stock back then typically sold in mergers at anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 times book value, I took to the floor. I told them all of that. Being a fairly young fellow at the time, I actually began to shout. “Don’t you see they’re giving you twice to even four times the value of what you’re putting in, for absolutely nothing?” “Yes” the president said “that’s true.”
It changed nobody. The president closed the meeting shortly thereafter. The conversion happened, just barely. Employee participation was almost nil. I borrowed some money and bought what I could. I wasn’t too creditworthy at the time, so it wasn’t much. I wished it was more.
After splitting three or four times not long thereafter, the converted institution merged with a regional bank at maybe eight or ten times what the cost of the stock was.
But was there a guarantee? No. None. There never is.
Yes, it is too bad. The American people seem to prefer keeping the current system where bankruptcy is inevitable, than allow people to control their own money. I’m 60, and would much prefer to have control of my money.
Jon
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stinkcat_14
Guest
I remember those days when the mutual savings banks were converting like crazy, but unfortunately I was working at minimum wage at the time, so I didn’t have much to invest. You are right however that many people are very ignorant when it comes to the relationship between risk and return. Everybody wants things guaranteed which keeps returns down and people also have inflation risk which is not as explicit, so it is easy for people to ignore.
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Ridgerunner
Guest
Sir or madam, whatever you be.
I am generally regarded on here as a conservative, and in many ways I am exactly that. I won’t recount the ways here so I won’t bore more than I usually do. Probably you and I have tangled here in the past and I think I recall that we have.
But if I was Barack Obama back when I had both the House and the Senate, I would have doubled SSDI, at least doubled it. Probably more. And do you know where I would have gotten the money? I would have means tested SS retirement. Warren Buffet does not need SS retirement. I would not need it in the future. Lots of people who get it don’t need it.
And do you know what? I think that’s a perfectly “conservatively principled” thing to do. I’m no theological scholar, but I have read the Social Encyclicals. The popes are clear in advocating societal aid to those who can’t help themselves to live a decent life. They do NOT advocate “middle class welfare”. They do NOT advocate “welfare for the rich”. People on SSDI are, by definition, “people who can’t help themselves”.
Do you know what? This year the government is giving $150/head to anyone who owned cattle in 2012. Why? Because it was a drought year. I had a few head, and it was no fun going through that drought, but I did it and without buying a single thing extra to do it, but by being very careful in what I did. And yet, the purpose of the $150 was to compensate ranchers for the extra hay they presumably bought, or for the loss on the cattle they sold because they couldn’t feed them. You didn’t really have to have bought any hay or sold any cattle to qualify. All you had to do was own the cows. I know one guy who got $90,000. He had plenty of pasture and didn’t have to sell a single one or buy a wisp of hay. And yet, he got $90,000.00. Another guy who got a lot commented wryly that it was “really a program to subsidize the equipment manufacturers and retailers” because that’s what most of the ranchers did with the money…buy new tractors, balers, whatever. I had to admit he might have been exactly right.
Two of my very middle class brothers bought new cars under “cash for clunkers”. They would have bought them anyway, though perhaps a little later. But they got thousands of dollars in subsidies to buy those cars.
But improve SSDI? No. Can’t do that. And when I see a “liberal” government do those things, I am doubly glad I’m at least an alleged conservative, so I can actually care what this society does for those who “can’t help themselves”.
Sometimes I think this country is clinically insane.
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Ridgerunner
Guest
I was in the same boat as you. I could no more qualify to buy a new car for example than I could qualify to be an astronaut in those days. But I could borrow a little to at least strike a small blow for liberty. 
I have, however, advised my son that the secret to asset acquisition is no secret. For most people, it’s living below one’s means, daring to borrow for an investment you understand, and the passage of time.
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bisco1
Guest
somewhere, bernie mad off is chuckling…
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stinkcat_14
Guest
Since Bernie is in jail, I doubt he is chuckling. But your implication seems to be that because Bernie is crooked, all finance is crooked. Which is a lot like saying some drivers drive drunk, therefore all drivers drive drunk, therefore driving should be banned.
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RGCheek
Guest
Exactly right. The word was used to mean ‘ethnicity’ back before that, as in the ‘German race’ or the ‘Irish race’.
Ben Franklin once wrote that he objected to all the Germans moving into Pennsylvania because it was spoiling the white race there.
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TEPO
Guest
That’s not exactly true. Many Native Americans are so badly diabetic because of the European-style diet that was brought here, that there are syringe disposal containers in all the restrooms of their casinos. I’ve seen it, particularly here in the desert areas… Europeans drink milk too, where a large number of Latinos have lactose intolerance issues, and tend to reject dairy products such as cheese after reaching maturity.
Our bodies adapt to our surroundings through natural selection.
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RGCheek
Guest
There are ethnic differences that are linked to DNA but that does not justify such broad categories as race.
To use auto’s for comparison, ethnic differences are like make and model and make sense to dig into. Race is what color the paint is and useless for any other consideration.
When you do a search for a new car online, do you put in the color of the car you want or the functionality (such as truck, hybrid, etc) and maybe the year it was made instead?
Knowing a persons race tells you very little, in fact it hardly even tells you their actual race since about 25% of people in the USA are mistaken about their race as indicated by DNA tests anyway. For instance, there are more whites that have black ancestry than there are blacks in the US. I for example discovered that I have African DNA, Berber, and I am as lilly white as you can get. Race is nonsense that political franchises are built on since it is an easy visual identifier, that is all.
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