rec.autos.simulators

One other thing that's ridiculous was the fact that a lot of states
wanted to have a Lottery system and one of the big selling points was
that a huge part was suppose to support education by giving them 40% or
something like that. Well, at least in California, the stupid
politicians saw how much money the schools were getting from the
lottery so what did they do? Cut the school budget and let the lottery
make up for what they just took out. The problem with that was that
lottery sales declined and less money went towards the schools. Now the
public schools are worse off than they were before the lottery even
started! There are hardly any after-school activities and that includes
sports, band, or anything else because there's no money.

Larry,

   I would gladly pay just $3,500 in property taxes. I'm up to $6,500.  As for Social  Security, I've been paying into the system for 40 years, and they just keep on upping the retirement age to get back what IS rightfully mine.  For you younger folks, you better hope that they do in fact change the system and allow you to put your SS money in a individual retirement account.  Other wise you just might have to wait until your in your 80's to collect the full monthly allotment.

  Joel Willstein

  I _already_ pay 40% in the US, and that's just income taxes.

  Add to that $3500 a year in propert tax, $800 a year in Car taxes, sales
  taxes, dog tag taxes, sin taxes (cigarettes, bear, etc...) plus others I
  can't even remember.

  Then add the Social Security Tax (which I have no problem paying - I'll need
  it some day).

  Then there's the utility taxes.  My $17 a month phone bill is actually $34 a
  month after taxes.  I kid you not.  The taxes are half the cost.

  The US ain't cheap, and we don't have much in the way of social programs
  except Social Security and Medicare, and that's not for everyone of course.

  Eventually, there will be a tax to pay off this massive deficit our
  wonderful president has created for us.  When the bill comes for that, it's
  gonna hurt bad.  I guess we can call it the Bush War Tax, or BWT for short.

  The Bill's a comin'.  It won't be sent until he's sunning on th beach
  though.

  -Larry

  > >UK is now most taxed country in the world and aint far behind iceland
  >>for being the most expensive place to live. this goverment sux.
  >>Tango
  >
  > Perhaps it might be time for a modern Boston Tea Party, except this
  > time it'll take place in England. "Taxation without Representation!"
  > There's a reason why we Yanks revolted way back in the 1700's.
  >
  > However, before you start your own revolution, note that the United
  > States is catching up to you in taxes. It won't be long before 40% of
  > our paychecks goes to the country. In Canada 45% or so goes to the
  > government, but at least they have "free" healthcare. The US will be
  > taxed their rate without the healthcare.
  >
  > Speaking of taxes, (if you live in the US) did you know that all those
  > taxes that you have on your cellphone bill are actually tax increases
  > by the government? It's their little way of increasing taxes without
  > having to put it to vote or going to the people for their approval.
  >

Don McCorkle

Joel Willstein enlightened us with:

WAAAA!   People live longer now.  

When the dumb-***ing plan was created in the Stone ages, most men didnt live past 50 or 60.  So few actually were living past 60, it made sense.  After all, it was all a plan, created by the wealthy, look at how it ***ing works:  

The Bosses, who had cushy management jobs all thier life, lived long enough to spend several hundred or thousand coal miner laborer's lifetime contributions..   BTW, its been that way for ***in years.  What is worse, is ***ing democrats think they fooled you all, and I agree look at all the IDIOTS spending money they havent made yet?  (credi cards and other shit).  With the current Social Security plan has been since it's conception that if you had jobs where you have gym's and shit like that you will probably get some retirement, if like my old job, it (now) includes things like gasmasks, enviro-suits plus daily showers and monthly *** tests, well I wouldnt bet I'd be spending your contribution, but hopefully my wife will.

Shit man, wake the hell up.

For you younger folks, you better hope

There will be a lot more wailing and gnashing of teeth before this is
accepted though.

Andrew McP

Here in California a house is about $500.000 and we pay as much as $3.00
a gallon for gas . Our food costs are going up and up and it's getting
stupid to live here.

Never Mind....

That's a load of shit.

-Larry

Amen to that!

By the way, $500,000 will buy a 1 or 2 bedroom bungalo unless you want
to commute 1.5 hours each way to work then you'll be lucky to buy a 2
bedroom house. A true house, at least in San Francisco, will cost about
$1.2 million.

I'm preparing myself to have to work until I'm at least 70, if I live
that long.

Andrew McP

I'm 44 and I doubt that I will ever see a retirement. I only wish that
we Americans would wake up and vote some real people into office that
would help the people who pay there wage.

Basically living longer is killing us financially. You never could have
your cake and eat it, but for a while we were led to believe it was
possible. Personally I never believed it, which is why I have no
pension. You can't lose what you never had. :-)

Andrew McP

  And right there is the crux of your problem; expecting the govt to help,
etc.  That *creates* problems, not solves them.  I.e., anything you'd like
the govt to do, whether it's build widgets or provide health care, will turn
into just another blackhole of wasted money, like so many other
programs......money via your taxes.
  Myself, I'd rather decide where *my* money gets spent, and how, than some
bloated, inefficient bureaucracy.

  If you think your health care is expensive now (and it is, no doubt), wait
until taxes start paying for it.  For that matter, look at this years
Federal health care programs, especially Medicare.  Rounded off, it's 2006
budget is 200 billion dollars.  Take the US population.  Rounded off, it is
300 million.  Do the math.  And remember, obviously, a large part of the
population isn't even on Medicare.

  Without going into a debate as to the necessity or not of Medicare, the
above figures show there is obviously HUGE amounts of tax dollars waste.
And that's just ONE program.

  It wasn't long ago (in the US) when expecting the govt to solve one's
problems was an alien concept.  Unfortunately, no longer the case.

It's paying into a system your entire life, and reasonably expecting it to
be there for you when the time comes.

Social Security and Medicare aren't much different than Insurance programs.
Nobody is asking to get everything for nothing.  People PAID for it their
entire lives.

-Larry

    They're not even close to insurance programs.  I can *choose* which
insurance program I want to use, and what parts of that program I want to
use.  Hell, I can even choose not to have insurance at all.

     Besides, I don't see SS or Medicare even mentioned in the orig posters
post, but I did see "<snip>...we in the US will never get any help from our
government....<snip>"

     And of course, neither SS nor MC were ever meant to be the end all to
anyone's retirement/health problems anyway.  They are meant as supplements,
and that fact was never hidden from anyone.

     But if you want the govt to solve your problems, I guess you could look
at them as the end all instead <g>

The fact is that these programs are taxes, and as soon as the money is
paid in it goes back out the door to pay someone else's bills. That's
fine for as long as the retiree:worker ratio stays the same as it was
decades ago, but we're long past that point.

The goalposts have moved. Fix: raise the retirement age, simple really.
And save for your own retirement FFS. Even if you get your SS checks
you'll be living in poverty if that's all you rely on.