You have to include opportunity for being productive and moving forward in the later years. Any talk of changing entitlements without talking about the need for opportunity to be productive,invent,move forward, is a waste of time. Entitlements nowadays are the only safe guard from being thrown away as an elderly person

Part2

Until then the position of those who wish to join is simple: No non-essential purchases of anything are made. Period.
What's an essential purchase? Here's the list:

* Enough food to eat at home. No more eating out.
* Rent and utilities.
* Essential medical services.
* Enough fuel to get to and from work.

In addition any "excess withholding" is stopped; if you are getting a big fat refund from the IRS every year you are loaning the government your money at zero interest until April. Stop that; its stupid. Change your W4 so you get exactly nothing back or owe a tiny amount; if you pay estimates pay only that which you must and not one dime more.
Note that it is unlawful to use your W4 to intentionally under-withhold, but you are in fact not obligated to pay one more dime in tax than you actually owe. There is nothing wrong with adjusting withholding to match (as close as you reasonably can) your actual tax obligation.
Put the money you save (it will be a lot!) into a non-TARP Credit Union if you have one available to you, or a non-TARP local bank if you do not. Spend none of it.
If we pledge to do this and not resume normal spending habits on wants as opposed to needs until and unless the budget is balanced, the bailouts are rolled back and those who committed fraud go to prison the government will be forced to act as they will simply run out of money.
They cannot force you to buy that new iPOD or flatscreen TV, or to take an expensive vacation.
Consumer spending is 70% of the economy.
This is a consumer weapon that is more powerful than any other means of peaceful protest. Strangling the government and private business' ability to steal from us all by cutting off their revenue will force reform, and has the additional benefit of being exactly what this nation needs to provide a strong capital formation base when that reform is complete.
If businesses want my money they can join in the chorus of voices demanding that government stop the looting and start prosecuting.
Will any of us be perfect in this endeavor? No. There will be the occasional indulgence I'm sure no matter who we are. But I'm willing to bet we can shrink consumption - each and every one of us - by at least 10% without any real personal pain at all, and if we do so it will send an indelible message to those in government and business: cut that crap out!
July 4th is Independence Day.
Let's make it a day of freedom from the banksters and government financial marauders.
Who's with me?

http://market-ticker.org/
__________________

JOIN THE CONSUMPTION STRIKE

I've posted before here and other places.. Now people are catching on!!
Here is the latest From the TICKER FORUM owner
Two Part message

The Market Ticker

Commentary On The Capital Markets

Tuesday, June 30. 2009

Posted by Karl Denninger in Editorial at 10:13
(Page 1 of 367, totaling 1099 entries) » next page
"Starve The Beast" - July 4th, 2009

Perhaps its time.
There have been a number of people on the forum talking about this, with one of the most recent converts being "iflyjetzzz".
Look, we can rant and rave about market manipulation and government-sponsored games. We can petition the SEC, the FBI and Congress. We can demand that they stop it all we want.
But they haven't and likely won't until and unless America gets pissed off enough to force them to act.
So how do we make that happen, yet remain within the law?
Its not that hard, and in the intermediate and longer-term it would be incredibly positive for our economy and nation.
We go on a consumption strike until and unless our demands are met.
What are our demands? Here's the list:

* All the financial fraudsters are investigated, indicted, and prosecuted. This includes the con artists in CONgress who got "special deals" from Mozilo and his "Friends of Angelo" program (and who are blocking a subpoena to BofA as it would implicate them), it includes those past and current members of Government Sachs, and it includes all those other financial "professionals" who deceived Americans and others with their sale of toxic exploding mortgage products along with the securities supposedly backed by them.
* Glass-Steagall is restored, in full, and all the firms that can't exist under it are broken up. Period.
* The insider-trading that has become blatant and outrageous is prosecuted where illegal and where not, is made illegal and then prosecuted, with the focus being on the size of the scam. This includes obvious circumstances such as August 2007 (Bernanke's phone logs were FOIA'd) where trading patterns made clear that "certain someones" had foreknowledge of the discount rate cut along with Congresspeople who were briefed on the TARP and within hours or days made significant stock trades. Today if you're Martha Stewart you're prosecuted where if you make millions in an hour by exploiting government information "leaks" the SEC and FBI look the other way.
* The Government withdraws all of its backstopping of financial firms who created this mess. All of it. If you're a bank or other firm and did something imprudent, you fail. Period. This is true whether you're a small regional bank (as is happening now; 5 in the last week) or a big behemoth like Citibank or Bank Of America. No "special deals", no "special guarantees", nothing of the kind. If the government wishes to avoid "systemic risk" then the government regulators can do their damn job.
* The Fed disgorges all of its improperly-acquired MBS and other related securities. If it doesn't have a full-faith-and-credit guarantee and was bought, it is disgorged - period.
* The Fed agrees to full annual audits without exception.
* Those people inside government who conspired with certain bankers to cook the books, along with those in the banks who did so, go to jail. Our own Office of The Inspector General in the government has confirmed that there was an active conspiracy to break the law within the OTS, but not one indictment has been issued.
* Those who committed fraud in the creation of this economic mess, whether they be mortgage lenders, those who packaged up securities while intentionally omitting credit information, those in the real estate industry to pressed for appraisal fraud and others are investigated, prosecuted and if convicted jailed. All of them.
* Losses are born by those who made bad decisions, not the taxpayer generally. Those who made good decisions get to reap the benefits, while those who made bad decisions eat the losses. No exceptions.
* Government cuts the annual budget deficit to zero. If government wants to blow the money it has to have the money. If they can't raise the money they don't spend it. It is time to live within our means and hold government to account for its profligate spending along with promises of "benefits" they know they cannot actually deliver down the road such as Medicare Part D.

We have seen a few "tea parties" in which a few people showed up and which were immediately panned by "those in power" as "astroturf."

Contrast with this.

A few days ago, Iran held an election. It is alleged that there was massive fraud. The current President claimed victory under less-than-clear circumstances.

The people said "hell no!" in this sort of demonstration:

That's about 2 million people, out of 70 million population (roughly), or one in thirty-five Iranians in the entire nation who took to the streets to demand justice in a simple vote.

More strikingly, Tehran has a population of roughly 12 million; this means that one in six citizens of the city are standing in that crowd.

This, despite the fact that the government there has been shooting people, has arrested the opposition party and issued an order to burn the ballots so there can be no recount.

This, despite the fact that the Iranian population does not enjoy a Second Amendment, and thus is forced to fight a rogue government with makeshift molotov cocktails, rocks and clubs, should that rogue government choose to shoot.

And this was about an election. A President. One man.

In our nation we have literally had 1/3rd of our GDP - that is, 1/3rd of everything you worked for last year - stolen by a bunch of fraudsters with the explicit cooperation and assistance of the government.

We should be seeing 10 million Americans literally closing Washington DC with peaceful protest in the streets - making the entirety of the downtown inaccessible to vehicles and the normal conduct of business impossible, were Americans to display the same sort of anger over an insult vastly more serious than that served upon the Iranian people.

If one in six Americans had enough in America's big cities, there would be one million people in the Streets of Chicago - enough to fill Chicago's Loop from Lake Michigan to I-90/94 and from The Chicago River to beyond Soldier Field, rendering the city core impassable. (Roughly double the crowd that shows up for the 4th of July Fireworks, to put it in perspective. "Greater Chicagoland" has a population of ~7 million)

The same in NY City would result in a crowd of 3.3 million people.

Where are you America?

In America, if the government turns into a goon squad, you have the constitutionally-protected ability to shoot back. In Iran you have no such ability as the Iranian government has never recognized the unalienable rights as set forth in our Declaration.

So in Iran the population risks mass death to protest.

In America the population risks loss of some income since you'd have to cut work.

The Iranians take to the streets; we take to our couches and have another beer.

Grow a pair of balls America.

The people of Iran are putting us to shame.

PS: Those threats appear not to have been idle either:

http://market-ticker.org/

I commented about this the other day.
Can't say it any better than Karl

TWO part Message

http://market-ticker.org/

The Market Ticker
Commentary On The Capital Markets
Monday, June 15. 2009
Posted by Karl Denninger in Editorial at 12:13
(Page 1 of 350, totaling 1049 entries) » next page
Proud To Be American? You Should Be Ashamed

We have seen the largest looting operation in history perpetrated against The American People.

Over $5 trillion dollars in junk securities were marketed and sold. They had a real value of about $2 trillion dollars; the other $3 trillion, roughly, was pure fiction.

The banks created and sold these throughout the world, with the full knowledge and support of Congress, The Fed, and the banks themselves.

It was pure fraud.

Granting someone a "mortgage" based only on whether they can fog a mirror is proof positive of malfeasance, unless you disclose this fact to the buyers of these securities - a fact that was not disclosed until after the securities blew up.

Lenders, builders and others pressured appraisers to "hit the numbers" to support these fraudulent deals. Proof of that is found in the nearly-10-year-old Appraisers Petition bearing thousands of appraiser signatures.

That ratings were a "mistake", either real or intentional, is a matter of now-known historical fact.

Americans have sat on their butts through all of this, allowed their 401ks and IRAs to be trashed, their supposed "home values" to be pumped and then destroyed, and their hopes, dreams, employment and house have all vanished into the ether of fraud.

When this came to light the banks went to Congress, and supported by The Fed's intentional draining of liquidity to create an immediate "crisis", they got a $700 billion bailout bill passed - one that you, your children and grandchildren, will have to pay for.

The government then passed another near-trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill claimed to hold unemployment to 8%. It did not, because it was yet another "papering over" of the fraud, but that bill your children and grandchildren, along with you, will also pay.

Your savings accounts and CDs now yield an effective zero.

Your credit card interest rates have gone from 11% to 29%, all so that the banks can keep granting ill-advised credit to people who can't pay. Those who can pay - the rest of you - are being jacked for 30% a year in interest.

If you watch government reports changes as little as .1% are tracked. There was 47% of America that said they didn't want what they have now. If we can get 10-20% participate it will make some noise. Along with the 16% unemployed!

Thanks Lori

But I need your help to tell people what you just said! If they understand they will participate. Were Americans ya know and we like it easy LOL

Your all ready participating by default :) If ya ain't got it ya can't spend it. Just pass the word around

Today they are having Demonstrations in IRAN!! IRAN!!!
Why is it we are so hesitate to do something that requirea no demonstration

If you want to educate. Just wait till it comes up in conversation and person is unhappy. Then tell them you and others are not spending. Tell them about the consumer being 70% of the economy ETC!

Lori has it figured out!! And as she said it is a simple as it gets. All it takes is people to talk when the occasion arises and implement it in the best way they can. Everybody has to push their own level of fear as to how far they will go! but every bit helps!

SO how do we push this thing forward. the first thing somebody has to do is teach me how to follow anything on here LOL It takes me a half hour to get back here and don't know how I do it. Why cant you just follow a thread like on any other forum?????
Email me LOL !!