Sophisticated Europeans
Paper Lives

JWR Goodness

Thomas Sowell:

Many people are unaware that the money that is taken out of their paychecks for Social Security is not   —   repeat, not   —   being put aside to pay for their retirement. That money is paying for people who are retired right now, and anything that is left over is being spent by politicians in Washington for anything from farm subsidies to Congressional junkets.

Social Security, by any other name, is a mess not only in the US but in many other countries as well. It would be better to be honest now and do something about it rather than 2 or 3 decades later. Sowell continues:

If I tell the bank that I can't afford to make the mortgage payment because my income is not as high as I thought it would be, they are going to throw me out in the street and take the house.

But no matter how much money you have paid into Social Security over the years, and no matter what you were promised when you paid it, the government always has the option to pay you back only what future politicians decide they can afford, given all the other things they might prefer to spend the money on.

Bingo. This is the best reason to have personal accounts.

Victor Davis Hanson on illegal immigration:

In response to the tired rhetoric, perhaps it is better to envision illegal immigration from Mexico not as a question of divisive politics, but of collective morality. Is it ethical for the Mexican government to export annually 1 million to 2 million of its unwanted citizens to avoid long-overdue reform   —   hoping to free itself of dissidents and earn $12 billion in subsidies from its poorest abroad? No wonder Mexico talks of the problem in terms of U.S. imperialism in lieu of its own cynicism.

Mexican politicians milk anti-Americanism for all it's worth. Read the full column as VDH asks some hard questions of us.

James Lileks brings, much needed, humor to the gender debate:

People still persist in this gender-neutral nonsense? They give a boy a Barbie, hoping it will awaken long-buried nurturing instincts. "After he's learned how to coordinate her outfits, we can introduce little Skyler to the Easy-Bake Oven, and cure some hemp." And so forth, until he graduates with a degree in education and peace studies and takes a teaching job ... that would otherwise have gone to a woman. Hmm. Well, fine; by then our daughter will be either a structural engineer or a jackhammer operator. It'll all work out.

It always does.

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