Steve's barking; celebrating something I want to do away with

The U.S. is celebrating to the 50th anniversary of Medicare.
Medicare has been very, very good to me and my fellow senior citizens.
Now I it's time to end it.
Da at da, it must be replaced with a single payer or at least a single payee.
If you want to call it Medicare for all because you love Medicare so be it.
So Mr. Bush, you might be right, phase out Medicare with single payee, or single payer.

Steve's barking; Trump and who else is running for president of the United States

Quick, give your self five seconds to start naming who as of June 21st is running for president.
If it takes you more then five to ten seconds then you can stay that Mr. Trump has taken all the air out of the room.
You don't hear about Cruz, Hillary, Paul, Allen, Walker, Sanders, Bush and on and on. All you hear about is Trump, Trump and more Trump.
Every comedian talks of Trump. All republicans talk of Trump. He's in the news front back and side ways in the papers. All over the media television, radio, Internet, all you here is Trump said....insulting( name some or group of people).
He's turned into living proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

For all you out there, who think that Trump is a joke that can't win, in the 30s they said the same thing about Hitler( and no I'm not comparing Trump to Hitler).

Steve's barking, The Greek people aren't the only loses in the Greek bailout.

The Greek people aren't the only loses in the Greek bailout.
The Greek people are the biggest loses in this so called bailout, but not far behind them are the German people. How's that you may ask. Simple says I, the German people have got to work longer then they should. Retirement in Germany for too many is too long down the road. No human being should be forced to work after 65 if they don't want too. The Greek bailout is now a wedge between the economic numb nuts who run the country and the people who do the work.
Question for all of you, do you think that a person who is over 65 in most industries is effective as a 40 year old. Doesn't most senior citizen have more ailments that make it harder to work then a 40 year old? Doesn't a person deserve the right to enjoy his or her retirement before it's too late?
The Greek bailout is a good excuse for the government to screw the workers out of a good retirement.
Americans who have pensions should not be too smug, for there are too many who would love to cut your pensions and would site Greece and Germany. They would love to cut Social Security, and now they can site Greece and Germany as examples.

Steve's barking; The harder you work the more work you get

In my American world, the harder you work the more work you.
We have this here myth in America that if you work hard you get a head in the world.
In my time in the working world I and many like me (lower end workers) discovered that the harder you work the more work is put on you. If there is a mistake guess who's the one to be blamed the dude or dudess who works the hardest. Who in my world worries the most about doing a good job? You got the one who works the hardest. Now in the real world why doesn't the work be spread evenly.
Let me count the ways.
1 Friend of the boss.
2 Workers aren't trusted.
3 Fellow workers can't do the job as good.
4 Reliability of the hard worker.

In the real world not the American mythological world greeting up in the world getting up in the world usually takes three things.
In order.
1 Knowing the right people ( kissing the right butt).
2 Being bright.
3 Being in the right place at the right time.
4 Working hard, while learning while you work.

Steve's Barking; Ya pays Ya money, Ya take Ya chances.

I was brought up when you invest in something like foreign government debt, you do your own personal do diligence. If the bonds don't pay off, your out some money. There was no guaranty that you would get full return on your investment.
So what's the story that a hedge fund holds an Argentine training ship hostage.
Porto Rico bond holders expect to be paid in full.
Same is true with holders of Greek notes
Now most of these bond holders don't want government interference in what they do, but want their governments to some how protect their investments in foreign bonds.
My feeling is ya invest your money, ya take your chances.

Bullying by bond holders of foreign government debt is reprehensible.

Steve's barking; To pension or not to pension

The wold has come to the point of deriding pensions.
State pensions the norm in Europe are being cut.
In the States we have eliminated or at least cut our private pensions, replacing them with something called a 401k were the individual invests their money and gets deferred taxation ( this scheme was devised to increase U.S. Savings rate). Public pensions are being attacked as being to costly.
What's wrong with cutting payouts on pensions.
Let me put it in simple terms. It's short sighted and maybe down right stupid.
(1)It's a tax on future earnings that being payed before it's given out(?).
(2) The future doesn't hold out that the number of jobs will increase with the population. Just think automation and an aged population. Less jobs for more workers.
Now going a step further, less pension money less ability to buy manufactured goods, not to mention paying for services.
(3) If in the future a large minority can't afford to pay for goods and services economies will collapse.

The reality isn't the reduction or the elimination of pensions is figuring out a way to make them grow and paying for them.