I received this in my email a few days ago. It's another one of those inaccurate rants that are mindlessly forwarded and propagated like an insane fractal pattern, eating up bandwidth and irritating me.
The original was written in a rainbow of colors, with font sizes varying from large to larger. (The screenshot at the top of this page of the email's final sentences will give you some idea.)
What I received is in red.
What I replied is in Blue.
2010 is an election year for 1/3 of the senate and all of the house of representatives.
It would be nice if congress got the message; the voting taxpayers are in charge now.
Social Security 2009
LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT! KEEP IT GOING!!!! Propose this in 2009: START A MOVEMENT TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY ------------ --------- --------- ---- SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.) Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves
So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. .....
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7, 800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275K during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those Dignitaries. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan to them is $0.00. NADA!! ZILCH!!! This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds; "OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer), We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Platform under the Senators and Congressmen. . Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us Then sit back..... And see how fast they would fix it! ALSO ALLOW ONLY 8 YEARS OF SERVICE FOR CONGRESS AND 12 YEARS FOR SENATE
This is my reply:
Oh, poop!
From:
"maggie kampp"
To:
"Zernardo Holler"
You didn't give me anyone to reply to but you! Nevertheless..... There are 2 (that's 'two') reasons that I wouldn't forward your attached email. First, with all it's different font sizes and colors it resembles a doctor's eye chart. Second, it doesn't appear to be accurate. I did 1 (that's 'one') search on Google and ended up with this..... http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm .....which may be equally inaccurate, but has the benefit of not appearing to be written by a frothing maniac. (I know that you're not a frothing maniac. You're just.....forwarding the froth onward.) I'm under no illusions. I know that people of power and influence will always cut the best deal for themselves. Those who have much, want more. And they will take more at the expense of those who have barely anything at all. If we apply that truism to the world at large, we might see that "The US consumes 25% of the world's energy with a share of global GDP at 22% and a share of the world population at 5%." - Wikipedia Or that "... 16 percent of the world's population is consuming some 80 percent of its natural resources. - As reported by CNN If we did a little research, we might see that it's not just Congress that grabs more than it's share. As a nation, we are very greedy people! "Problems in Paradise “If the levels of consumption that...the most affluent people enjoy today were replicated across even half of the roughly 9 billion people projected to be on the planet in 2050, the impact on our water supply, air quality, forests, climate, biological diversity, and human health would be severe.” Today’s human economies are designed with little attention to the residuals of production and consumption. Among the most visible unintended byproducts of the current economic system are environmental problems like air and water pollution and landscape degradation. Nearly all the world’s ecosystems are shrinking to make way for humans and their homes, farms, malls, and factories. WWF’s Living Planet Index, which measures the health of forests, oceans, freshwater, and other natural systems, shows a 35 percent decline in Earth’s ecological health since 1970. However, I AM in favor of political activism, so 'screed' on. And get thee to a voting booth! How many people will you forward this to? I may put it on my blog. (I'm not the only author, but you'll be able to pick out my posts.) I haven't posted there in many months. As I recall, my last post concerned hot dogs combined horribly with pasta. This will make a pleasant change. - Maggie (TiaHermanaMaggie) ps: Oh, by the way, I've never written any of my opinions anonymously. The Offices of the former and the current Presidential Administrations can tell you that. But I must reciprocate the thoughtful offer you made during our last exchange. If you want me to expunge your name from this before I post it, I will happily do so. Since I never received permission to use this person's name, I have expunged it. - Maggie |
1 comment:
Tremendous post and will look forward to your future update.thanks for sharing.
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