mommie dearest

Just got through watching a COMPLETELY FALSE ad from McSame blaming higher gas prices on the Democratic party. GOD.

Econ 101 should be REQUIRED for graduation from high school.

On the way to work this morning, I went off on my mom. She was commenting on a story on NPR about social security and retirement. I love my mom, but she can be a bit of a conspiracy theorist sometimes about the stupidest things. She goes on and on about how Social Security shouldn't be encouraging people to work beyond the age of 62.

Here's an approximation of my response to that:

OK, Mom, here's the deal. The reason they are encouraging your generation to work longer is because of several reasons, but the biggest one is that YOUR generation decided to have fewer children AND 70 some odd percent of the female population joined the work force. So, you have more people in the system, eligible for high benefits and NOTHING to support them. Plus, when the system was designed, IN THE 1930s, not only did people have on average more children, they also worked until they were 62 and were DEAD by the time they were 68. Now you have people LIVING LONGER and DRAWING ON THE SYSTEM LONGER. So, excuse me if we think that maybe since you're in SUCH BETTER HEALTH and you CHOSE NOT TO HAVE MORE BABIES that the government thinks you should WORK A BIT LONGER FOR YOUR PAY.

Her response? You sound like a Republican.

I cannot win.