Evening rant #2

I know this blog is mostly about our trips to Vieques with a few things thrown in about our life "after the mortgage", but I just can't help myself on this one, especially since we personally have lived most all of our married life within our means with an ultimate goal of being exactly where we are today. It wasn't easy.  I lost my job 10 years into our marriage and had to totally change careers. This happened without warning (the company moved) and it was while we were building our first house.  But we had planned things so that one of us could lose his/her job and we still could make it. That's called living within your means, not living at the edge of your means or even beyond.

So "cut to the chase" you ask. Well ok.

 Yesterday I see splashed all over the web that our president is declaring that IF the debt ceiling is not raised SSI checks may not be mailed out first of August. Now aside from the fear mongering there's a real problem with what he's saying. Am I the only one that's bothered by the fact that we can't send out SSI without using borrowed monies? Uhh...aren't the deductions off  mine and everyone else's  payroll checks each week supposed to be going into an account to fund SSI? Think about it for a sec. We can't borrow ad infinitum to fund a program that's essentially broke or soon to be broken. Yeah I know..."we have a social contract" with retires. It also seems like we have a social contract with home mortgage owners who borrowed more than they could afford. You know...the tax monies that have been set aside to help pay down principles on peoples home mortgages. You think  that doesn't chap my arse!  Also seems like we have a social contract with the people who have been layed off recently.....we'll I use that term "recently" lightly. Some have been layed off for 3 years. Is that a social contract or a new career path? Seems we also have a social contract with the people who's jobs have been shipped over seas. I have a cousin who's job has been shipped over seas and he tells me he qualifies for assistance with his rent and utilities, plus his college for 2 years.  Think about that for a sec. The company axes him because of labor costs, it's been happening all over the country for years. So with each job we lose  more of our tax base and  now we also incur the cost of re-training these cast-offs. 

I've veered off onto multiple tangents here...I know.

IMHO the bottom line is NOT that those SSI might not be mailed out the first of August. No...it's that the system is broke and government and a large portion of this country is living beyond it's means. It's not going to be easy and it WILL be painful.

Did I ever tell you there's an island off the coast of Puerto Rico that I like to go to because I can get away from it all?

:-)