As a nearly life-long New Yorker, I will defend the "little towns and cities" by saying that we get continuing delight in discovering unique and wonderful things in other city's museums and they are the most important factor in planning our travels. The exhibits may be smaller but some are gems.
Interestingly all those pieces are European
It seems that the big five have never enough of it. I'm happy with what I have.
There are USA born artists' work exhibited in several USA museums.
Of course, the US has produced no shortage of good art
And among other things, I do like my ramen, soondubu, bibimbap, falafels, gyros, stir-fries, curries (Thai, Indian, and..?), dan dan noodles, and the heavenly sort of bread that's crackly on the outside, with just the right density and chew on the inside.I have my will ready, and a few in the family know it.
FYI: pensions in the US are mostly private. The idea behind Social Security is that it would be only one leg of a three-legged stool. The other two legs were employer pensions and individual savings.
www.businessinsider.com
The responsible financial planners/advisors who have clients retiring 10 years or more from now are planning it without social security.
Good points, but the problem is that a lot of Americans just don't have the discipline to save. We should start training high school students in financial matters, but few are. And taking into account the total population, most parents are clueless.
And if you sell a home which has appreciated in multiples, and don't reinvest the gain in another primary home, you'll owe potentially high capital gains taxes (15-20%), the net investment income tax (3.8%), and many states with an income tax treat capital gains like regular income (e.g. California). The IRS gives a couples a $500K exclusion on the capital gain if you don't reinvest, and every state I'm aware of follows that, but for homes in many US cities they are expensive enough you still have a big taxable gain if you cash out.
Revenue just like Europe. They get healthcare, education, transportation, retirement and still make good products. US has the 5th lowest taxes per GDP out of 38 top countries and is probably at a lower rank with close to 20% going to debt service. Look who's below us.
You just can't resist injecting politics into this thread.
Economics, we all pay taxes and systems are different. So the subject of social security is not politics.
I'm on the camp of squeezing every ounce of efficiency first before increasing input, such as taxes. There is still an incredible amount of inefficiency in the US healthcare, education, infrastructure and government spending.
That's the oldest smear on SS there is (preceding Bloomberg by many decades haha) and while it sure is catchy and memorable, it's never been accurate
It absolutely is 100^100% accurate.
No, a Ponzi scheme requires a fraudulent claim of profit in a nonexistent enterprise, and the new investors funds are paid out to early investors under the guise of that profit. You may think SS is unfair, that's your prerogative of course, but it's not a Ponzi (unless you consider stuff like child-rearing to also be a Ponzi haha: Parents take care of kids for nothing? The whole reproduction of the species is predicated on belief that future generations will continue this financially asinine pattern?)
