I've often wondered why we provide Medicare to the old instead of the young. Think about it: old people had their entire working lives to save for retirement. Younger people are typically much poorer, yet we provide the socialized medicine to the old, who are only going to consume 90% in their last few weeks of life.

Wouldn't it make more sense to only provide medicare to working people?

I'd prefer to eliminate it entirely, but it would make more sense to provide it to the young if you're going to do it for anyone.

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I've often wondered why we provide Medicare to the old instead of the young. Think about it: old people had their entire working lives to save for retirement. Younger people are typically much poorer, yet we provide the socialized medicine to the old, who are only going to consume 90% in their last few weeks of life.

Because old people vote more than anyone else.

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I've often wondered why we provide Medicare to the old instead of the young

1. The young seldom need health care

2. The young are covered by their responsible parents health insurance.

3. The poor young qualify for Medicaid.

Lord,

Because when these programs were set-up that's not the way it was. The "old" had very little and no safety net because "retirement" didn't exist. You worked till you died (true, that was changing when Medicare was enacted but the notion that one "retired" before they were physically unable to work any longer was still a very new idea in the early/mid-60's).

This "inversion" where the young are the "working poor" that are servicing the recreational retirement of their elders has only existed for the last few decades. It's completely immoral & wrong the way it has developed.

Workerbee wrote..

I love what I do, most of the people at our unit are retired military, and I enjoy the helloutta WWII veterans.

Bless you for taking good care of them.

I don't have any brilliant solutions for any of this...but I do know one thing, our veterans MUST be taken care of, especially for any illness or injury incurred because they volunteered to die for our country. WWII veterans are the prime example of this. Without them, I would not be here - and I imagine many of us would not be.

Well day two & I am still breathing. God Bless America!

Hello all. I have long been a lurker here and have read KD since early 2008. I am mostly in cash at the moment with about 10% of my portfolio in gold stocks/ physical gold. Not a ton. Is there a thread that talks about what preparation everyone is doing? I am not a tinfoil kind of guy...but my antennae are WAY up today.

P.S. Like the TickerCON Karl.

V.r,
LCDR John Marburger

Long weekend over, no event. Should be moved to 3 IMHO.

I think 2 is better. It's clear no action was taken to improve the overall situation, it's just not imminently getting worse because of China.

The defcon feels like hyperbole when it goes from 3 to 1 in two weeks.

waiting for the Fed at lunch on wednesday 4/27 - nothing else matters in market until then.

Will come back then!

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Is there a thread that talks about what preparation everyone is doing?

John, this is one of the best threads on that topic. I don't see any recent comments, but it covered pretty much everything, if I recall correctly.

http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=714....

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Is there a thread that talks about what preparation everyone is doing?

The best thing you can do is use your head. I've been doing this since 2007 or so, so it's more or less elementary to me. I'm amazed when I tell people they need to prepare for a dislocation that they have no idea what to do.

What do you need to live for 2 months? 6 months? A year? What do you need in case of civil unrest? In case you have to move? It's a pretty simple question and answer exercise.

MlsHawaii. Thank you. I will take a look.

Jotapay, I do think for myself and do use my head. Simply asking for a thread talking about what others have discussed on this board is hardly a silly question.

The communication of ideas is the premise of a message board...why not use it?

I'm equally amazed when people assume that that logistics of situations are homogeneous. I am 99% sure that my situation is completely different from yours. Like:

I am an officer in the U.S. Navy. If SHTF, I can't run off to a remote location because of my duty obligations. I may not be able to be present with my daughters and need to think about whether others have discussed pros and cons of keeping them around or shipping them off.

I am divorced and my daughters live in San Francisco with their mother who thinks I worry about this stuff too much. Do I take the ex along with me in order to facilitate protecting my girls while I am in Monterey.

There is much in my situation that is not black and white. Please consider that next time someone comes looking for information and you imply an inability to be intrinsically motivated or intelligent enough to think for one's self.

V.r,
John

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I am 99% sure that my situation is completely different from yours.

Exactly. That is why what I've done is pointless to you. Again, what does your family need to survive for a few months? DHS has even said you should have these things. That alone should convince your ex to take measures to provide for the children.

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I am 99% sure that my situation is completely different from yours.

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Exactly. That is why what I've done is pointless to you. Again, what does your family need to survive for a few months? DHS has even said you should have these things. That alone should convince your ex to take measures to provide for the children.

But I think the point is that there are still some common needs that each individual must address; water, food, fuel, shelter, safety, etc. The manner in which each individual prepares may differ some, but it's not necessary to re-invent the wheel if someone else has figured something out.

Not to be the perpetual Debbie-Downer, but isn't it a bit late to just start to figure this out now? If you are still in the formulation stage, it's very late.

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Not to be the perpetual Debbie-Downer, but isn't it a bit late to just start to figure this out now? If you are still in the formulation stage, it's very late.

While I agree with you that situations vary and that it is very late in the game, and that some of us have been preparing to the best of our ability for some time, there are always new people becoming aware of the situation, and waking up to what is and has been, happening in this country right under our noses.

I, for one, have only been a true regular here for about 18 months, and only realized how bad things are since becoming a regular here.

I am as ready as I can be in the amount of time I have been "Awakened" and with the money I have available to me to make preparations. Not as ready as I would like to be, but as ready as I can be.

For those of us who are just finding our way back into the light, I feel sorry for them and pray for them. They have an extremely long row to hoe.

But, that being said, and acknowledging that everyone's situation requires slightly different plans and preparations, aswering questions as to basic preparations and strategies for making it through is something that we should all be at least attempting to do.

I reccommend, as a starting point, finding Karls "10 things you must do" thread, and reading it and all of the comments in it. There are a lot of great ideas there.

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Wow - did we just go back up to Defcon 3????

He said he was going to depending on what happened over the weekend and FOMC. I'm surprised it's 3 instead of 2, but whatever. :)

Ok, the dollar's tanking, but ticker con is improving.

I'm so newb.

Asimov - that's more or less what I meant... because I expected to see a 2 sometime today...

What did I miss to justify the move to 3? Hell, I'm ready to dump all my dollars.

briefly glanced 73.53?????