The Duc Pond

Well, my email was anyway.

You’re probably not familiar with Dave Ramsey since he’s best known in the South, but he’s this radio guy who helps people with their finances. He’s like the Suze Orman of Jesusland. He quotes a line of scripture every day, makes other religious references, and seems to push the Bush agenda once in a while. I listen to him on Sirius because I like listening to financial advice (even though I already know what he’ll say) and also it’s neat to hear what kind of fucked up financial situations people get into. Almost everyone who calls has a Southern accent, though, so I feel like I’m transported to a different part of the country when I listen.

Anyway, he’s been pushing Bush’s Social Security plan, so I wrote in with an email about taking care of our elders, not punishing those who aren’t financially astute, that 401(k)s and IRAs are already best suited for private investment, etc. Unfortunately I had to make it short since long things generally don’t go over well on the radio, so my argument was pretty half-assed.

He read it in its brief entirety on the air. He pronounced my name like Tucson (Arizona), which has happened before. He said some quote from Winston Churchill (”If you are young and not a liberal, you have no heart; if you are old and not a conservative you have no head”). Then he said he agreed with me, but the government was really bad at doing anything so they shouldn’t try taking care of people at all.

I could have written more substantially about the balance of socialism and capitalism that I think the Europeans have done well with, but again, would’ve been too long.

I love, love, love the stock market, but I just can’t suppport privatization of Social Security. Eliminate the payroll tax ceiling and see what that gets us. After that we’ll see what we need to do.