Super Floopy Day

Some years ago, we made up the holiday known as Sweet Maluma Day. The actual date varies, mostly by whether I remember it, but it's normally known as the day before New Years Eve, and it was created so that that day didn't feel lonely, what with the twin powerhouses of Christmas and New Years Day at either end of the week.

Today, I made up Super Floopy Day. I don't know whether it will achieve the notoriety and reknown of Sweet Maluma Day, but I like it. Super Floopy Day occurs on the same day as Father's Day, and its intended to recognize a day when really floopy things can happen. Today, it is a day when I got a massive Kitchen Aid mitt, suitable for barbecuing or putting out small fires, a collapsible wire mesh sculpture, and a bar of Dagobah chocolate, flavor: Hazelnut. All very cool, and of course all treasured because they come from my family.

My wife and I had a brief discussion (an excessively formal word for a very casual exchange of words) about the state of Social Security. I am in favor of voluntary participation in the privatization of SocSec, she is opposed to it, but we both agree that we do not trust the motives of the president or his cronies. We simply do not trust them, to the point where if they said the sun was shining, we'd carry umbrellas. That's not to say that they're totally without worth. (Well, okay, some are, but not all.) They should get credit for bringing the subject of SocSec's stability to the fore. Others have said that Medicare is in worse financial shape, and perhaps it is. Yet it's been known for years that with the demographics of this country, SocSec could not continue as it has been. Bringing the subject up, even as a political ploy -- and I think part of it is exactly that -- was a good move. Its likely that only a lame duck president could do it.

When they say that people have the responsibility to save for their own retirement, I agree with that. I don't think that I have the right to expect that the government will take care of me in my old age. What I do have the right to expect is that they will return my money to me, suitably compounded. Anything more than that is lagniappe. Desirable, and, from what I read, frequently a requirement to stay above the subsistence line, let alone the poverty line, but lagniappe. A compassionate government would fund that lagniappe. What we have now, though, is a government that wants to govern, but not to care. When it comes to assisting those who are not prepared for retirement, the prevailing Republican view appears to be that the best solution is to toss it all back on the shoulders of the individual, or the community. If as a result some of the needy sink, well, Adam Smith would have understood. After all, it's possible to make sufficient money to retire comfortably - look at George's coterie of supporters - so why doesn't everyone? Must be a failure of character.

I am not looking forward to the next major election -- I think it will be rife with lies and deceit. But I am looking forward to the chance to toss these scoundrels -- yes, even the well-meaning ones -- out on their collective rears. I hope that this time my fellow citizens agree that they've got to go. Its unfortunate that the only way to convince them will be when they see their families sinking because the governmental safety net was withdrawn. .

But it's Super Floopy Day, and thats a good thing. I believe I'll go have some fine chocolate.