The Berlin Wall was like that,
The Korean DMZ is like that,
The wall in Isreal is like that,
And freedom is about opening up the window.
Categories
[303] Of cats
Categories
[302] Of social security
Today in my financial economics class, conducted by a hilarious visiting professor from Vanderbilt University, for the first time there was a hint of politic in it.
It all started with the discussion of investment companies and from there, the topic gradually moved on to pension fund and all the way to social security system. Currently, the social security system is the largest pension fund in the whole world and it is sort similar to the Employees’ Pension Fund back in Malaysia. More precisely, the social security is a defined benefit plan, where the employer is responsibled to set aside part of its employees’ income into a pension fund and then hand out a stream of income for its employees after their retirement. In reality, a small part of the company assets is aside for the purpose, not part of the employees’ income. Therefore, the money that is supposed to be there to pay future retirees is not actually there but rather, will be paid through future wealth that will be put aside when the time to pay up comes.
Currently, the baby boom generation that came into being in the 70s is still in the workforce and the generation is slowly pushing themselves towards retirement. Right now, the social security works because there are more people in the workforce versus people that is out of them workforce due to retirement. And presently, in practice, the baby boomers are paying the income stream for current retirees.
The problem arises when the baby boomers retire. As Professor Rousseau put it in a serious but yet entertaining tone, “And guess who is going to pay for it?”
Well, guess who?
Hint, USD 500 000 000 000 budget deficit; for the mathematically deficient, that’s half a trillion dollar.
Answer, us. Well, actually us excluding me unless I continue to stay here after 2005.
There are a few solutions to this problem. One is to scrap the social security system. Interestingly, the professor said this may not be the solution due to moral hazard – we won’t allow our parents to live in the street. Well, would us?
Categories
[301] Of ReMag 1
If one gets too comfortable with a way of life, a situation or anything, he or she risks losing the skill to adapt. The inability to adapt means extinction and this is particularly true in chess.
I could say that I am a competent player in chess although I do need to sharpen my mind a bit – well maybe by a whole lot – before playing a serious game. However, I have one weakness – I love white so much that I can’t remember when the last time I played black. I may master most of white openings but I have only one or two openings for black.
One day, saw somebody played chess. Having almost nothing exciting to do for the whole week, I decided to have a little game. The person asked whether do I mind playing black and somehow, I said no. At first I didn’t realize the significant of the lame no. So, we prepared the board for a game with the typical 32 black and white pieces of pawn and all other sorts on a 64 black and white squares beautifully carved on a wooden board.
So, it was the first move by white. White’s favorite, king’s pawn to E4. I replied with what most amateurs and to some extend professionals do, my king’s pawn to E5. White’s king side knight galloped ahead to threaten my king’s pawn. Automatically, my hand reached for my king side knight to protect the pawn. Then, he did my favorite white’s move; white queen’s pawn marched to its king’s pawn side.
I on the other hand, under my breath pronounced shit. White manned its battle stations in the middle of the board, a realization came to my mind – I was playing black, one move late with my king and queen reversely positioned with respect to white. Well, actually it’s not reversely positioned with respect to white but rather the black queen is on the black square instead of on the white square. It was a total disorientation.
I totally didn’t know what to do next. I was officially screwed. It was the feeling when you enter an exam hall, thinking that you know everything, only later to read the exam questions and have not even one bit of clue what the questions are asking for. Yes. It was that bad. Plus, there were a few people watching the game and that made it even more embarrassing.
Somehow, that gave me a crystal ball view of what I might encounter during my internship in Eastern Europe, if I go, and boy it would be sucked to experience it. I seriously need to learn black’s openings, fast.
The game?
I lost but not due to failure to adapt. Rather, a silly mistake where the white’s knight checked my king and my queen in one move. Rewinding one move back, if I had positioned my queen on another box, I could have checkmated white within two moves but hell, I hate knights.
And hey, this is the 300th post!
I’m fan of the fight-till-your-last-breath principle.
However, in case of Jean Bertrand Aristide, just give up dude. There is no point of trying to stay in power when the whole population hates you.
Right now, the rebels are within 25 miles of Port-Au-Prince and somehow, I think I’ve heard Port-Au-Prince in the news years ago with Aristide leading the then-rebel.
Karma perhaps? Wow, it sure does come swift!