Obama Press Conference

Aquaman was busy with the BP tragedy.

I liked this hypothetical moreso than the other ones I've posted. Simply because for years comics have been taking note of current events and making allusions to them. Look at some of the older comics during the Cold War, they are riddled with real-life allusions. Often times it's easier to understand a stand-alone scenario than a convoluted subject.

A "Memo" from Wall Street to DC Pretty much summed up the blame. They themselves and also the Fed (Greenspan mainly) It started way before Bush & Obama can take the blame.

Well, Time for work! gotta make some money so i can help pay off the nations debt! I think i heard thast every American head has 40k debt, not including their own individual debts...

hahah, would be funny to go to a baby shower and give a card: "Congratulations on your additional 40k debt!"

LOL! you know, its funny cause it actually might come down to that one day. And in all seriousness, birthrate here has decreased like crazy. So that means more debt per baby unless theres a huge boom again.

US Live Birth Rate, 1934 to 2004


Looks pretty stable to me.... I guess it depends where you cut the graph off.

Problem is theres like 3 billion if not more of to many people on this planet... The book Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach has a good reference to this issue and dealing with it.

Lol look at more recent years! Post the stats. I'm on my droid or I would

The graphs are... weird. I'm not sure which graph is representing what. But I don't see any major dip in the last few years regardless of where I look. Just a bunch of speculation.

I can't make this a hyperlink, but this is what I meant, the rate of which its dropping is growing. http://www.vosizneias.com/63141/2010/08/29/washington-recession-may-have-pushed-u-s-birth-rate-to-new-low/

drop social security, be a 1/5 reduction off the bat.

Our economy would bottom out because seniors would stop spending money. If you don't spend money business can't make profit and thus expand. We're sorta damned if we do damned if we don't. You have to keep current programs in place but bring them within sustainable budget range.

Economy would do fine, just have to kill the old people(75+) and take their money and distribute equally among the 30 & younger, we'd be fine.

lol. We'll follow your lead >.>

what to do with the aging is a severe problem, and quite frankly I find that it's more of a problem than it's worth. You think of a better way and hell even more "humane" (subjective since making everyone else suffer due to some aging and often ailing old people isn't very humane) and I'll take note.

Raise the social security age and have people in the work force longer. Sixty is the new 50: people can still work.

Meh I find working for a living to be a crock anyway, which brings in another whole set of issues, but just on this why not just get rid of the old people? they aren't productive to society in the least, and it's not like they're going to reverse in age (babies aren't productive, but they will age to be).

Because I will be old someday

you have to die sometime, why be a burden to others? I don't ever plan to live to that age so I guess I don't give a rats *** either way.

If were to eliminate everythign that is a burdern to others we would no longer be living in society.

of course the level of the burden is a factor, this is a very large burden. However that depends on how you define society.

I think there is also a level of due respect for anyone who comes before us. People of every generation have to face problems in order to advance the next. It is only fit that we bare their burdern after they have done so for us. The exception is the baby boomer generation. *** them.

No, respect isn't given, it's earned and to be honest most old people suck, especially those "baby boomers" so yeah, screw old people.

Respect isn't earned, it's a courtesy. You can respect somebody that you hate, you can respect somebody who is wrong.

Maybe in your world guy, but here in reality people don't just hand out respect, it's earned. Maybe not everyone rolls that way but an increasing number of people do.

I'll agree that it's a courtesy. You can respect your father-in-law, doesn't mean you have to like him. He may not even do anything to earn your respect, but I'd say it's still important.

I like the concept of giri in Japan. I think a lot of concepts in Japan closely resemble the United States' "southern way" or "southern hospitality". Like keigo being important, saying your "yes sir"s and "yes ma'm"s. After befriending someone, you can start to let loose a little. There are so many similarities between traditional Japanese culture and American southern culture that it's kind of weird.

Are your elders worthy of respect? Maybe, maybe not. Should you do it anyway? Yes, why not? It's not like you lose anything by being respectful to someone.

The problem with both America and Japan right now is that there are a large number of people who expect traditional views, and there are a large number of people who think that those views are weird so they almost go out of their way to be *** in spite of tradition. Either group would look down on the other in an encounter.

"Who's this *** calling me 'sir' like it's the 1940's? Is he being sarcastic?"
"Why won't this kid respect his elders?"

I pretty much show it to everyone in real life regardless of if they return the courtesy. Women are usually the worst because if you ever try to be nice they'll snap at you. Then they wonder why their boyfriends don't respect them. I think it's a shame when people aren't friendly. Even the day to day transactions you do at a store become much less of a hassle when people act to you in a personable manner.

Don't just *** us baby boomers, we enjoy a good oral too dammit!