By Lynn Stuart Parramore
Somehow, I’ve wound up on the mailing list for a group of oligarchs campaigning to swindle Americans out of their hard-earned retirement insurance. Hedge fund billionaire Pete Peterson, the budget buffoons Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, and the rest of their merry band of hustlers over at the hilariously named Committee for a Responsible Budget have asked me to consider their latest proposal.
So I thought I’d oblige them, what the heck.
Judging from the shrill headline in their mailing, these men (and a token woman or two) wish to sell me on the idea of “Social Security Reform and the Cost of Delay.”
The cost of delay? Boys, I hear you on that. Any delay in ripping me off must be very costly — for you.
Social Security, the most prudently managed and economically sound retirement program the country has ever seen, and with the very lowest costs, is preventing you from piling up even more money in your bank accounts. Trust me, I really do understand how you feel: Financiers desperately wish to get their mitts on American retirements so they can charge all sorts of outrageous fees. And you hate the prospect of having to pay higher taxes in the future if you don’t “fix” Social Security.
I know how diligently you’ve tried to privatize America’s best-loved program in order to get this show going. You must be bone tired! And I also fully get that as rich people interested far more in the size of your bank accounts than anything so trifling as, say, the strength and health of your country, you hate paying taxes of any kind. You deeply resent such citizen responsibilities, and so you want to cut Social Security as quickly as possible (calling your cutting “reform,” you clever marketing devils!) because doing so will lessen your already minuscule tax burden. Your aim is to hurt America’s retirement program to the point where you can bring up your privatization hustle again. Does that about sum it up?
The thing is, though, cutting Social Security does not make any economic sense for the other 99 percent of the country. The program is in very good shape, hard-working Americans have paid into it, and if (and that’s a big if) any adjustments need to be made a decade or two down the road, we can talk about it then. For now, the only real justification for cutting seems to be the prospect of fattening your bank accounts. Sorry, not sold. I know that’s one less yacht for you but I think you can live with it.
Read More Plutocrats’ New Pitch: Let Us Rob You Now So You Can Plan Ahead for Poverty | Alternet.
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The Dark Side of Modeling: What I Learned as a Plus Size Model
By Tess Munster
Modeling, and especially living your life in the public eye, is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You see a different side to people, a very dark side. People use you to get places, they lie to you, manipulate you, then turn around and “love” you all in day sometimes. I’ve lost friends, respect, and countless jobs because of my looks, beliefs, or just plain bad luck. Everyone thinks that they know me, therefore judging every move I make constantly. I miss the times that I could freely post photos of myself, food, my son, just my life without being attacked. Yes, I ignore it, I ignore a lot… but I would be lying if I said it doesn’t take its toll on me.
At what point is enough, enough?
For six months last year (and part of this year) I was suicidal, and thought every day that there was no way I could deal with another day. I didn’t really tell anyone because I was embarrassed… my life looks so glamorous sometimes, and here I am barely able to get out of bed. Still to this day, I’m told what I “should” look like, how I “should” dress, what I “should” or “shouldn’t” be eating… basically, how I need to be living my life.
Read More The Dark Side of Modeling: What I Learned as a Plus Size Model | Tess Munster.