>>http://www.hpae.org/newsroom/articles/20090512_ceos

Straining at gnats while swallowing camels? The unfunded deficit is $47T. Fire every one of these dudes and you won't even save the rounding error.

Anybody who bought property in the '70s is in good form today. Even those who bought in the 90s are in finer form than those leaving school now. Why? There was no particular skill or merit in being of age to buy a house or education before the years of inflation. Why is it fair to fiercely defend such windfall as your own prowess while insisting that somebody else has to pay for your healthcare because it was underfunded in the years when public investment would have yielded massive asset backing to pay for benefits forever? I keep pointing to the Australian Super scheme, a similar scheme in the US would have yielded hundred/s of trillions, allowing the nation to shrug off the banking debacle, postpone SS running out of $ for a century and add $1-3T/year to Medicare without significantly affecting the asset base. Too late now- inflation is redefined as naughty by those who benefited themselves but now want to preserve the value of their savings.