From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2012 #1246 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe:mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website:http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Thursday, August 30 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 1246 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: "For" songs ["Robert Sartorius" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:30:34 -0400 From: "Robert Sartorius" Subject: RE: "For" songs Stewart replied to Bob's popquiz "Song For Sharon For The Roses For Love or Money Looking out for Love For Free Toughest Omission: The Windfall (Everything for Nothing) :-)" I have not heard of "looking out for love". Help ? I do recall that Joni is fond of Fur Elise. I have heard that she was an admirer of the composer. Today, I listened to Joni in the car - first time in a month. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I love her work as much as the foreign singers who translate it before covering it. Re Everything for Nothing, it does suggest that Joni might have just a little bit of the fiscal conservative running in her blood. Isn't a person on the receiving end of largesse supposed to have at least a little bit of gratitude? Or is the right response, for example, and by way of analogy, to the person making a million dollars a year who has contributed $29,000 per year to Medicare Part A via his payroll taxes and now reaches age 65 really "thank (er, f__k) you, you don't need no stinkin' Medicare Part A. And, by the way, you have not been paying your fair share." Kind of like Joni's maid (A Man Needs a Maid, if you know what I mean). Bobsart Now for some (additional) non-joni content (if you don't want any, skip from here on). PS - in addition, the top 50% (who pay all of the federal income taxes), by virtue thereof also pay for roughly 75% of Medicare Part B. (For those of you who do not know it, Part B is financed roughly 25% via premiums, and 75% via general revenues - which means FIT plus borrowing - which, by the way, will be paid off by the children of the rich). In addition, the higher earners among the top 50%, when they retire, will get to pay higher Part B premiums (ranging from 35% to 80% of the cost of the Part B program) as a thank you for having over-contributed toward the Part B program over many years, so that the people who have contributed nothing over the years to Part B (because they paid no FIT) can get their part B benefits with premiums that cover only 25% of the cost of the Part B insurance. I don't really mind the taxes and the extra premiums - I just mind the attitude that says "FU - you don't pay enough (er - "your fair share")". PPS - means testing for Part A is part of the new Republican financing solution for saving Medicare Part A (and yes, I oppose it), so don't all you fiscal liberals and Democrats go all rogue on me over this issue (I happen to be an independent). Besides, I'm an actuary, and actually understand this stuff. There are fairer ways to fix this (all of which will cost extra money, and will require limiting plaintiffs' bar, while we're at it), but not enough space to go into it here. PPPS - it is a sophistry to suggest that certain low income earners are paying for rich retirees' Medicare Part A with their payroll taxes. What the low earners are doing is making a token contribution to a system that they will benefit from by multiples of what they have put into it when they turn 65, at which time the large majority (80+%) of their Medicare benefits will be paid for by rich people. If you prefer, think of 100% of the Medicare benefits for the rich retirees as being paid for by the rich workers, which still leaves plenty of the rich workers' taxes left over to pay for poor retirees. This, while the puny taxes paid by low wage earners make a relatively small dent in the benefits being paid to low income retirees. ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2012 #1246 ****************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------