What's wrong with the world??? Part 1

Event 1: I was reading the article in Economist. It basically says that European Union is in process to elect their the first permanent president (http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14586858). The front-runners are Tony Blair from England and probably Angela Merkel from Germany. I have no problem with the individuals. However, I feel quite disturbed to know that nobody is object to the idea. How come the Spanish people (or Germans, or Dutch or anybody in Europe) feel okay to be led by a British who knows nothing about their culture, don't speak their language and more importantly knows nothing about their struggle. Moreover, doesn't it make you nervous if one person has that much authority? What happen if someday all the countries are united and led by just one person. Then, that person will be the President of World!! Regardless, he/she is elected through a democratic process, the idea for one person to lead that many people with vastly different cultures still be perplexing, at least for me.

I cherish unity but not this kind of unity. We don't have to be led by the same person to be called united. We could live differently but work on the common and mutual goal. If we position everybody to live the same way (which will happen under one leadership) it is colonization and not unification spirit. And can you imagine what are the consequences if the person becomes corrupted (which is highly probable since power could be addictive)? It is always best to share the power among many people instead of to centralize on 1 person or 1 small group.



Event 2: In the class discussion about social security (SS), the teacher points out that starting 2015, the SS revenue generated from tax will be smaller than the amount should be paid to those who are retired. Thus, economists projected by 2040, there will be no reserve in SS program left for paying the retired. Then, he asked us (the students) for any suggestion to solve the problem. One person said "It's easy, just increase the tax rate for SS, then there will be more income for SS program to finance what they are doing." Many other people voiced the same tone. I didn't say anything in the class, but during my way home, I kept thinking about the answer. Then, I start to see the fallacy of the logic.

Look, the fact that it is projected to be failed means that the government is proven to be irresponnsible and can't be trusted with our money. How could it be possible that the solution is to trust the government with more of our money????? That's crazy. The solution is to decrease or even to entirely eliminate the SS program. Let people manage their own money, if they want to have some money during the rainy days then let them be saving at their own will.