Pickles by Brian Crane for March 08, 2011

Better write that change on the calendar Opal. He’ll forget it otherwise.

Don’t worry about social security. At the rate the economy is going, it won’t be there much longer.

@ Yukoner: That’s a myth. Social Security is one of the few self-perpetuating pieces of the economy. (It’s really a pyramid scheme, you know.)

But back to the comic … Earl, you should have forgotten how to do something “useful”, like wash the dishes, so that you don’t need to do it again.

Thank God for sticky notes

That could be a problem, Earl. Better hard your card with you at all times….unless you’ve forgotten where you put it.

Proginoskes: Not exactly. Social Security would be in great shape for as long as any of us here would need to worry about it, if it hadn’t been quietly plundered — the government has been “borrowing from” the Social Security trust fund for decades to make annual deficits look smaller than they really are, and putting a giant I.O.U. in its place. That’s great, until the government’s debt becomes so overwhelming that its I.O.U. means nothing…and we’re all screwed.

You are correct SCAATY. Social Security has plenty of assests but little cash. Most of the assets are in the form of IOUs from Congress, which they cannot begin to repay. All I can say is that if the Trustee of any other trust fund had removed 1/100th as much money as Congress has “borrowed” from the Social Security TRUST” those Trustees would be in prison for a long, long time. I just wish we could do the same but we would have to go back and arrest people from 50 years ago along with a bunch of dead people. Still, the Fund has assets but no money!

Medicare part B has a 10% penalty for every year you you don’t sign up after your eligibal…

I often compare our memory to a computer hard drive, rather than an attic. You can retrieve bits of information that have been there since you were a child. But sometimes, it is very difficult to recall things, unless you do a defrag.

SCAATY; Bad news; The US dollar has been the medium of international trade for many many years, but some countries don’t even want to see it from tourists any more. Our buck stops at our borders. (Not quite, but not long)

So how come the “new garbage day” info couldn’t simply take the place of the “old garbage day” info? Oh, wait–we’re talking about Earl here, huh?

Crap! It’s garbage day here and I haven’t put the trash cans out yet!

(ya, srsly)

Thanks, Mr. Crane!

I’m grateful for Google or else I’d never figure anything out.

Pomdemonium- that would be “garbage day in / garbage day out”

Obama is a friend of the ultra-wealthy. Haven’t you heard about the bailouts?

(Which, btw, should put an end to the “Obama is a socialist” rumors … Socialists take from the rich and give to the poor, not the other way around.)

Could be worse, Earl!

MrGromit:

Just how did the trash cans catch fire in the first place?