uhh, phaster, nice try but if you think this bleached whale “people-of-Walmart” couple you depicted here watching an implosion from their (polluted backyard?) in rural Nevada are representative of SD City and County retired workers, you need to see your eye doctor, pronto.
For the most part, we are fitter and trimmer than the Gen Y college-student set who comes back “home” for the holidays to work out at the gym we work out in all year-round!
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irrelevant commentary??
[quote=INTERNAL MONOLOGUE]the pot calling the kettle black, WTF???
so how to use a MADE UP B$ PHRASE “subconscious-psychological-interpretation(s)?” which struck IN A MOMENT OF boredom/divine-inspiration, while prioritizing the structure of a “rant”[/quote]
hate to take credit for something that I never intended so for now I’ll go along w/ your subconscious-psychological-interpretation that the couple is representative of SD City and County retired workers
truth is I selected the photo because it was the first non-military, civilian color image that came up when I typed the phrase “watching nuclear explosions” using google image search and never gave it a literal “second” thought!
your post(s) in general indicate a lack of critical-thinking and this last post indicates you’re vein/insecure about appearance/self-image
to address the issue of “self-image” insecurity, found is a photo of a “fit and healthy” miss mushroom cloud w/ admirers so you can self-project a positive image of SD City and County retired workers,… happy?
since you mentioned it, my second thought is the couple is gazing east-ward (possibly standing in California??? and looking toward Nevada??? the only way to know for sure which state(s), is to locate/match the specific “land-scape” shown)
[quote=INTERNAL MONOLOGUE]to see if (bearishgurl’s) subconscious-psychological-interpretation about the photo has any basis in reality lets try a simple experiment
GIVEN she first suggested the photo is representative of SD City and County retired workers AND is set in (polluted backyard?) in the state of Nevada [SO AS stated the couple is located “somewhere” in the state of Nevada AND in the real world that indicates they would have to be facing West-ward (toward the state of California)]
so with the photo on an iPad/iPhone, go out side (on a sunny day) and hold the device arms length away looking first to the east, then toward the west AND see first hand which orientation makes common sense (hint, note the shadows!)[/quote]
I deduced general direction(s) by noting the right side of the image is illuminated (thinking where the sun is in the sky – to the “south”) AND the shadows fall on the people/blast-cloud on the left hand side, so this indicates “north” (given the spherical geometry of the earth)
[quote=INTERNAL MONOLOGUE]should I acknowledge anything I post about psychoanalytics is PURE B$ because I’ve never taken a psych class or read a psych book BUT did watch pixar’s “inside out” which might count as sorta something…
what about noting other observations about the photo that suggest the image was photoshopped???
WRT this tangent, “Gedankenexperiment” tells me your transference-interpretation of a photo which you described/interpreted as bleached whale “people-of-Walmart” couple watching an implosion from their (polluted backyard?) in rural Nevada is PURE B$ to mask self-image insecurities and a simple SCIENCE experiment in the real world can be done to confirm the diagnosis
now back to the serious topic at hand since this is an economics message board where it clearly states at the bottom of the page… In God we trust. Everyone Else Bring Data!
BUT before looking at data, it might be useful to recall lessons taught in middle school, specifically the topic about “compound interest” and basic money management skills (which is key to surviving/thriving day to day in the modern day world)
if you have a mortgage, then perhaps you might have heard that you can pay off a loan much faster, by “annually” making an extra — 13th — mortgage payment,… what an extra mortgage payment does is directly reduces the principal balance on the loan by the amount of the payment (and the observed effect is exponentially decreasing the payback period)
NOW lets (re)examine ACTUAL “historic” published documents/text (i.e. Data!)
City pensioners get ’13th check’ bonus
More than $6.1 million has been distributed to retired San Diego city employees in the form of a “13th check” — beyond their usual 12 monthly payments — making this year’s holiday bonus the largest such payout in the history of the three-decade-old practice.
But it’s become a source of conflict as the city’s pension system faces a $2 billion shortfall in promised payments, which remains a taxpayer burden and has led to budget crises in the past at City Hall.
Though SDCERS investments were earning well above the 8 percent rate of return estimated by the system actuaries, under normal conditions investments surpluses are required to make up for below-average returns in other years to achieve the average rate of return. Therefore, unless the actuaries’ estimates are grossly incorrect, in the long run true “surplus earnings” are impossible. The use of surplus earnings for the purposes other than maintaining the pension system, such as to expand existing benefits should be viewed as a loan from the system THAT WILL REQUIRE REPAYMENT IN THE FUTURE.
The concept of surplus earnings is easily misunderstood, so sometimes these earnings are used inappropriately.
page 286
Handbook of Frauds, Scams, and Swindles: Failures of Ethics in Leadership edited by Serge Matulich, David M. Currie
anyone able to grasp the power/implications of “compound interest” then reading the published reports should be very disturbed at the mis-management/incompetence/corruption since the PRIMARY CAUSE as to why the “magnitude” of the SD public pension “unfunded” problem exists is due to a simple math concept that was suppose to be learned in middle school…
as-reported for the past three decades the “surplus earnings” (aka 13th payment) was diverted to Gubment-Pensioner(s) every holiday season INSTEAD OF being used for the original goal of trying to make sure the long term average return of the portfolio was achieved(about about 8% as per actuaries’ design-estimates)
if anyone is able to think critically about “compound interest” then they will see that making an annual extra mortgage payment and making an extra payment to Gubment-Pensioner(s) every holiday are two side of the same coin; one side allows a mortgage debt to be paid “down” much sooner, the other side makes the debt to pile “up” exponentially over decades!
(bearishgurl) since you have taken the blue pill – its apparent you believe whatever you want to believe!
for all other(s) who dared take the red pill, the BOTTOM LINE seems to be as long as the “surplus earnings” (aka 13th payment) is siphoned off every holiday season for Gubment-Pensioner(s) INSTEAD OF being used to maintain the pension system designed target return rate, the SD pension system as currently structured/operated AND using nothing more than “honest” common sense and middle school math tells us, that the un-funded DEBT issue will basically ALWAYS grow!
