Rich Tucker has a retirement plan:

I wrote myself an I.O.U.

“Dear Rich: I promise to pay you the sum of $50,000 on Jan. 1, 2018.

(signed) Rich Tucker.”

That piece of paper is now stored in a safe, along with other vital documents (passports, house deed, car title). I’ll do the same thing once a year each year until 2018. This plan should carry me comfortably through 2032.

There. Retirement planned for.

…

See any problems with my scheme? It really seems flawless. After all, I wouldn’t lie to myself. If I’ve vowed to pay myself $50,000, well, I’m going to do it. No matter how hard or long I have to work in 2018 to earn that retirement money.

This is exactly how the U.S. government is preparing for everyone’s retirement. Social Security is the national retirement plan. But, starting in 2018, there’s nothing there but I.O.U.s.

Nice illustration.

I seem to recall a lot of people objecting to the US invasion of Iraq by saying that while they agree that Saddam was brutal and terrible, etc., it isn’t appropriate to use and risk US military forces for humanitarian missions. That if WMDs didn’t really pose an imminent threat to the United States, we had no right using our forces there.

I don’t hear many of these people complaining of the military assets used now to help tsunami victims (weakening us elsewhere in the world, and exposing fighters to risks of disease and accidents during hectic operations).

I can only conclude that they didn’t really believe that rescuing Iraqis was a genuinely worthwhile humanitarian goal; that helping people hit by a natural disaster is fine, but from a murderous regime is wrong.

It seems to me that many of them honor state power, even the worst sort, because it’s something they respect and would like to be held sacred so that they can more easily use it to impose their visions on others.

Of course, the disclaimer from David Carr at Samizdata applies.