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Do you know how long you will live? Do you know how long the average American will live 50 years from now? Do you know what birthrates will be for the next 50 years? Do you know the rate of immigration for the next 50 years? Do you know the rate of economic growth for the next 50 years?

Of course, neither you nor anyone else the answer to any of the above questions. However, those who tell you we do not need to change Social Security or need only make minor adjustments to the existing system can honestly do so if they know the answers to the above questions — which they do not.

Let’s start with what we do know. The present Social Security system is a “pay-as-you-go” system, in which the taxes paid by workers and their employers are used to fund the monthly benefit checks for the existing retirees. We know that in 1950 there were 16.5 workers paying Social Security taxes for every retired person receiving benefits. We know there are now only about 3.3 workers for each person receiving benefits and there probably will only be 2.2 workers for each benefit recipient 25 years from now in 2030, if we continue with the existing system. We also know the so-called Social Security Trust Fund actually contains no money, because Congress has spent all the money (the surplus from the Social Security tax over actual outlays) on other things since the program’s 1937 inception.

To fully understand the problem, let us go back to what we do not know.

This article, published by California Wild Magazine, contains a review of The Privileged Planet by Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellows Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards:

The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards. Regnery Publishing, Washington, DC, 2004. 444 pp., $27.95 hardcover.

Is there scientific evidence that an intelligent designer created our universe? Scientists and theologians have debated this issue for centuries, but now the arguments are heating up. The battle between evolution and creationism has been joined in schools around the country, and each new discovery in astronomy invites people to consider their place in the cosmos. Now authors Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards have stepped into this breach with a provocative new book claiming that our ability to learn about the universe arises from its careful design.

The Privileged Planet links two concepts that at first seem unrelated: “habitability” and “measurability.” Habitability considers whether a place in the universe is suitable for advanced life to develop. Our planet is a cozy place for liquid water, while our large moon prevents Earth from suffering climate-changing swings on its axis. Our sun is a stable star with a life-friendly temperature, and our place in the Milky Way galaxy-like baby bear’s porridge-is “just right” for many astrophysical reasons.

The text of the Cobb County disclaimer is as follows: This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.

With deflation under control and President Bush’s supply-side tax cuts taking hold, the case for a U.S. economic comeback gets stronger every day. But the conventional wisdom is that two of our most important and hardest hit sectors, technology and telecom, have so much capacity and so little confidence that it will be many years before they return to health. Read More ›

Treasury Secretary John Snow “can stay as long as he wants, provided it is not very long,” is destined to go down in history as one of those classic Washington phrases. The phrase appeared in an article in The Washington Post as a quote from “a senior administration official” one week before the president finally announced Mr. Snow would be Read More ›

Sir, Terence Kealey (Comment, December 18) says that proponents of intelligent design are “devilishly intelligent”. Since the British philosopher and former atheist Antony Flew has just washed up on to the shores of intelligent design, he too is now “devilishly intelligent”. What has his Faustian intellect uncovered? Peering into the world of even the simplest functional, self-reproducing cell— — the Read More ›

Original Article A top transportation leader bucks her fellow senators and argues against state funding for the Southworth ‘triangle route.’ By Niki King, Sun Staff March 30, 2005 With less than a month to go in this year’s legislative session, it’s still not clear whether lawmakers will fund a state-operated passenger-only ferry route between Southworth, Vashon Island and downtown Seattle. Read More ›

Are you in favor of a national identity card? Even though many Americans are against the idea of a national identity card, it is coming. In fact, in many ways, it is already here. Every American citizen and every foreign worker in America is required to have a Social Security card. Your Social Security card is only supposed to be Read More ›

SEATTLE, DEC. 21 – Students in Kansas will be allowed to learn about the scientific evidence both for and against Darwinian evolution if the State’s Board of Education adopts a set of proposed revisions from a group of scientists on the science standards writing committee. The eight proponents of the proposal made it very clear in a statement to School Read More ›

This article, published by Insight On The News, mentions Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellow Jonathan Witt: To its credit, however, the Seattle Times permitted Jonathan Witt of the Discovery Institute to write a column noting Flew’s conversion in the context of discussing the usually taboo subject of the holes in Darwinian theory. The rest of the Read More ›