Once again I’m offering my take on several issues.

— I very much liked Star Parker’s recent column on Social Security because I remember looking at my paychecks, in those days before direct deposit, thinking that if I could have taken my contributions to Social Security and Medicare and invested them in the stock market. I would not have needed Social Security and Medicare because I would have retired as a very wealthy man.

The stock market, even with periodic downturns like the 1929 and 2008 crashes, historically increases in value at a fairly steady rate, despite what President Barack Obama once said about Social Security protecting us from the vagaries of the stock market.

Because Social Security is the “third rail” of American politics politicians shy away from making needed changes out of fear that they would no longer hold office after the next election. So Social Security just staggers along with politicians ignoring the fact that after 2033 it will only be able to pay out 77% of promised benefits.

— A problem facing Social Security, our economy, and national security is a declining birthrate. What this means is that fewer and fewer young people will be heavily taxed to support a lot of retired and essentially non-productive elders like myself.

An organization called Negative Population Growth Inc. (NPG) says that Americans having far fewer children these days is not a serious problem. Their take is that the plummeting birth rate is a natural and inevitable result of overpopulation and overcrowding.

According to them, science has already proven this. Hopefully this is not proven in the same way that science has proven that climate change is absolutely, certainly and positively caused by human industrialization. Based on this questionable analysis NPG says nothing should be done to promote healthy population growth.

Other researchers understand that a declining birthrate combined with an aging population is generally considered a problem because it creates an unsustainable economic and social imbalance. A shrinking workforce cannot support a rapidly growing number of elderly dependents, leading to strained pension/healthcare systems, decreased economic productivity, and slower economic growth. 

— As a Silver Creek resident, I was interested in the recent OBSERVER story about Mayor Kathy Tampio’s request for a renegotiation of the contract with the Sheriff Department for policing services. I think her suggestion that the village pay 40% of the cost with the town paying 60% is reasonable considering that the village has a population of 2,583 while the town less the village has a population of 4,259 and also because the village generally has far fewer incidents requiring Sheriff Department involvement. It seems to me that village residents are paying taxes twice for police services while town residents pay only once, which is hardly fair unless the town is making some unknown adjustment for village taxpayers which I don’t think is the case.

— Sorry, but I missed the local “No Kings” rally that seemed more like group therapy sessions for Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers. While I have no idea of how many attended the Fredonia event, sponsors of the event nationally claimed a participation of 8 million. Given the fact that sponsors generally inflate participation by 25% to 45% attendance probably fell somewhere between 4.4 million and 6 million no small thing but certainly not 8 million.

I noticed that many of the protesters at these rallies were men and women around my age whom I suspect were reliving those heady days when they were out marching to protest the war in Vietnam.

Although the money trail is not absolutely clear and despite claims by a George Soros spokesperson that no funds were donated for the rallies specifically, it is known that the billionaire through his Open Society Foundation supplies significant funding to several national sponsors of the “No Kings Rally” that includes the Indivisible Movement, 50501 Movement, and Move On.

According to the sponsors the rallies were organized for the same old tired reason: to protest the fascist policies of the Trump administration. Those include, but are not limited to, aggressive immigration crackdowns that nonetheless removed many dangerous criminals from our streets, the war with Iran that will free this nation and our allies from nuclear blackmail in the future, and statements by the President that the protesters construe as expressing his desire to be a dictator.

— I want to add that after the incident at the White House Correspondence Dinner this past weekend that events like the “No Kings” rallies, or remarks by congressional Democrats adds to our divided nation. Calling our president a dictator, a fascist, Nazi, an antisemite or speaking openly about again impeaching him if they take control of Congress in the mid-term elections may inspire or radicalize fanatical or emotionally unstable individuals to try to gain fame and adulation by killing President Trump.

House Minority leader Hakeem Jefferies, who has never been gifted with keen self-awareness, remarked immediately after the attempted attack on television that while Americans have strong disagreements, it is essential to “strongly disagree without being disagreeable with each other.” By Monday he had once again become his disagreeable self.

That’s it for now.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.