Tag: Social Security

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: 175.30 billion of Social Security and Medicare liabilities should be recognized as 41.2 trillion

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https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2021/04/23/the-national-debt-is-worse-than-advertised/

The National Debt Is Worse Than Advertised
By: Mike Maharrey|Published on: Apr 23, 2021|Categories: Federal Funding

*** begin quote ***

Here’s a breakdown of Uncle Sam’s liabilities in broad categories.

Medicare benefits – $55.12 trillion
Social Security obligations – $41.2 trillion
Publicly held debt – $21.08 trillion.
Military and civilian retirement benefits $9.41 trillion
Other liabilities – $2.25 trillion
According to Truth in Accounting’s analysis, the US government’s financial situation has deteriorated over the last year. Based on the latest available audited financial reports, its financial condition worsened by $9.84 trillion in 2020.

Interestingly, the Treasury Department only includes $175.30 billion of Social Security and Medicare liabilities on the federal balance sheet; according to government documents, recipients do not have the right to benefits beyond the benefits currently being paid and laws to reduce or stop future benefits can be passed at any time. Truth in Accounting assumes no changes in the current Social Security or Medicare schemes. This is a pretty safe assumption considering these programs are generally considered the “third rail” of politics. In other words, politicians dare not touch them.

*** end quote ***

Isn’t “We, The Sheeple” have a right to “honest accounting”?

Maybe if the numbers were really understood, then the seriousness of the situation might be recognized!

—30—

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Inflation: a hidden tax on income

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https://buff.ly/2Pnn5AE

How The Nation’s Central Bank Is Covertly ‘Nudging’ Americans To Accept Digital Money & The Great Reset – LewRockwell

*** begin quote ***

Inflation is how government robs money from taxpayers.  For example, wage earners put good money into Social Security and 50 years later take out inflated money that has reduced purchasing power.  A $321 average Social Security check in 1980, adjusted for inflation, should be $7529.  Instead the average Social Security check is ~$1543 today.

Zang notes: “Wealth never really disappears; it just shifts location.”

*** end quote ***

I keep ranting about I have to live to 132 to steal back all the FICA that was stolen from me.

I’ve reported and cited that the Rate Of Return for “Social Security” is a NEGATIVE 8%.

Imagine how wealthy a society we would have if we were allow to keep our own earnings and plan for our own retirement?

Argh!

—30—

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: What is an intergenerational, income-transfer, wealth-redistribution welfare program that takes money from those who work and gives it to those who don’

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https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2021/03/28/the-true-nature-of-social-security-revealed/

The True Nature of Social Security Revealed
Laurence M. Vance
Laurence M. Vance is a policy advisor for the Future of Freedom Foundation.He is the author of over a dozen books, including The Revolution That Wasn’t. Visit his website:www.vancepublications.com. 

*** begin quote ***

Yet the vast majority of Americans still believe that retirees are entitled to Social Security benefits because they paid into the system their entire working lives.

But that couldn’t possibly be true. Not if the government can withhold half of your benefits and tax you up to 85 percent on the rest of them. If Americans are entitled to Social Security benefits because it is “their money,” then it shouldn’t matter how much money they make after retirement. Their income shouldn’t trigger the taxation of their Social Security benefits.

There is, in fact, no connection between Social Security taxes paid and Social Security benefits received. Benefits are calculated by an arbitrary formula that Congress can change at any time. Even worse, there is no contractual right to receive benefits. When Congress passed the Social Security Act of 1935 (H.R.7260), which was signed into law by Roosevelt on August 14, 1935, it put Social Security benefits in Title II and Social Security taxes in Title VIII with no reference in either title to the other.

So if Social Security is not a retirement plan, a trust fund, an annuity, an insurance program, a savings account, or a pension fund, then what is it? The true nature of Social Security is that it is an intergenerational, income-transfer, wealth-redistribution welfare program that takes money from those who work and gives it to those who don’t. And if that is the case, then Social Security — as much as food stamps, Section 8 housing vouchers, cash payments, and every other form of welfare — should be eliminated.

*** end quote ***

Bottom line: It’s not YOUR money. It is gigantic Ponzi scheme.

“We, The Sheeple” have been defrauded.

Yes, they SHOULD HAVE KNOW that Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. As well as untrustworthy.

Suckers!

—30—

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Eric Peter’s Reader Rant! “We” Need and “I Believe”…

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

Here’s the latest reader rant, with my comments below: Dave writes: I went for years as a healthy individual until a staph infection last April. Almost died. I am 75. You never know when it is your turn to be sick . So I am on the state insurance called Medicare.

Source: Reader Rant! “We” Need and “I Believe”…

*** begin quote ***

I agree that you never know when it is your turn to be sick. But that is not the issue. The issue – the moral issue – is whether your sickness and associated expenses impose an obligation upon me enforceable at gunpoint. And mine on you. My position is that they do not. That your life is yours and mine is mine and we each ought to be free to live our lives as we think best; to plan for life’s exigencies and regardless of them, accept that our problems, whether the result of irresponsibility or not, don’t give us the moral right to pick up guns and point them at other people.

*** end quote ***

As a little L libertarian, I agree that essentially EVERYONE is responsible for their own care.  However, under the guise of “insurance”, the Gooferment has made many promises, suggestions, “spins”, and innuendos about “coverage”.  So it’s no wonder that one of the “clovers” (Peter’s name for “We, The Sheeple”) is confused.  Given the “education” that passes for what happens in Gooferment Skrules, it’s no wonder that the disaster is ongoing.

I empathize with those of us in the same boat.  The Gooferment has stolen our savings by “taxation” and “inflation” in exchange for (non-existent) “protection” and (bankrupt and misrepresented) “insurance”.

What’s a crime victim to do?

— 30 —

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Social Security is a Ponzi scheme

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https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/04/mark-nestmann/are-you-ready-to-work-until-you-die/

Are You Ready to Work Until You Die?
By Mark Nestmann — April 20, 2018

*** begin quote ***

Social Security suffers from a fundamental problem: it’s a Ponzi scheme, referred to in more polite company as a pay-as-you-go system. Benefits aren’t banked for payment to the persons who earned them. Rather, like a Ponzi scheme, early “investors” have first access to the funds. The so-called Social Security Trust Fund doesn’t exist, at least not in the form most people believe it does. It represents only an entitlement to future benefits, financed by future payments from workers.

Ponzi schemes work as long as the numbers of persons paying into the system and those receiving payouts stay in the same approximate proportion. The proportion of people paying into the Social Security system to beneficiaries is now at a historic low. And in the next 25 to 50 years the ratio will go even lower. In 1960, the worker-to-beneficiary ratio was 5.1:1. In 2005, it was 3.3:1. In 2020, it will be about 2.6:1. It is projected to be 2:1 by 2060.

Unfortunately, even that projection is optimistic because millions fewer workers will be paying into the system than even the most pessimistic scenarios estimate. Researchers at Oxford University estimate that a stunning 47% of US jobs could be eliminated in the next two decades.

Bridging the enormous gap between the benefits promised to retirees and the resources available to meet those promises requires a long-term infusion of trillions of dollars. The Board of Trustees for the Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes an annual report on the sustainability of Social Security benefits. In 2012, the board projected that full benefits could be paid through 2038. In 2016, the board projected Social Security would be insolvent in 2035. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan federal agency, projects an insolvency date of 2029.

*** end quote ***

That’s the problem with Gooferment. It makes promises that it can’t keep. 

I remember my family discussing many things but Social Security was described as the sacred cow of FDR. My uncles blamed it for breaking up families by permitting old people to move to Florida.

Only later, in college economics, did I realize that Social Security was a “plot” to transfer wealth from poor minority men to rich white women. Conspiracy Theorist supreme! (YACT = Yet Another Conspiracy Theory) It also deprived the poor of their only asset that they accumulated that should have been left to their heirs.

Even later, I heard about Chile who privatized their “social security” system and turned it into a national asset of capital formation. I attributed their success to the fact that the population was illiterate and the designer made it brain dead simple with strict rules and animal logos. While the people may have been illiterate, they certainly understood it was their money.

Where is “We, The Sheeple” DEMANDING “social security” reform. If MetLife did what the Congress has done, then all the executives would be in jail. 

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Let’s get the “unfunded liabilities” out of the shadows

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http://blog.independent.org/2015/10/20/milton-friedmans-solution-for-social-security-would-work-for-government-pensions-too/

Milton Friedman’s Solution for Social Security Would Work for Government Pensions Too
By Lawrence J. McQuillan  •  Tuesday October 20, 2015 3:16 PM PDT  

*** begin quote ***

Friedman’s approach to Social Security can also be applied to ending the state and local government pension crisis. The programs are very similar: Social Security and state and local public pensions have massive unfunded liabilities; and they promise a stream of benefits after retirement.

Applying Friedman’s solution, state and local governments across the country would close their defined-benefit pension plans and issue bonds to beneficiaries equal to the current expected value of the stream of benefits owed. The bonds would be due today or at retirement depending on the beneficiary’s stage of life.

As with Social Security, this approach would ensure that people receive what they have been promised. It would force governments to acknowledge the true extent of the unfunded pension liabilities and establish a specific financing plan (something they refuse to do today). And it would permanently close these politically mismanaged defined-benefit plans.

*** end quote ***

The current 18T+ national debt and the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities is what our posterity will have to deal with.

“When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him!” From his “Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch (RIP 2007 at age 47)

Just pretending it’s an “off balance sheet” entry is reminiscent of Enron.

Take the medicine now when it’s just disgusting; rather than dies a horrible death from a self0inlicted wound.

Take off the blinders and wake the flock up. 

“We, The Sheeple” are heading for a slaughter!

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POLITICAL: Tax Change — Social Security taxation

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The 5 Best Tax Changes We Won’t See
Bischoff: How Congress could make the tax code simpler and fairer with a handful of easy tweaks.
http://www.smartmoney.com/taxes/income/the-5-best-tax-changes-we-won-t-see/?cid=djem_sm_dailyviews_t

*** begin quote ***

Stop Double-Taxing Social Security Benefits

Did you know that you pay federal income tax on the Social Security tax that is taken out of your paychecks? Well, you do. Even worse: When you start receiving Social Security benefits, up to 85% of that money can be taxed again. This is double taxation folks. Retirees who are at very low income levels don’t have to pay this double tax, but those who are further up the retirement-age income scale get socked with it on anywhere from 50% to 85% of their benefits. Is it unfair? Of course! But your Congress likes this revenue stream and isn’t going to fix the problem until millions of seniors start demanding it.

*** end quote ***

Social Security was estimate as a negative 5% return. Haven’t seen an analysis like that lately.

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ECONOMICS: True “National Debt” is 211+T$

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http://www.npr.org/2011/08/06/139027615/a-national-debt-of-14-trillion-try-211-trillion

A National Debt Of $14 Trillion? Try $211 Trillion
by NPR Staff
August 6, 2011

*** begin quote ***

When Standard & Poor’s reduced the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, the United States suffered the first downgrade to its credit rating ever. S&P took this action despite the plan Congress passed this past week to raise the debt limit.

The downgrade, S&P said, “reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.”

It’s those medium- and long-term debt problems that also worry economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served as a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. He says the national debt, which the U.S. Treasury has accounted at about $14 trillion, is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We have all these unofficial debts that are massive compared to the official debt,” Kotlikoff tells David Greene, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. “We’re focused just on the official debt, so we’re trying to balance the wrong books.”

Kotlikoff explains that America’s “unofficial” payment obligations — like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits — jack up the debt figure substantially. Laurence J. Kotlikoff served as a senior economist on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and is a professor of economics at Boston University.

“If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That’s the fiscal gap,” he says. “That’s our true indebtedness.”

*** end quote ***

It’s simple. The “game” is rigged against the little guy. So why do us “little guys” still allow ourselves to be fooled?

Stupidity!

It’s like the old joke about the accountant keeping two sets of books!

“Plus shipping and handling”. Like the TV offers that are bait ‘n’ switch. The politicians and bureaucrats throw around deficit, debt, and “cuts” that cut nothing.

Time is running short.

What happens when the Chinese and the rest of the world cut us off. Credit card declined!

I didn’t realize what some unknown executives at AT&T and CSFB by making the defined pension plans fully funded separate legal entities. There was no funny business. Pensions were a sacred trust. The money was taken and invested prudently so that now I’ll get my benefit for the rest of my life.

We’ve “cheated” Social Security recipients, and various Federal and State workers. They are going to get <synonym for the past tense of the procreation act> because the contributions have been stolen by past politicians and bureaucrats to buy votes.

Argh!

We need an honest accounting. Just how bad is it? I know in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee, guvs of both parties have not funded the pensions. That’s just wrong. If a private company did that, the execs would be in jail. Why are the guvs and bureaucrats exempt?

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Irish pensioners targets of revenue enhancement

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http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-pensioners-fury-over-new-taxes-137097448.html

Irish pensioners fury over new taxes
Previously “untouchable” state services get cuts
ByPADDY CLANCY,Irish Voice Reporter
Published Thursday, January 12, 2012, 7:57 AMUpdated Thursday, January 12, 2012, 7:57 AM

*** begin quote ***

Savage cuts to a host of previously “untouchable” state services are now being actively considered by the government as a result of Ireland’s dire financial position.

*** end quote ***

In the search for money to feed the Gooferment spending habit, the “pensioners” are a good target. They don’t “move” so quick. But they do vote.

Look for this idea to travel over the pond and get adopted here.

The USA Gooferment is in perpetual deficit, with an incalculable debt, the IRA / 401K total is about 14T$. Look for the politicians and bureaucrats to steal that.

You heard it. Steal it in exchange for an “enhanced social security benefit”.

Argh!

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RANT: Social Security and other “entitlements”

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http://biggovernment.com/armwilliams/2011/09/01/reawakening-virtues-social-security-and-the-virtue-of-saving/

Reawakening Virtues: Social Security and The Virtue of Saving by Armstrong Williams

*** begin quote ***

Let’s be clear. Social security is not an entitlement program. That is, unlike welfare and food stamps, the people who receive social security have contributed to the program over the course of their working career through payroll taxes specifically designated for the purpose of saving for retirement. They are therefore owed at least the amount of money they contributed.

However, problems started to arise when the Federal government, under both parties, began borrowing from the so-called Social Security trust funds to spend on other items in the budget. The trust funds are not like your traditional private trust funds that are fully funded. In fact these trust funds are empty. The government has borrowed every single dime that comes into the trust funds to spend on current expenditures. We have a problem now because our total national debt is approaching (and may have exceeded) our yearly gross domestic product. Most countries that have this level of debt do not enjoy the high credit rating and low borrowing costs that America currently does.

*** end quote ***

http://www.billoreilly.com/video

Now Playing: Social Security “entitlement?”

*** begin quote ***

Why do many in the media keep referring to Social Security as an “entitlement” program? That’s what a BillOReilly.com Premium Member asks Bill in this excerpt from our newest Backstage Conversation webcast.

*** end quote ***

There’s no money for anything.

An insurance executive, that did what the Gooferment has done (i.e., spent the insurance premiums and failed to pay claims), would be in jail. But politicians and bureaucrats get away with it.

So, if there’s nothing in the Social Security Insurance “lockbox” but IOUs “backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government”. That ain’t going to make for a safe and secure retirement unless you’re planning to work in the “mines” until you die!

Sorry to tell everyone. It’s welfare.

Watch for inflation while there is no COLA or phony rates published by “honest” Gooferment bureaucrats, higher taxes on “social security insurance” income (Yeah that was never supposed to happen!), and then just schedule “adjustments” (i.e., higher minimum ages; lower benefit amounts).

It’s worse than a Ponzi scheme because you don’t get NOT to participate. “Made-off” couldn’t MAKE you give him your money!

Argh!

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RANT: The Social Security ‘Trust Fund’

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://cafehayek.com/2011/07/the-fraud-of-the-social-security-trust-fund-exposed-by-a-most-unlikely-source.html

The Fraud of the Social Security ‘Trust Fund’ Exposed by a Most Unlikely Source

by DON BOUDREAUX on JULY 16, 2011

in MYTHS AND FALLACIES, OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY, POLITICS, SOCIAL SECURITY, VIDEO, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE COUNTRY

*** begin quote ***

Today’s Wall Street Journal exposes the lie that is the so-called “Social Security Trust Fund” – and further reveals the disgraceful flippancy with which politicians and their go-fers mislead the public about it.

*** and ***

An I.O.U. that you write to yourself and that you yourself hold might be a useful accounting device, but it is not wealth. Unfortunately, many politicians and bureaucrats enamored with Social Security lie (the word is not too strong) repeatedly about the nature of these bonds and what they imply about the solvency of Social Security.

*** end quote ***

Using the word “trust” in connection with ANY politician and or bureaucrat is the height of stupidity.

As I tell jobseekers, “the only paycheck you can count on is the ones that you have cashed”.

How can we convince “We, The Sheeple” that there is no “Trust Fund”. If the money was given to MetLife, Prudential, or even used to buy a farm or a factory. That has a chance to bear fruit in future years.

Even if one bought an annuity with their “Social Security Insurance” “contributions”, then you’d have a chance of a return. Even a Ponzi scheme is more moral; the scammer can’t MAKE you give your wealth away. The Gooferment will kill you if you don’t.

Argh!

Frau Reinke paid in for years, got 8 months back, and I got her $225 death “benefit”. For decades of “contributions”!

Disgraceful. Robbery.

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RANT: A smart guy doesn’t think Social Security is broke

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http://www.keywestlou.com/2011/01/blog-late-slept-late-sorry-yesterdays.html

My Life in Key West

SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2011

*** begin quote ***

I hit Social Security hard. The American people are getting a crock of improper information from the right. Social Security is not insolvent. It will be either 8 years or 24 years before there is a problem. Deal with the other issues at this time which are critical at the moment. Deal with Social Security later in a precautionary fashion to make sure no problems occur down the road.

*** end quote ***

Social Security isn’t insolvent?

Guess we have different definitions of what “insolvent” means!

in·sol·vent adj \(ˌ)in-ˈsäl-vənt, -ˈsȯl-\

Definition of INSOLVENT

a (1) : unable to pay debts as they fall due in the usual course of business (2) : having liabilities in excess of a reasonable market value of assets held

b : insufficient to pay all debts <an insolvent estate>

c : not up to a normal standard or complement : impoverished

We’ll just go to that “lockbox” each month an take out what’s needed to pay the pensioners.

Oh, there is NO lockbox!

That proverbial lockbox is full of IOUs from the Treasury.

Surely the Treasury has a “treasure room” to redeem these IOUs against? Fort Knox?

No, Treasury thru the FED borrows money from China!

Now, I know it’s hard for folk to think of their precious Gooferment as being “broke”. But it is.

Not that it doesn’t have resources. Not that it is without people.

It’s short on clarity.

It all starts back in 1913 with the creation of the FED, with stops along the way at FDR’s gold confiscation, Nixon closing the gold window, and “Helicopter” Ben with his “printing press”.

What we are calling money has no intrinsic value. No scarcity. We’re lucky that we’ve pulled the proverbial wool over the world’s eyes with the “Dollar as the World’s Reserve currency”. Our new modern Dollar is worth whatever you can exchange it for. We kid ourselves that it has “value”.

(Saddam whispering, that he wanted to be paid for “his” oil in the golden dinar, was enough to get him overthrown.)

The OPEC countries and China are wising up to the scam. Their problem is how do they hit the exit from the Dollar while it still worth something. And, they are not in a position to go without the USA markets. Yet. Why do you suppose that China is buying everything in sight with its dollars? Much like the Japanese in the 80’s who bought Rockefeller Center, golf courses galore, and stuff. It didn’t save them.

Now, back to Social Security. When I was on Wall Street, everyone always worried about “counter party risk”. If I do a trade with you, will you complete the deal. Us old folks have a “moral IOU” from Uncle Sam that says we have sort of a claim on future generations for an annuity. (An annuity that pays a negative interest rate, I might add. But, let’s keep it simple.) Congress can with the stroke of pen change the terms of that annuity. (As it can with any public servants’ pension.)

Now there are any number of reasons that they abrogate the deal. It’s too expensive. It’s inconvenient. Or, there are not enough future taxpayers to make good on the promise.

So how can you say that Social Security isn’t broke? It’s not like a real Insurance Company. It makes Bernie Made-Off look penny ante.

Did you skip MC’s eckynomics class?

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RANT: The Social Security Myth

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http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/111849/social-security-changes-in-2011?mod=fidelity-readytoretire&cat=fidelity_2010_getting_ready_to_retire

4 Social Security Changes Coming in 2011
by Emily Brandon
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

*** begin quote ***

The Social Security program will be tweaked in several important ways in 2011. Workers will get a temporary tax break on the amount they pay into the entitlement program, and several claiming options for retirees will be eliminated. Here’s a look at how the Social Security program will change this year.

{Extraneous Deleted}

The Social Security system’s finances are not expected to be harmed because the trust fund will be reimbursed for the full amount of the tax break from the general fund of the Treasury. However, this change also means that the Social Security trust fund will no longer be completely funded directly by citizen contributions. “This pretty much ends the claim that Social Security is self-financing or that it doesn’t contribute to the budget deficit,” says Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

*** end quote ***

What a bunch of hogwash!

This is all a myth.

Myth: “an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution”!

Boy, that sure fits.

If you went to Metropolitan Life Insurance and bought an annuity. They would take your wealth that you gave them freely, invest it in something productive, deduct their fee, and return it to you over time in accordance with your contract. You have “rights”. You know it will be audited. You can sell it. You can rely on their assurances. There’s a risk, but you’ve considered and know it.

Now compare it to the Social Security “system”. (It’s wrong to call it a Ponzi scheme. In a Ponzi scheme, you volunteer to participate. Usually out of greed. But, with “Social Security”, you don’t get a choice.)

They TAKE your wealth. If you don’t want to participate, men with guns will come and possibly kill you.

That wealth is thrown into the General Fund. And, you get a promise. Not even an IOU.

The whole article “celebrates” the system.

Where are your rights?

When the system goes broke, you, and I, will be standing like David Copperfield, hat in hand, saying, “May I have what’s mine, sir?”

“We, The Sheeple” are getting shorn again.

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POLITICAL: Deny Congress everything

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/12/deny_congress_fica_payroll_tax.html

December 05, 2010
Deny Congress FICA Payroll Tax in the General Fund
Erroll Ivery

*** begin quote ***

It was not just a “change in budget presentation.” The net result of lending payroll tax to the federal government under a unified budget was divestiture of all trust funds. Congress then spent surplus payroll tax, instead of leaving it in the trust fund and investing it in money market investment accounts, for example, to earn interest and preserve capital during years of surplus payroll tax. Instead of asking the American worker to compensate for Congress’ fiscal irresponsibility, Congress should re-capitalize the Social Security Trust Fund with payroll tax deposits. Any deficit in receipts needed to pay benefits should then come from the General Fund.

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand why we continue the fiction that this is a “separate program”, “insurance”, or even an “entitlement”. It’s a welfare program that has been marketed

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RANT: Without SSN there’d be no such thing as “identity theft”

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http://www.wxpnews.com/archives/wxpnews-432-20100608.htm

Vol. 10, #22 – Jun 8, 2010 – Issue #432
Is Google The Biggest Threat Yet to Your Privacy?

*** begin quote ***

Of course, in many cases we don’t have much choice about giving out that personal data. You can’t just tell the doctor’s office “no” when they ask for your social security number and other personal info – not if you want to get treatment. You have to give that info to your bank because you need a bank account in order to pay your bills and cash your paychecks (sure, it’s possible to survive without one, but it’s not very convenient in today’s world).

However, many people also give out a lot of information that it’s not mandatory to reveal. I am also surprised at how many people put their full dates of birth and their cell phone numbers on their Facebook profiles, visible to the public. Date of birth is a piece of information that’s very valuable to identity thieves, and if you don’t have an “unlimited” plan, anyone who has your cell number can “text bomb” you and cost you hundreds of dollars.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

Darn FDR and his Social Security Insurance scheme. Like a Ponzi scheme that you’re force to participate in.

It gave the Feds their universal identifier.

How many people remember that the original SSI cards said “Not for identification purposes”?

We are such boobs. The politicians and bureaucrats lied.

And, we bear the brunt of it.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

You don’t OWN your name or your SSN!

It should be copyrighted, trademarked, or patented. So you can control it.

But most of all we shouldn’t have it at all!

Argh!

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MONEY: Social Security is like a Ponzi scheme

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.doughroller.net/personal-finance/what-is-social-security

What is Social Security? by Michael on June 7, 2010

>Have you ever wondered how Social Security works?

The Gooferment, using its gun power, has stolen and continues to steal from the workers taxes under the guise of “insurance”.

Like a Ponzi scheme, it uses what it steals from current workers to pay off older workers. Unlike a Ponzi scheme, it’s almost impossible to avoid this theft.

In practical terms, this program transfers money from poor minority men to rich white women.

It’s intergenerational theft!

And, as an “investment”, it’s the rough equivalent a negative rate of return estimated between 2 and 5%.

>President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to assist the elderly

While we’ll never know what he wanted, but we do know he was a “progressive” who admired socialism.

It was asserted that “social security” was a big step on the road to socialism. Huge societal changes were initiated by this action. In effect, he put the old on the dole.

>impact on Americans by the Depression

A Depression that was caused by the Congress in passing the Smoot Hawley tariff and exacerbated by the (unconstitutional and monopolistic) Federal Reserve Bank. So, the answer is, of course, “more gooferment”!

>Before Social Security, care and monetary funding for these individuals

Was their own responsibility. And that of their family. Multi-generation family farms were common BEFORE social security.

>

And, don’t overlook the fact that Congress changes the rules as it sees fit. Try doing that if you were an insurance company.

Social Security is a disaster. And, as such, everyone should be VERY careful in including it in their financial plans.

And, bear in mind that the Gooferment needs money, and the IRA / 401ks are held by “Custodians”. So everyone should be worried that they will have their IRA and or 401k when they need it to retire.

Lest you think “it can’t happen here”, then think back on the Bank Holiday, the Gold Seizure, and the Japanese Internment.

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.” George Washington

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RANT: Social Security is a fraudulent theft by the Gooferment

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/01/how-high-canshouldwill-retirem

How High Can/Should/Will Retirement Age[*] Go?

Nick Gillespie | June 1, 2010

*** begin quote ***

[*] For the purposes of Social Security; retirement ages in the private sector should be decided by the individual affected or the company paying same.

Last week, French folks took to the streets when the government threatened to raise the age at which vous could collect public retirement benefits…from 60 years to possibly 61 or even 62! Zut!

*** and ***

There is something truly perverse about any system that takes from the young and relatively poor and gives to the old and relatively rich, which is what Social Security and Medicare do. Indeed, the system is not just economically inefficient but morally bankrupt. It reverses centuries of tradition in which children inherit from their parents. Adding to the insult is that Social Security benefits do not pass on to the next generation, meaning that all that payroll tax money is belong to us (with us being the government). I’m no fan of mandatory savings accounts in the place of payroll taxes but even something like that, which would give all workers something like a 401(k) account that could be passed on, would be far preferable to the current system.

*** end quote ***

It’s even worse than that. “Social Security Insurance”, which I have mistakenly called a Ponzi scheme (i.e., in a Ponzi, the chooses to play; with SSI, there are the guns of gooferment to rob you), actually transfers from poor minority men to rich white women. Due to the disparate death rates!

I can’t think of a single redeeming value for SSI.

* It single-handedly destroyed the extended family by enabling grandparents to move away “to Florida” with the SSI income.

* It set up intergenerational theft.

* When it was set up, FDR knew it couldn’t be stopped. (It will stop with the bankruptcy of the nation.)

* It made being on the dole acceptable.

* It set a “retirement age” that locked into people’s thinking. With one size fits all thinking!

* It was supposed to be a tax free benefit, but the perfidious Congress made it taxable

* It was supposed to be a retirement, but it became “supplement”.

* COLA is given by the gooferment; not reality.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Stopping the Social Security Ponzi scheme! “Cold turkey”?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://cafehayek.com/2010/05/stopping-the-social-security-ponzi-scheme.html

Stopping the social security ponzi scheme
by Russ Roberts on May 4, 2010
in Social Security

*** begin quote ***

The way to keep social security from bankrupting the country is to make it a welfare program for the elderly. But what about all the money I “contributed”? Alas, that was a lie. The money wasn’t set aside for the future. It’s like asking why don’t I collect food stamps even though I’m rich. Hey, I contributed so I should get food stamps. That’s a bizarre belief to have. That’s not the way food stamps work. That is the way social security is supposed to work, but it’s a bad idea, it was an illusion that your contributions were really yours and there isn’t enough money to keep the illusion going.

*** end quote ***

The problem is that the gooferment took the “seed corn” from everyone. They skimmed the “cream” off the top. We could have saved MORE for our own retirement, but they STOLE it early (when the savings would have had more impact) and OFTEN (by inflation eats up savings and raises costs). So everyone to now say “too bad, you’re screwed” is the perpetuation of a fraud and a theft. We didn’t get into this mess in a few years and won’t get out of it in a few years. It was decades. So, like Chile, we need time. <sub 40, recognition bond for contributions payable in 40 years; over 40 below 60, you get some choices; over 60, you get the old plan> And you work your way out.

I pitched a similar idea in the NY Tax Revolt in the 80’s. A twenty year plan to get out of gooferment education at 5% a year. Followed immediately by a twenty year plan, to get out of gooferment funded “education” completely. Forty years, like the time the Jews wandered the desert, gives you time to reeducate people and allow them to adapt to the new realities. Too bad they didn’t adopt it, we’d have been half way out by now. NJ’s education expense is crippling the State.

Paradigms and memes don’t change over night. And, folks have to be able to see the path, where it leads to, and how it can be accomplished with 960 (40 times 12) easy monthly payments of some modest amount gets them to Freedom.

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Upon reflection, this would cause violence in the streets. Only the wealthy could survive this body blow. And, with the gooferment planning to “monetize the debt” (i.e., inflate the currency so it can pay off the debt), those on fixed incomes and retired will be slowly strangled. Think the German pre-WW2 hyperinflation that made Hitler possible.

No, we need an orderly multi-generational way to get form here to there. Peacefully. The Chile solution worked well; why not here?

One problem is they were all illiterate and could ignore the liberal media telling us the gooferment’s propaganda line. We’re too “smart” for our own good. And, the youth propaganda reeducation camps are ensuring continued stupidity!

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Social Security Ponzi scheme will become “everyone’s” problem

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/social_security_slush_fund_now.html

March 28, 2010
Social Security Ponzi scheme unraveling
Monty Pelerin

*** begin quote ***

The darling of the politicans in Washington has become not-so darling. Social Security, for decades a hidden slush fund that allowed pols to spend beyond what they taxed, has turned into an albatross. The Ponzi Scheme has unraveled.

*** and ***

Last year the crossover estimate was revised to 2017. Surprise! Surprise! The program is now in deficit. From this point on, there is nothing for politicians to “steal” from the “trust fund.” Instead, they will have to use general tax revenues to fund Social Security shortfalls. The fund has flipped from a cash-generator to a cash-eater.

*** and ***

At some point the privatization idea will be raised again. This time it will receive “broad political support.” There will be no principle involved. As a slush fund, the program had value for pols. As a cash drain, it is a liability that cuts into the “profitable” part of their criminal enterprise. It will be exorcised in some fashion.

It will likely be dumped on the American people, in the same fashion that bad banking loans have been.

*** end quote ***

You’ll get privatized now. When it’s worthless. The congresscritters have lied to the Sheeple. Now, when it comes time to collect on these promises, Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard is bare! And, the poor young workers won’t want to transfer wealth tot he rich old people. Will then we get get “health rationing”? OK Grandma and Grandpa, here’s your Titanic ticket. Have a nice cruise. At least, the Eskimos put the old people on an iceberg. No illusions. (Does any one know if that is a real fact or just another urban legend?)

But, get ready, the population demographics have changed and the Social Security Ponzi scheme is unsustainable.

You don’t think the congresscritters are going to give up their retirement; do you?

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MONEY: Gooferment wants to turn savings into guaranteed income streams

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://www.newmediajournal.us/government/01152010.htm

Government
Retiree Annuities May Be Promoted by Obama Aides
BusinessWeek.com/Bloomberg

*** begin quote ***

The Obama administration is weighing how the government can “encourage” workers to turn their savings into guaranteed income streams following a collapse in retiree accounts when the stock market plunged.

The US Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comments as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, who are spearheading the effort.

Annuities generally guarantee income until the retiree’s death, and often that of a surviving spouse as well. They are designed to protect against the risk that retirees outlive their savings, a danger made clear by market losses suffered by older Americans over the last year, David Certner, legislative counsel for AARP, said in an interview.

*** and ***

Content Editor’s Note: The Obama Administration is going to try to force investors to structure IRA and 401k accounts into what amounts to a US Treasury debt-backed government annuity. This is an attempt to divert hundreds of billions of dollars of private retirement accounts into federal government debt. If the Chinese won’t voluntarily buy more US debt, the government will simply force it on American investors whether they want it or not. Just more freedoms being taken away.

*** end quote ***

Last time, the trial balloon was “enhanced social security”. Considering that “Social Security Insurance” is broke, that was a lead balloon!

Now they are back with another one, “annuities”, in Treasuries, and I’m sure sold by the Administration’s friends at AARP, packaged by Goldman Sachs, insured by AIG, and delivered by a GM car. (OK, the last is a joke! But this whole think is a joke.)

What those unfamiliar with annuities does is ROB the estates of these people. And, make the gooferment your heir. Argh! As if the Death Tax wasn’t bad enough.

OK, for ha has, why not convert social security into annuities? Sure cause then people could sell them out.

BUT, (there is always a big butt), then we would be FORCED to recognized how underfunded all these “insurance” programs are.

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INTERESTING: Advice for College Graduates

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/stock-market-investing-advice-for-college-graduates.html

Stock Market Investing Advice for College Graduates by Jim Wang

*** begin quote ***

Imagine you had a time machine and could give yourself just one good piece of advice after you graduated college, what would it be?

*** end quote ***

Eliminate debt. Save more. Go to Law School with the rest of the team. Buy commodities. Move to the country.

“Souldas, wouldas, and couldas”

They will kill you!

Now, my advice would be: “Be an entrepreneur”!

When I was a recent graduate, I was enthralled by Sonny Bloc on the radio. His advice was to buy, and rent out, 12 single family homes within one hour of your primary residence. I understood the objective a secure monthly income. His theory was that after 15 or 30 years of rental income, the rents would then be free and clear. A pension!

In the wisdom of my youth, I saw all the obstacles — downpayments, 3AM calls from angry renters, and hassles. The target thirty years down the road was so far away. I didn’t do it! If I had, I’d be sitting on 12 300k$ “cash cows”. Say 4m$. Throwing off 12 12k$ annually. 145k$. Argh!

Now I see the wisdom of all sorts of things.

So, I’ll modify that advice: “Have a written plan to be an entrepreneur!”

Yes, hindsight is 20/20.

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LIBERTY: What percentage of a slave are you?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94199

A Minority View Walter Williams
Government deception: The rule not the exception
Posted: April 08, 2009 1:00 am Eastern

*** begin quote ***

Today’s politicians are not likely to take measures to avoid the coming chaos because senior citizens, the major beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare, vote in large numbers and will exact a high political price. Plus, neither today’s senior citizens nor today’s politicians will be alive in 2050. I’d be more optimistic if my fellow Americans were simply suffering from congressional deception as opposed to their not caring about the economic calamity that awaits tomorrow’s Americans. I’d be even more optimistic if today’s seniors started putting heat on Congress to allow those Americans who want nothing to do with Social Security to opt out.

*** end quote ***

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Like that is ever going to happen. Politicians and bureaucrats will never release the “wage slaves” without a fight.

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POLITICAL: Abortion is genocide

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87549

The George Bailey Effect
Posted: January 31, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
By Larry Burkett

Editor’s note: The late Larry Burkett, popular Christian financial counselor and author, penned this article in 1998. It is a compelling “response” to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent statement that the economy benefits from “family planning.” Joseph Slife contributed to this column.

*** begin quote ***

As the preceding evidence demonstrates, abortion is not simply a matter of private conscience, but of public concern. Abortion-on-demand has effects that are rippling throughout our society and could even threaten our future liberties.

This is why abortion, even if all moral arguments are totally discounted, cannot be ignored in framing public policy. Simply writing off abortion as a “moral” or a “religious” issue is a short-sighted approach that fails to reckon its economic and demographic consequences.

We can’t undo the past, of course. We can’t undo the fact that we have had 35 million George Baileys, people never born, people whose lives were never allowed to touch other lives. Indeed they have left an “awful hole.” But for the sake of our nation’s economic future and national security, as well as its moral character, we must resolve to promote from this time forward an ethic that is pro-family and pro-children. Only then can America continue to have a wonderful life.

*** end quote ***

When Pelosi and the Obama Democrat “liberals” advnace the pro-abortion agenda, everyone has to think of the “George Bailey” effect.

Have we aborted the future of America?

Like a self-imposed genocide.

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POLITICAL: Unwinding the Social Security Ponzi scheme

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/01/entitlements-part-15-social-security.html

Friday, January 9, 2009

Entitlements Part 1.5- Social Security

*** begin quote ***

This brought up enough discussion that some things deserve to be addressed in a venue more public then the comments section. I will address as much as I can in no particular order. Here it goes.

First of all I did not mean anything seriously bad to the older folks who read the blog or your peer group. I poked some fun but it is just that, fun. I take a few friendly shots at just about everyone given the right setting. I am enough of am asshole that if I wanted to say something really mean I would.

*** and ***

The most interesting idea that came out of the comments was what happened in Chile with their SS plan in the 1970’s. If you are as familiar with that as I was three hours ago then read this. I think that is sort of idea is probably the best chance of making our system viable but I still have the same big question/ concern I had about going to a privatized system before reading that article.

*** end quote ***

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Guess who made that comment? It is a good discussion about the Social Security Ponzi scheme and how to plan around it. No need to rehash it here or repeat my comments. You can read them over there.

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LIBERTY: Don’t privitize Social Security. It’s too risky!

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2008/10/market-meltdown-is-best-argument.html

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Market meltdown is best argument against privatizing Social Security

*** begin quote ***

It has always been pretty clear to me that the notion that we could fix our retirement system by handing it over to Wall Street was, well, nuts.

*** and ***

American workers shouldn’t have to face this kind of uncertainty. The cautionary tale is before us — listen to this NPR Morning Edition report on soon-to-be retirees who thought they would live off their savings and investments, but whom the experts now council to “keep on working.”

Posted by Hank Kalet at 3:00 PM

*** end quote ***

Of course, I was enraged and commented:

fjohn said…

Arghhh!

So let me understand this.

It’s OK to rob poor black men to pay off rich white women? (Who designed this one out, the KKK?)

It’s OK to rob the future generations in an intergenerational transfer of wealth. (Like eating your young?)

It’s OK to have a forced savings plan that has an implied interest rate of negative 2 percent. (OK, you may not have enough left from your job, but nanny gooferment will save you some dog food for your retirement.)

It’s OK for a poor person’s largest asset (i.e, “their” social security accrued benefits) to “evaporate” when they die. Absorbed back into the gooferment till for a $225 ‘death benefit’. (Even a passbook savings account can be inherited.)

Argh!

Yes, save us from the Stock Market that earns an average of 8% a year over LONG periods of time.

Save us mommy gooferment from the big bad real world. The fact the the gooferment — specifically the congress critters took payoff from the monsters they created — caused the problem and you seek to save us by MORE gooferment.

Really explain it to me again. Use littler words. Cause I’m getting screwed by all you socialists and I can’t stand it any more.

Explain to me how Chile privitized their social security in 1970 with a population so illiterate they had to use pictures for the investment companies because people could NOT read the names. (Haven’t heard about dying old folks in Chile lately. Maybe everyone died of privitazation there and we have NOT had it reported yet?)

Argh!

It must by the fault of those Liberty loving dead old white guys.

I’m sure they must have mentioned Social Security in the enumerated powers.

Please give me a break with this circular logic on an un-Constitutional un-Liberty disabling disempowering Socialist program.

Karl Marx must be laughing in his beer at us! Him and his cousin Groucho. They couldn’t have made a funnier skit.

4:39 PM

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In summation, don’t fix a failed program because of stock market volatility. What caused the volatility, criminal negligence by the ploiltical class.

OK. Lets kill the porgram completely.

Even if one stipulates that a bunch of dead old white guys 200 years ago can bind me to an obligation, let’s see where it says that you Socialists can steal my money “for my own good” of course.

Argh!

Leave me alone. Take your Socialism and keep it to yourself.

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