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Congress Proposes Fraudulent New Law To "Fix" Social Security
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
On January 31, 1940, the very first Social Security check ever delivered went to Ms. Ida May Fuller, a former legal secretary who had recently retired.
Ms. Fuller had spent just three years paying into the system, contributing a total of $24.75 to Social Security.
Yet her first check was for nearly that entire amount. Quite a return on investment.
She went on to live past 100, collecting a total of $22,888.92, over 900 times the amount she contributed to the program. Her story is quite the metaphor.
If you’re not familiar, Social Security is comprised of two primary trust funds: Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI).
Essentially, all of the taxes paid in to Social Security end up in one of these two trust funds.
The trust funds then ‘manage’ the money to generate a rate of return, and then pay out distributions to program recipients.
Now, the funds are overseen by a Board of Trustees which is obliged to submit an annual report on the fiscal condition of the program. It ain’t pretty.
The Disability Insurance (DI) fund is particularly ugly. In fact, the trustees themselves wrote in the 2015 annual report that
“[T]he DI Trust Fund fails the Trustee’s short-range test of financial adequacy. . .”
and,
“The DI Trust Fund reserves are expected to deplete in the fourth quarter of 2016…”
In other words, one of the two Social Security trust funds is just months away from insolvency.
When people think about Social Security, they think that all the problems are decades away.
Wrong. This is next year.
The other trust fund, OAS, is projected to “become depleted and unable to pay scheduled benefits in full on a timely basis in 2034.”
Which means that if you’re 47 or younger, you can kiss Social Security goodbye.
Bear in mind, these aren’t my calculations. Nor are they any wild assertions. They’re direct quotes from the trustees themselves.
And, just who are these trustees? The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America. The Labor Secretary. The Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Some of the most senior officials in the US government sign their name to an official report stating that these funds are nearly insolvency– one of them even NEXT YEAR.
Not to worry, though. Congress is on the case.
Late last week, several dozen members of Congress introduced the “One Social Security Act”, HR 3150, to solve this problem.
And let me tell you, their solution is bold. Fearless. And brilliant.
HR 3150 attacks the looming insolvency of Disability Insurance by eliminating the fund altogether.
So instead of having two separate funds for two distinct purposes of Social Security, the legislation aims to combine them into one unified fund.
That way, with just one fund, there won’t be any separate reporting about DI’s insolvency.
It’s genius! They make the problem go away by eliminating the requirement to report it.
There’s just one small issue. Legally, they have a word for this. It’s called fraud.
You and I would go to prison if we commingled funds like this. But in the hallowed halls of Congress, this is what passes as a solution.
This is so typical– solving problems by pretending that they don’t exist and destroying any element of transparency and accountability.
This pretty much tells you everything you need to know about government.
Look, it’s a hard reality to swallow. But the government’s own data show that these programs are not going to be there for you.
And the story smacking us in the face right now demonstrates precisely how politicians intend on ‘solving’ the problems.
These people aren’t the solution. They’re the problem.
And don’t think that ‘voting the bums out’ will affect anything. Elections merely change the players, not the game.
The only way forward is to invest in yourself, particularly in your business and financial education. Make plans based on the assumption that Social Security doesn’t exist.
And if, by some miracle, it’s still there by the time you retire, you won’t be worse off for having built a larger nest egg thanks to the financial acumen you developed.
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The only solution: In order to collect SS, you must prove that you've recently committed securities fraud.
Make plans based on the assumption that Social Security doesn’t exist.
Put into other words, factor in the bi-weekly (or however often you get paid) theft of your wealth when you're saving for the future. Even the term "social security" grosses me out.
very shakesperian: the Ida's of May
Perhaps Congress should take a look at the chart below and reconsider...gonna need more cowbell!
http://econimica.blogspot.com/2015/06/0ne-simple-chart-explains-great.html
I wonder why AARP never says anything about the tidal wave of illegals which will sure as hell break social security?
Actually, not.
They know "Voters for free stuff" are more important in the baseless fiat socialist wonderland than solvency.
Interesting note - illegals pay into social security but can never draw from it...they are actually a net positive from a SS solvency pov.
Horsepiss.
Under the table is under the table and SSI is need-based. It is not based on contributions.
...and once legalized (everyone) they get credit for any contributions prior to legalization.
“Under the November 20, 2014, policy memorandum, a foreign national who receives deferred action status may be able to have all of his or her Social Security-covered earnings count toward qualifying for a Social Security benefit (all earnings from authorized and unauthorized work).”
I'm sure CONgress sought the advice of the expert on the subject of "commingled funds" - Jon Corzine.
Sounds good to me. The sooner OAS runs dry the better.
I'd be surprised if people 47 and older will 'reap the benfits' of social security at the rate this collapse is coming.
I've known I wouldn't see a dime for a decade and I'm 28 years old. At this point I just want to be alive at 'retirement age'. Surviving the storms coming is my main goal but hey I'm an optimist.
This, of course, fistly assumes that there remains a middle class with disposable net income to invest (After the "reduced" Obamacare Premiums and Tuiton Fees) and, secondly, that there are investment opportunities at reasonable rates of return with reasonable risk profiles. I would question BOTH of those assumptions.
CC. Ms J Fellen
. Sounds good to me. The sooner OAS runs dry the better
Yeah, maybe I can stop being held at gunpoint and forced to pay into it then?
SS has always been a fraud, and a Ponzi scheme. The cash flow is turning negative. The "trust funds" never existed.
This will end badly.
I once had a true believer explain to me that SS couldn't be a ponzi because it operates as a trust and therefore had a trustee with fiduciary duties. He was quite emphatic. I still wonder if he rejects mathematics in favor of explanations that help him sleep at night.
Politicians are the only people who would dare claim to be saving daylight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KJ0HXu7D0
Calling social security a ponzi scheme is like calling rape voluntary.
I wonder why AARP never says anything about the tidal wave of illegals which will sure as hell break social security?
Same reason the Sierra Club doesn't. (Actually, that's kind of a fun story. Worth researching if you have a spare ten minutes.)
Let's also not forget all those illegals who sponge off the Treasury in other ways - welfare, obama phones, free health care, education, Etc.
Oh, you mean 'Disabled Undocumented Individuals' ... adding a whole new meaning to the term DUI
The above article assumes social security is some sort of a contract, like say an annuity. Social security is just like any other government program. Want the proof? In my lifetime my benefits have been increased and my benefits have been cut. My taxes have been increased and my taxes have been cut. Now if the government can change all of those things based on their political needs this program is no different than any other welfare program. I know, I know, but you PAID into it. Doesn't matter. What you paid and what you recieve can be changed at any time for political gain.
SS is a tax, just like ObolaCare. They can stop paying SS (or SSI) anytime they want or simply reallocate it to whom they deem is worthy. My guess is they'll stop paying whitey before anyone else.
Gee whiz, your proceeds have gone up and down, sounds like. I'm sure "investment" in capital market-based funds would have gone better, but with those complaints you surely understand the capture of all pension funds by private equity and other pirate entities that exist primarily to milk pension funds.
Many people who thought they had lifelong pensions are butt hurt these days. In their "standards of living."
The Teamsters took a serious cut.
SS is not something apart from the rest of the story of retirement income vehicles.
The #winners in today's society will rake it all in. No matter what the "program" is called.
That's what's left in the game. Strip mining the "dumb money."
Dumb these days means trusting in decency and the value of one's own labor.
Racketeers rule.
Don't blame SS. The larger game is bloody in its clarity.
Divide and conquer will allow it to happen. Perhaps. Seems to me we should reject that concept.
As the Greeks do in most of our fantasies.
Same foes. Same goals.
All AARP cares about is selling insurance policies.
"The Ides of March" I believe you are referring to. The blustry winds of early spring. Milestones
I like Simon Black a lot better now that he's stopped ending evry item with, "Get out of the US! Run away! Run away!" For the third time in a row he's standing pat.
Yep. Stay in the US. That is the message I take away from this.
What are the zombies going to do without the SSI benefits? Stay home and quietly die? Not fucking likely.
The fact remains that Simon Black used to end every column with tips for getting yourself and your money out of the US. To me it seemed short sighted and overly optimistic not to mention cowardly.
But he hasn't made that suggestion in the past three pieces I've read. Make of it what you will.
I assume he got called out enough about it (especially on ZH)
Send me $49.99 and I'll tell you more.
My take on Mr. Black is that he has mined the seam of "get your ass out of the US" pretty effectively, but it's really a fairly small niche.
Good news for all you thrifty savers out there: soon... very soon, Simon will be opening his own bank
I'm sure this has nothing to do with wanting to disarm people who can't handle their own financial affairs.
My social security is gone and I don't know what to do!
You're obviously a danger to yourself and others now. Give us your gun.
way to late....what with all the simon says crap and wanting to sell Bolivian swamp land. simon says this old dog still hunts the same....lol.
Which means that if you’re 47 or younger, you can kiss Social Security goodbye.
I think that's overly-optimistic. I'm 56 and I kissed it off back in the 80's. My contributions have been to support my grandparents and parents. For that I have no resentment.
I AM pretty pissed that my contributions were bled off into low-life support programs for those unwilling to work or better themselves. Being used to make illegals comfie as they take low end jobs...beinig used to cover budget shortfalls.
The bleed-out is now uncontrollable and we alredy know every statistic, estimate and claim made by government is an utter lie. IT's worse than the government is saying by factors of ten.
I'm thinking that those 60 and below are going to spend their golden years in various parks...under a box with a shredded blanket. Begging for food with the squirrels.
[Edit]
My view is suddenly main-stream....
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421790/social-security-bankruptcy-statement-baby-boomers
The only solution: import more illegal Mexicans.
That appears to be the plan. Every ponzi requires fresh suckas
Fresh voters.
You'd think Diebold would have negated the need for importing actual illegals to vote.
I guess what they really want are mobs of thugs to support the free shit and beat the shit out of anyone who wants to go yelling shit about a "constitution".
Clearly you have never actually met a Mexican.
Si mon, puto.
ZING!
I wave to them while they're out landscaping.
"You'd think Diebold would have negated the need for importing actual illegals to vote."
They only implement the "Diebold Contingency" in emergencies. They needed to implement the "Diebold Contingency" to get the RINO's in charge of Congress to insure passage of the TPP.
Odd. Because I don't remember voting for that.
And Moslems and Zulus.
Problem solved.
Isn't this just M&A, just a govy balance sheet instead of a public/private one?
Efficiency and Synergy Bitches!
Regards,
Cooter
they could get Corzine to oversee it. He's got the experience - and the legal expertise.
I wonder how these funds would be travelling if they had been earning interest at normalised rates
"So instead of having two separate funds for two distinct purposes of Social Security, the legislation aims to combine them into one unified fund.
That way, with just one fund, there won’t be any separate reporting about DI’s insolvency. "
Stealing from one fund to make payments promised by another.
Pandering to voters in 2015 is much easier and much more important than protecting the interests of the voters of 2035.
Dispicable politicians robbing future beneficiaries to pay present beneficiaries.
Disability is gamed and defrauded much more easily than Social Security. Proving one's back hurts too much to do data entry is much harder than proving one is 65 years old.
It's ALL supposed to be INSURANCE.
Neither fund would be in trouble both were managed as INSURANCE instead of half-assed Annuities funded by theft.
Disability is the new 'welfare' or long term unemployment for those that are unemployable. Misuse and fraud are rampant - and tolerated - a way to provide minimal payments to those who would otherwise be starving. In places like Appalachia you have a huge percentage of the population collecting disability.
Government has limited welfare and unemployment but doesn't want the unemployed masses rioting in the streets so they tolerate misuse of this program. Numbers have skyrocketed in the last 7 years as jobs continue to disappear and people fall off unemployment. There are limits on welfare so peopel are gaming the few programs left.
There is only one fix for social security (and medicare) - allow people to opt out. Period.
The first heart bypass consumes the contributions of any one contributor.
And then everyone has his or her pet project to ‘save’ or ‘fix’ this or that. All noble be it foster children or victims of drunk drivers…
Only solution: explode the Capitol building.
And the government is worried about climate change? Wake up America!
Actually they're not, it's all part of the plan. They just want you to worry about it so you won't focus on anything that actually matters!
So yes indeed, WAKE UP!
War is to control overseas energy resources, global warming is to control domestic energy distribution. Red, blue, same goal.
Your second point makes a lot of sense but the first one suffers from too much logic.
Our lunatic foreign policy is to achieve airy fairy goals like nation building, making Moslems love us, bankrupting Russia, and encouraging Russia and China to cooperate against us.
Our lunatic foreign policy is to achieve airy fairy goals like nation building, making Moslems love us, bankrupting Russia, and encouraging Russia and China to cooperate against us.
No, those things constitute a "model" which is used to justify military action in resources rich regions and along transportation routes just as thw AGW model is used to justify domestic control.
Plan B: increase corn subsidies to further drop the price of corn. Fat people have MUCH shorter lives. If we can get tens of millions of people to die before age 65, Social Security might survive.
Yes. And encourage smoking.
Smoking made America great when men were men and women were glad of it. Bully!
I appreciate a man who can think outside the box.
We've moved from occasional fraud -> fraud-centric -> fraud only.
That's why they're having to build so many new prisons. They're for people who refuse to commit fraud.
So tell your kids - if you want to stay of prison, you need to start learning how to become a criminal.
Anyone who refuses to lie cheat and steal will be considered a terrorist and sent to prison.
"Get the hell out of my way!"
Someone observed that the quickest way to succeed in politics is to commit some heinous moral offense. That way the old guard know they have something on you and that you can be trusted to cooperate with them.
Think about it.
In 1940 there were 20 workers for 1 person retiring. Today and in the future there will be 1 worker for 20 people retiring. Let me know how the numbers work out..
"Lockbox" Al Gore circa 1992
You failed to mention that that one worker was a part time worker earning the new $15/hour minimum wage.
The DI fund would not be out of money if they kicked off all the non-disabled people. Instead they have added millions of able bodied long term unemployed to the DI rolls because they have no other place to put them. We now classify 'laziness' as a disability?
Or couch potato, take ur pick.
No, morbid obesity is a "disability". Solution: Stop paying them money and starve the morbidly obese until they are again fit to work. Government handouts encourage morbid obesity.
Laziness? Probably quite a few, but I believe many are people in their 50's whose jobs were offshored, or they were replaced by corporate America with cheap imported Asian labor. First they look for work, and finding none, after exhausting their unemployment, they find the right doctor to diagnose them with back/emotional problems and apply for SSI.
BTW, it's a will known scam that Indians import their elderly parents and then, feigning poverty, manage to get them on SSI, too.
Now they want to merge it with the general fund?
No, I don't expect it to be solvent after 2023.
Yea.
Keep voting. Keep paying taxes.
What the heck, just have the FED push a few buttons and not only "fix it"... let's just tell them to Double everyone's benefit checks too!! See! Problem Solved!!
More checks huh?
Isn't ironic that they call these 'trust' funds?
Depends on if you are doing the trusting, or getting trusted.
If you consider that the Government is now helping people run around killing babies and harvesting their organs for sale on the black market - "retirement" funding is the least of our worries
As long as your country is ready to die, there is no need to worry.
Setting aside the fact that SSI is just a big ponzi, it's funny how funds for corporate welfare and SNAP never run out. It's always the benefits where the people pay into that run out of "money".
Saftey dance, everybody check your hands.
Come on, Doc, this actually makes a lot of sense. Fraud is the only logical way to "fix" a Ponzi scheme.
it's funny how funds for corporate welfare and SNAP never run out.
Enriching the former and protecting them from the latter. Nobody's worried about an army of walkers with tennis ball feet heading toward DC.
The whole system is a FRAUD!! Every level, every place, every day!!
I'm very worried about our childrens future but as a historian I must say that the next ten years should be VERY interesting...
Ten years may be a bit too long of an estimate, we should have had WW3 by then and possibly killed off all humans on the planet!
WWIII may not be nation states duking it out. It may be a seething mass of civil wars. We are heading towards not having enough shit for everybody, and that could play out on a much more local scale.
Then again, we could get a traditional WW that actually is over by Christmas, but not for the reason that the typical prognosticators of such timings would belleve.
I've often thought that WWIII will be a hundred little wars all over the globe. Nations will be too busy fighting in their backyard to have large scale warfare.
And to insolvent to afford it.
>>>Then again, we could get a traditional WW that actually is over by Christmas....
The Disney Company, Ray Kurzweil and National Review have all teamed up, and will be bringing back the original Andrews Sisters, so our boys fighting on the Malabar Front need not feel cut off from their cultural moorings.
That most basic of charts -- total debt -- is pretty much emblematic of the amount of fraud in the system. As the columns soar into the heavens like Jack's bean stalk you get a rough measure of the worthlessness of the underlying promises to repay.
"I'll still respect you in the morning" is a more convincing promise than any politician's promise you can think of.
With hyperinflation and money printing out of control, you may very well get your check for $1,200 in the year 2027....it's just that a loaf of bread will cost $50 and a pound of ground beef a $100!!!
Optimist.
I give it six months at best.
Today, I discovered that my local market placed security cameras in the meat department; furthermore, posted notices stating that the section was under survellience. Perhaps, in the near future, there will be an armed guard.
All protein comes from the barrel of a gun.
Wrong.
Trees/plants (and their produce), algae, are a few non-animal sources.
As for animal sources, no need for guns, as history proves.
Traps, arrows, spears, javelins, knives, slingshots, etc.
I see that 3 ZHers don't know that:
Trees and plants bear nuts. Nuts are a good source of protein.
All legumes are high in protein.
Nannochloropsis algae is 10-50% protein.
Spirulina is made up of mostly protein.
Humans have been eating meat for thousands of years before guns were invented.
Idjits.
Legumes and basmsti rice.
And they say Greece has problems.
The unfunded liability monster is waking from its hybernation and it will sweep the whole sordid mess off the table in just about every nation.
I suspect governments will eventually means test social security payments and eventually may even put the responsibility back onto their children and the old people's estates. In other words they might put a lien on the retiree's home to enable payment of a pension and then recoupment after death.
+1. They will absolutely means test SS benefits.
SS will be treated like Medicaid - you won't qualify until your assets are under $2K, and any meager income you may have counts against you.
It's only fair that those who have personal assets forego SS benefits to help those who have nothing. Barney the Purple Tyrannosaur teaches us that there are enough SNAP cards to go around if we all learn to share, and we're all in this together.
Simon says, "Make plans based on the assumption that Social Security doesn’t exist. And if, by some miracle, it’s still there by the time you retire, you won’t be worse off for having built a larger nest egg thanks to the financial acumen you developed."
Tippy says. "Make sure some of your nest egg is off the books, physical, portable assets." Cash, tools, coins, metals, firearms, Bean Bag Babies, collectible campaign buttons, drugs, whatever you can use to store wealth that doesn't show up via digital financial snooping.
Make ure your income is off the books also... that way you aren't paying into this blackhole!
i feel greedy saying this but i really don't like paying for social security when im not going to get it....
-under 47
Consider it your ticket to complain when the system goes tits up. I gave up any hope of collecting when I got my first crappy name on shirt high school job (when those still existed), and lost a substantial amount of money to "FICA" in the same month they pushed the benefit age back on my grandfather. He worked until cancer made it impossible and was never eligible to collect.
black males who've worked all their lives - as a group - are the most raped of all.
white women make out like bandits.
but you know what, no worries - I don't expect these United States to exist in anything like current form by the time I retire.
And I think world war 3 would have come and gone and substantially changed our valuations, too.
Strike greedy.
You should feel "used" "lied to" and "not given a shit about." "Fucked" also works here.
There is no money in the SS Lockbox.
So, this article is bullshit.
IOU's backed by force.
And may the farce be with you..
I prefer bullshit.
Lockbox, baby, lockbox! It's all there inside Schrödinger's lockbox.
Don't ever open it, though, or the contents might just disappear into a parallel universe.
But hey, at least we know it's there, backed by the Full Faith and Credit of the United States®.
Here, kitty kitty.
I bought a book recently on maximizing your Social Security benefits. The laws covering this are clearly the realm of actuaries, lawyers, financial planners, and lobbyists - and are needlessly complex. The book describes how to play the game and how to avoid the many gotchas that screw the common man. The scary part in my mind were some of the examples - showing how a mistake might cost you $110,000 out of a potential $600,000 worth of benefits you will be getting. Some of the examples for couples went over 1 million dollars worth of benefits. There is NO WAY Social Security will be able to pay out these kinds of benefits and stay solvent. And guess what? The 'disabled' can get even MOAR benefits.
This is Zero Hedge! Everyone here is supposed to know that the TRUST FUNDS ARE GONE. The government spent them all a long time ago.
The baby boomers created a SS surplus of over $4 trillion dollars! Where's that? Gone.
That means when SS cannot pay benefits with proceeds from the payroll tax, the shortfall comes from tax revenue (don't laugh) or must be borrowed (yes, or printed) and added the deficit. Well SS went into the RED years ago, and is loosing 10's of billions every year, right now. And baby boomers haven't even started taking SS benefits in large numbers yet.
So saying that there is a trust fund that will run out 2034 is just repeating really disgusting propaganda. The money's gone.
The trust fund has been moved to Ft. Knox for safekeeping.
crooks, baby boomers and illegals raping it
Let me kindly remind you sonny boy surfer...the boomers were the ONLY generation that paid in fully to SS. Our parents got benefits after paying in only part of their work life. Our grandparents paid zip. We paid at ever higher rates now at 15.2% (both employer and employee and Medicare but you get the picture.)
My grandfather refused to take benefits because he had not paid in...they just don't make 'em like that anymore. Norwegian Pride I guess.
Ron Paul refuses his congressional benefits for principle.
Did not mark you down. More of an Xer, myself.
They use age to pit us against one another. Don't fall for it.
The crooks who raped you are your politicians. They "borrowed" the money because the government was broke elsewhere and it was a place where they could find money. Those IOUs are there because the money got spent on other government projects.
But yeah, they would love for you to believe that "Boomers" did it.
Article V. Convention of the States. Terminate Washington, D.C. and the 50 sovereign states will be free to support the needs of their citizens without the BS that DC has become. I'm sure that there is a way to setup a system that is strictly controlled by the states without being beholden to the out-of-control deadweight in DC.
Social Security is a fraud to begin with.
Since 2010 the general fund stopped spending the money coming in from SS and had to start supplying funding.
The amount of Treasuries held by SS is a bookkeeping matter only. The government is already hurting in this regard. It no longer has extra money to spend. SS is a burden not a revenue source and I'm guessing every Congressman who goes home hungry resents it more every day.
I look for some nasty things to emerge from DC as this realization dawns on the drunken sailors in DC.
What had been the 'third rail' of politics will become far less sacred now that the chickens have come home. They are roosting on the dreams of politicians who see less to spend every year. What was 'a sacred obligaton to our seniors' will soon become 'those freeloaders on the dole'....just watch.
We're only like a few years away from the government saying you were born 10 years later than you were and then telling you to prove it.
Let's turn the funds over to Goldman/JPM/Blackstone etc. surely they can grow it for us; look how well the private and municipal pensions did investing in MBS-tripleA.
So, the OAS will be out even before 2034, because the bleeding Disabilities fund will be leaching from that, too. Brilliant. Might as well speed things up. right?
Of course they were out aggressively recruiting for the disability rolls in the few years . . .
try telling people over 60, particularly Dems
they absolutely lose their shit, will not accept any facts, no matter how amply demonstrated and will hate you for informing them about the true state of things.
The Surplus Hoax
https://mises.org/library/surplus-hoax
[this ^^^ is from 2000, when I was still young, dumb, and full of trust in media and government, and also semen.]
The Myth of the Social Security "Trust Fund"
https://mises.org/library/myth-social-security-trust-fund
Social Security: The Most Successful Ponzi Scheme in History
https://mises.org/library/social-security-most-successful-ponzi-scheme-h...
some body tell Krugmanbearpigs fanbois
'Dem's fightin' words...
Put 'em up, ol' geezer!
I've read quite eloquent polemics as to why libertarians are all stupid and wrong on the SSTF, including Krugman, who for a while tendered naught but variations on that theme.
They all, as you will appreciate, I think, distilled to this:
http://tinyurl.com/q83tld
the whole thing is little more than accounting sleight of hand not understood, apparently, by left-ideological economists.
It's robbing Peter to pay...fuckin' Peter.
And that's all it is.
I can't wait till its all just GONE!
I always figured i'd never get (any) what I put in, but those boomers.....?
FUCK YA dog food for dinner!
Viva Venezuela!
Yeah, save on your own and SS will be gravy...It'll be means tested and you won't get anything OR they'll require all other private retirement funds to be commingled into one big federal retirement plan.
You are right ... means testing is coming soon as well as 'pay your fair share' by removing the Social Security cap on income ... poof! problem solved.
I don't think the commingle thing will happen since it would require a fair accounting of the asset values in the pension plans and there is a lot of darkness behind those walls.
The author's closing statement is a bit of problem. IMHO, it is impossible to save for the future. Do the math with the rule of 70. If the target infation rate is "2%"what does this do to the value of your saved dollar in 35 years? I am 65 years of age. Using inflation calulator, 1 1966 dollar is worth $7.14 today. The debasement of our saved labor in the form of dollars over time is relentless. IMHO the greatest form of Elder Abuse is he debasement of their savings over time.
A special thanks to our congress and the federal reserve.
Rene-Paul
Great solution -- worthy of John Corzine.
If only I had had the intelligence to put my $24.00 in SS in 1937 -1939 and lived to be past a hundred, I could have been “rich,” $22,000 in 1975. But, alas, millions of us weren’t so fortunate.
Obviously, Simon, one extreme anecdote doesn’t represent the input and output of Social Security.
Fact: The majority of boomer retirees (the oldest this year is 69 years of age, the youngest 51) - except low-income workers retiring - will receive less in Social Security than they paid in
Fox News reported in August of 2012: “People retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire. It's a historic shift that will only get worse for future retirees, according to an analysis by The Associated Press…
“A married couple retiring last year [2010], after both spouses earned average lifetime wages, paid about $598,000 in Social Security taxes during their careers. They can expect to collect about $556,000 in benefits if the man lives to 82 and the woman lives to 85, according to a 2011 study by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.
“Social Security benefits are progressive, so most low-income workers retiring today still will get slightly more in benefits than they paid in taxes. Most high-income workers started getting less in benefits than they paid in taxes in the 1990s, according to data from the Social Security Administration."
It was Congress that stole the Social Security money baby boomers entrusted to it and replaced it with IOUs. That’s the reason, in addition to adding welfare recipients and illegals and their extended families to SS, that the system is now in big trouble.
Now, Congress, as it continues to unload people off into SS who have not paid into it such as Social Security disability benefits for drug addicts and alcoholics, in another sleight of hand, is conspiring to commingle the funds.
Nor does this financial sting take into account the devaluation of future SS savings by watering down its value by counterfeiting the currency. As Jim Quinn put it: "The insidious central banker created monetary inflation is the cause of all the ills in our warped, deformed, rigged, financialized economic system."
Fact: A fraudulent Congress created a fraudulent retirement system and made it mandatory!
Correct. I would add that the total return of SS is much better over last 25 years than basket of mutual funds or 401k.
Where are those promised get rich slowly market retirement schemes? Nowhere to be found since they are visiting markets 1 millisecond at a time to not get robbed.
Even non-rigged markets are BS as far as retirement since they force your strategy to be based on your age. It never works that way and everybody knows it. Only guaranteed benefit schemes works for retirement. Nothing else. An that the fact.
And know when time is coming to collapse artificial bond/stock bubble, those who advocate private retirement would stand in line to collect their hated SS just like those on medicare stand up against socialized health care they love to use. It's a mad house. Congress is just insane.
Should have put the $800 Bil they bailed the whores out on Wall and Broad into this fund. Makes so much sense I guess that's why the parasites in DC never considered it...
Any and all wealth paid to government, voluntary or not, regardless of what called or labeled is a tax. Period.
Any and all wealth received from government, paid-in (tax), or not, is welfare, wealth stolen from others. Period.
Therefore Social Security was, is, a tax, and all payments to so-called recipients is welfare. Period.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
One of my favorite essence of government photos is this one with treasonous Bush Jr. inspecting the Social Security "lock box.": https://www.justfacts.com/images/socialsecurity/gwb.jpg
That really is all there is, for a fact. Just a couple of file drawers full of IOUs. Sad.
You say "fraud" like that's a bad thing.
"These people aren’t the solution. They’re the problem." Truer words were never spoken.
All they have to do is remove the cap and the fund will be self-funding forever! Time for the .1 % ers to pay up. We'll take it in taxes or by pitchfork.
If you never put a cent into SS, then you shouldn't be able to take a cent out. We're now seeing kids getting DI that will never contribute a cent for the rest of their lives.
>>>We're now seeing kids getting DI that will never contribute a cent for the rest of their lives.
And if the disabled victim / lucky prize-winner remains unable to work for two years, he gets Medicare for Life.
Simple solution. Remove the income cap currently set at 118K. Problem solved.
Oh, and open up SS taxes to all forms of income including capital gains. Problem solved ten fold.
Eliminate the cap and tax ALL income; not just the first $136k!
Problem solved!
Try to buy an income property.
Ma Bailey ran a boarding house. So did Mrs. Gump, ‘Gump Boarding House’.
The only disadvantage, look at what happened to “Tara” and "Twelve Oaks".
di will not run out of funds q-4, 2016, yellen will still be here, and they won't permit any reduction in gdp.
we celebrate july 4th, for " declaration of independence" we should also celebrate woodrow wilsons presidency, and 1913, when politicians distroyed " the declaration of independence", politicians were given the right to tax people, and gave the fed the right to do with that money what ever they wanted.
I believe the word you are looking for is "Revile", not "Celebrate", when it comes to the latter.
cap all TAX-PAYER FUNDED retirement plans to average national income estimates, city, state, county, federal, and civil service union employees, ALL TAX PAYER FUNDED RETIREMENT PLANS, unless some Americans are better than others,
This article is just more propaganda. Gee, the military-industrial complex costs more, has no specific dedicated taxes and yet is always there for me!
Aaand, ITS GONE.
What do you mean it's gone?? I paid into the system for years!
Poof! It's gone....please step aside and die before you hit 65.