It's not your money, it's everybody elses, the liberals/socialists say so.
Time for you to go to a re-education camp until you get it right.
Posted on 12/07/2004 5:37:32 AM PST by beaureguard
It is a cause of dismay, if not outright sadness. Young people, by and large, just can't seem to get worked up about matters political. That's too bad, because they might be interested in knowing that one of America's largest and most effective lobbying organizations has just declared war on them. The AARP has now decided that it's going to fight any effort by President Bush to privatize, even partially, that debacle known as Social Security. If younger Americans had any idea what was happening to them here they would demanding change. If young Americans truly had a handle on the future, and on the fact that they will one day reach that magic age when they stop working and live on their retirement income, they would be marching on DC and occupying congressional offices until change was made. Sadly, these young Americans who are getting so royally screwed by Social Security and the AARP are far more concerned with sports, pop culture and who they're going to 'hook up" with this weekend.
The time will come, though, when these people who today are preoccupied with the grossly unimportant will suddenly realize that they've been robbed blind. For their entire working lives they had 14% of their earnings ripped off as a Social Security "contribution." In time they will find out that if they are actually lucky enough to get any of this money back when they reach the age of about 70 or so, they will have realized a return of less than 2% on their "investment.'
Social Security is running out of money. Depending on who you listen to, in about 15 to 18 years Social Security taxes will not be sufficient to pay the Social Security benefits to the people then receiving them. At this point the government will have only a few options. Here are the choices:
1. Extend the retirement age in hopes that many more Americans will actually do the government the favor of dying before they can collect any or all of their benefits.
2. Deny Social Security benefits to those who worked hard and made good financial decisions in their lives, thereby insuring themselves a sufficient retirement income outside of Social Security. No ... their "contributions" will not be refunded.
3.Extend the wage base for taxes so that achievement-oriented Americans can poor even more money into this financial sewer; more money that they will never, ever get back.
You do know, don't you, that there is absolutely no legal guarantee that you will receive one single penny of the money that is taken from you. No guarantee at all. The congress can vote tomorrow to end the system and keep every dollar that has been paid in Social Security taxes. There would be nothing you could do about it. Nothing except, that is, to vote against the jerk who stole your money. All your local politician would have to do is come up with a little pork for the district or state and everything would be forgiven.
And just which group of Americans is hurt the most by Social Security? Black males. If you're a black male this is the ultimate "disrespect." You're being ripped off big time.
Explanation: Divide the people who have been paying Social Security taxes for the past 40 years into four basic groups. White Males, black males, white females, black females. Statistics will show that of these four demographic groups white females have the longest life expectancy; black males the shortest. In 2002 the life expectancy for a newborn white female was 79.9 years. The life expectancy of a newborn black male was 68.8 years. If you were born after 1960 your Social Security full retirement age is 67. This means that a black male can expect to get Social Security benefits for about two years, while a white female can expect to receive those benefits for almost 13 years. You do the math. even if you went to a government school you can figure out that the average white female will receive Social Security benefits 11 years longer than the average black male. It has been estimated that during his lifetime the average black male will lose about $10,000 in income that will be forcibly transferred to a white woman.
The solution? Privatization! If you own your own account it can't be taken from you or your family and given to some stranger living in a retirement community in Palm Desert, California. If you have the misfortune to die before the law allows you to start withdrawing retirement benefits from your account the money goes to your family. Isn't that the way you would want it? Wouldn't you want that money to be spent to make your spouse or children rather than someone you didn't know and who might not have even given you the time of day if you had known them during life?
This is absurd, folks. We're supposed to be living in free country that recognizes property rights. You own you, not the government. You work for you, not for some stranger. In a free country your government should not seize your money by force and put it into a phony "retirement" fund that earns you a sub-par rate of return and to which you have no legal right beyond what politicians are willing to grant. When you die the money you earned during life shouldn't be seized by government to be transferred to another individual you don't know while your family scrambles about looking for a way to keep their home and pay for your funeral, but that's exactly what the AARP is fighting for.
You do know what happened in Chile, don't you? Chile, for God's sake! They got it right!
Chile used to have a Social Security system that was a virtual copy of ours. Chile, however, didn't have an AARP. What Chile did have was politicians who realized that their system was doomed to collapse, and who did something about it. Chile privatized every individual's retirement benefits. The former Chilean secretary of labor says that Chile first "ended the illusion that both the employer and the worker contribute to retirement." That's a huge step. The dumb masses in America still actually believe that their employers actually "contribute" a matching amount to their Social Security "account." It's those government schools again.
Americans even believe that there's actually a Social Security trust fund. Yesterday's USA Today story about the AARP's opposition to privatization contained this line: "Excess payroll taxes are held in a trust fund for future benefit payments." That's just flat-out wrong. USA Today reporter Jim Drinkard either knows it's wrong, and lied intentionally, or he's not bright enough to be writing for a national newspaper. There is no Social Security money being held anywhere. It's all spent. Every single penny. What the politicians don't have to spend on current Social Security benefits they seize and spend on their various spend-and-elect schemes.
Today in Chile workers pay 10% of their pretax earnings into their own retirement plans. They can elect to pay an additional 10% in pretax earnings if they wish. The companies who manage these funds are prohibited by law from engaging in any other type of business. The sole business purpose of these companies is to take these privately owned retirement accounts and grow them. If they die before the retirement age the money goes to their families. If Chileans live to retirement age they have three options:
1.Purchase a family annuity from a life insurance company. 2. Leave their funds in a personal account and make monthly withdrawals adjusted to match their life expectancy. 3. Any combination of 1 and 2.
The government steps in to guarantee a "minimum pension" for people who have worked at least 20 years and who's benefits don't meet the minimum monthly amount required by the Chilean law.
In Chile 95% of workers participate in the private plan. In America 100% of workers don't have that option, and the AARP is doing everything it can to make sure they never do.
Thanks, AARP. If younger Americans ever figure out what an enemy to their financial future you truly are things may change and you may lose that grip you have on government.
Every time we get paid we see this money coming out of our checks for this forced retirement program, that we could put to so much better use in 401K, or even an interest bearing bank account.
The way I see it, is right now we are paying for a socialist mistake that was born in the past, and should have either never happened or ended a long time ago.
Even a partial privatization isn't good enough for me. I WANT TO KEEP MY MONEY, and have MY OWN retirement choices, or do with MY money as I see fit. I won't be happy until I see this madness stopped completely.
It's not your money, it's everybody elses, the liberals/socialists say so.
Time for you to go to a re-education camp until you get it right.
One fallacy in the whole Social Security issue is allowed to continue by our choice of words. Our talking about ‘getting our money back’ is a misnomer. Our money is gone. It was forcibly confiscated, stolen, from us and given to grandma. The focus should not be on how to reform the system to guarantee a satisfactory and sustainable return on our investment, but how to keep from continuing the pillage. I, for one, do not want to steal from my children’s generation simply because I let myself be robbed for years. If I am mugged, I do not hold up a gas station to get my money back.
I'm 59 now and they have been coming here since I was 49. My wife gets them too - They never give up.
I'd recommend to both of you gentlemen, that the next time they send you something, send it back to them with a request for more information. Every dollar spent mailing you crap is money they can't spend to bribe congresscritters.
several weeks ago i heard neal boortz remark that 50% of americans are too dumb to live in this country.
sad, but true.
the democrats control education and they will not teach kids to be responsible for their own finances.
consequently, there's a lot of fear and trepidation among people who do not have, and will not learn, and may be incapable of learning, how to manage their own money.
Anyone who belongs to AARP is supporting this cause, and many other liberal causes.
FYI, this debate is nothing new. Robert Samuelson was carping about this very issue in 1982. But the Dems were in control at the time and savvy politicos like Tip O'Meill used to just laugh at practical people like Samuelson.
This article properly casts the issue of "privatization" as an issue for young Americans, not really germane to the AARP membership. There's no point in trying to reform the system for people who have already had their "contributions" taken from them for a lifetime.It's not really true, OTOH, that Congress can stop the SS payments. As a matter of law they could, but as a matter of politics not only the retirees but their children and grandchildren would rebel at that, making it impossible as a practical matter. Similarly, the AARP membership should look with open eyes at the effect of SS privatization on their children and grandchildren.
In reality, privatization for the pre-retirement population doesn't cost a thing. It would show up as a huge item in the budget, of course - but it doesn't actually cost anything. All it really does is impose more honest accounting on what was from its inception a fundamentally dishonest Ponzi scheme. It makes no economic sense for the government to borrow all the "contributions" going into the SS "Trust Fund" and spend the money, but that is the direct implication of the requirement that the money be invested in "safe" government bonds.
The trouble with that is that, comes the time when the SSTF is needed, a government bond in which the money was "invested" simply order the government to find the money somewhere else with which to redeem the bond. Of course the government can simpy print the dollars, but increasing the supply of dollars rapidly waters down the value of the dollar. And of course the government can raise tax rates, but the lesson of the 1970s is that tax rates much above 30% do not increase government revenue.
I refuse to join AARP for among other things all the lefties they put on their cover. I refuse to join just for the fact that they headlined Danny Glover recently. That alone was enough to make my blood boil. Since then they've had a succession of leftist screwballs to interview.
Ping
I'd like to see a group of older wiser Americans that were not self centered. I'm over 50 and won't join with the greedy geezers.
Thanks for the ping.
I knew there was a reason I never replied to AARP requests to join their group. As far as I'm concerned, this self serving 'association' ranks right up there with the ACLU.
I was aware of that. I was just referring (poorly) to the chintzy plan that some in Congress are offering.
The Reagan Renaissance sounds like THE answer.
So misunderstood! Social Security is a windfall for those of us who 'contributed to society' rather that took from it. I am speaking of the hundreds of thousands of social workers, teachers and other low-paid professionals who depend on this stipend each month. We taught and helped people all of our working lives for the lowest pay scales in the country. Heck, even people sweeping the floors in the steel mills earned twice our salaries. Retirement plans were meager and spotty. If we changed positions we sometimes lost what little savings we had. It was only in the last 5 to 10 years of our careers that we started making equivalent money to the laborers. I would like to know how much I actually paid in for that period, but I suspect it was just a fraction of what I have already received since turning 62. Nope, for some of us, SS is a Godsend, for others, it may appear as a ripoff. The system itself has a few flaws, but there are some silver linings in all those dark clouds for some of us. Now, if I can just figure out how to live to be a hundred or so..........
You libs still don't get it. You made the choice to be a teacher and not work in a steel mill. Choices have consequences....try to connect the dots with the feable brain power you exhibit.
LOL! vinegar, carrot juice, garlic, apples, almonds, hot peppers, prunes, and anything else......you'll make it!
LOL! vinegar, carrot juice, garlic, apples, almonds, hot peppers, prunes, and anything else......you'll make it!
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
"Contributed to society" - that's pathetic. I guess all the productive people who were able to survive in the free market were just "taking." You've probably written the biggest load of garbage I've ever read on this site.
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