Posted on 06/12/2011 6:17:44 AM PDT by blam
Ireland Seizes $7 Billion From Its Pension Fund To Boost Employment
Hugh O'Connell, thejournal.ie
Jun. 12, 2011, 7:57 AM
THE GOVERNMENT WILL use the last €5 billion in the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) to help create employment although it will need approval from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Europe before doing so.
The Sunday Times reports today that the money will be used by the government to create as many as 80,000 jobs in Ireland. The paper cites government sources in reporting that the use of the money would be seen as more viable then the proposed sale of semi-state assets in the current weak market.
One source says that the view of the troika of IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank is that if you have money it should be spent rather than drawing on outside funding or money from selling off assets at the wrong-time.
The NPRF was launched ten-years-ago by the then Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy.
Its purpose was to build up assets which would part-finance the cost to the exchequer of social welfare and public service pensions from 2025 onward.
A total of €17.5 billion of it is being used as part of the €85 billion EU/IMF bailout that was agreed last November
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Never, ever trust your government with your accrued retirement wealth....hard lesson being learned all over the planet. Politicians and bureaucrats cannot be trusted.
US politicians are already trying to figure out how to confiscated your 401(k) dollars...they just can’t figure out how to do it legally because it is still in your name.
At some point, they’re going to come up with some scheme or other by claiming some of that money is owed to taxes...and then there will be a never ending drain on those accounts until they’re depleted, just like every socialist program they have implemented and put in ‘trust’ funds.
“The government has allowed some fortunate individuals to set-aside money in tax exempt accounts....in out times of trouble, it is time for those fortunate few to share their (government allowed) good fortune with a suffering nation.”
Unbelievable! Fortunate individuals? How about “people who worked hard and set aside some money for the future”? Time for them to share?? There is no sharing, it’s theft, pure and simple. Sharing is voluntary. Man, this infuriates me.
When one is forced to labor for the benefit of another, it is slavery. Without property rights, we are nothing but slaves.
Oops, I thought he had actually said this. You’re too good - I hope you don’t decide to become a speech writer for Obama. ;-)
Carry on.
Carry on.
They will just start upping taxes on the 401k fund companies who willl pass that along to you. They will even conveniently take it out of your fund for you along with their ‘maintenance’ fee.
Forced charity isn’t charity. Bottom line.
Legalized robbery.
http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/13F0B2FC36593DC28525751A004A3EDC?OpenDocument
“...New Deal tax officials used the Keynesian insight on progressive taxation to help sell a sweeping overhaul of corporate income taxation. Corporate managers, they argued, were shielding rich shareholders from their legitimate tax burden by retaining profits rather than paying dividends. A new tax on undistributed profits would force companies to disgorge this money by imposing a graduated penalty on retained earnings, with the penalty calibrated to the percentage of profits retained. Such a tax would strike a blow for tax fairness and close a loophole exploited by the lucky few.
At the same time, the UPT would free money trapped in corporate coffers and move it to the pockets of people who might actually spend it. If corporations obstinately refused to pay larger dividends, then the government could use the resulting increase in tax revenue for the same stimulatory effect. Treasury experts made this Keynesian case in 1937:
There are good grounds for believing that there exists in this country a considerable stream of uninvested savings which prevent a full absorption of the potential products of industry. Aside from its equitable advantages, therefore, the tendency of the undistributed profits tax to prevent over-saving by the higher income groups may be considered to be a desirable contribution.”
You don’t have to be crazy to be a Keynesian, but...
We have a slight demographic problem, and that contributes to the pending crisis. This really depends on who you are and what your expectations are. Some groups will fare well enough, especially those with close and/or large competent and productive families. The most extreme examples are the Amish, but there are plenty of folks in rural and exurban and even suburban areas that will do ok. I agree there will be some massive problems though over the next few years.
Well the govt has been “borrowing” from Social Security for decades. So it seems like the US is well down this path already.
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