Posted on 08/29/2011 7:22:55 AM PDT by Poundstone
I earned these 'entitlements'
I believe that most citizens do not understand what a federal entitlement program is. There are earned entitlements versus a special government entitlement that is given to an individual who needs assistance that is mandated by law.
What is a government entitlement? Note below that some are free and some are not! Why the government is lumping these programs together is beyond me: Only Congress would think this was a proper thing to do. How can a program like military retirement be linked with food stamps? The programs I am associated with should never be diminished by the federal government because they are either paid for by me and my wife or I have earned them. Most citizens believe all the federal entitlements are giveaway social programs and that is not true.
(Excerpt) Read more at redding.com ...
” - - - - the federal government because they are either paid for by me and my wife or I have earned them. - - - - “
Wow! I am really impressed with the combined earning power of you and your wife.
This is truly incredible! I’m trying to wrap my woulf brain around this ! AAAAHHHHRRRROOOOOooooooooooooooooo - - - - .
There, that is better. I can picture it now: Even before obamatrauma”care” was on THE DEBT BOOK owned by The Sheriff of Nottingham Timmy Gee, you AND your wife had “EARNED” that “entitlement” tax.
Definition-Man: The obamatrauma”care” debt creation law will not be placed on the register of debt creating centers until a year from now, although over 100 million dollars has last week been sent to The Mafia in New Jersey.
Thanks. Anyway , it is indeed incredible that you earn so much money that you earn before it is on the books!
Code-Man: The obamatrauma”care” debt creation law is illegal based on the wording of the 1890 Sherman Anti Trust Law with regard to competitive advantage, fixed pricing and unfair competition across State lines.
Thanks. Hmm - - - . This is very impressive. You have paid for, or earned this “entitlement” tax even though it is illegal going all the way back to 1890!
Wow!
Volunteer firemen do. Should be more of them and less of the professionals who seem to retire terribly early, claim disability at a torrential pace, and receive amazing benefits from the engagement... while doing a lot of sleeping around the firehouse.
Anyway, any discussion that includes cuts to unconstitutional programs like Social Security should also include cuts to most, if not all, non-military federal pensions. It won't save a huge amount of money, but it's an important symbolic gesture that those at the federal trough are sharing the burden.
Also, Poundstone, I think it’s awesome (not) that more than half of your posts involve a discussion of your luxurious federal pension benefits and how there’s no way the government can take them away. Don’t be foolish. There’s no statutory bar to the federal government defaulting on your entire federal pension if it wanted to.
Definite exception..:oP
Point is I don't know why a select group "deserves" a pension for work they are already paid well for. That's how you end up with 200K a year lifeguards who retire early with lavish retirement packages and then try to defend them what challenged... I might however not argue against the military...
Nobody should be getting pension or any other benefits from their employer. They should be getting the net present cash value of their labor, to be allocated according to the individual’s own choices and priorities. If they make the wrong choices and need to beg for charity or starve, that’s their choice.
This is like winning a tax paid lottery for life!
While private sector America is gang raped by government and it's employees.
Here is another example.
I live in New York State. NY state troopers can retire at half-pay after 20 years on the job. I know a few of them. Most started when they were early-mid 20s and so they'll be able to retire at 43-45 at half-pay. Most of them are making 130-140k by this time in their career because they start their careers at 71k, and are at 85k minimum after 5 years, assuming no promotions to ranks like sergeant ($100k) and lieutenant ($119k). That's for 40 hours, so overtime is obviously extra.
The average pay of someone in New York State's Police and Fire Retirement system was $116k last year. That includes 15 days (3 weeks) of vacation to start and 28 days (5.5 weeks) of vacation after 21 years on the job. They get 13 sick days a year that they can accumulate up to a maximum of 300 days. Once they retire, 165 of those days can be cashed in to pay for their health coverage in retirement, and they can cash in 20% of the remaining sick days. They get 12 paid holidays per year, a $100 bonus for staying fit, and 3-5 personal days per year. New York State pays for uniform dry cleaning and gives troopers 15 days of bereavement leave. Troopers kick in nothing toward their own retirement, so the state kicked in roughly 20% of state police pay last year, or around $120 million. Amazingly, the pension system is fully funded. I think that it's actually funded at about 103%, thanks to New York State being top 5 in the nation for property tax burden, income tax burden and sales tax burden.
Now you're probably assuming that these jobs are in high demand, and you'd be correct. Almost 16,000 people passed the last state police exam in 2008, and 88 troopers have been hired and trained since then. This indicates to me that the pay is too much, but the bigger issue isn't the pay, of course, it's the pension that is tied to that pay. So many state pension systems reward employees (particularly police and fire) that rack up a bunch of overtime in their last 3 years in the job, because it's typically the average salary of the last 3 years that is taken into account when figuring pension benefits.
Nice math....my official statement from them a year ago shows that I’ll get $1734/month at 62 after having personally paid in $114,000 myself, and another $115,000 from my employer. By my reckoning, that’s at least 11 years before I get back what was paid in for ME.
This is today, 2011. It is not 1965. I have paid the maximum SS ‘contribution’ since I can’t remember when (older than my son and daughter who have kids of their own).
Come see me in 11+ years and then you can tell me I’m an ‘entitlement’ leech.
It depends how you define prime earning years. Seniors are typically in much better financial shape than most other age-groups except perhaps the 55-64s. They are certainly in much better shape than the average taxpayer in the 25-34 bracket. I'm in the 25-34 bracket, and I don't see how it's fair for my generation to pay for FULL benefits for current retirees while there will likely be nothing left for us when it is time for us to retire. When it's time for me to retire, unless we abolish this preposterous and unconstitutional program that we call Social Security, the retirement age will probably be around age 73. I can probably expect to receive probably 25% of what I paid into the system, while many of those on Social Security today will receive at least 90% of what they paid into it. While it's true that these calculations for what current retirees get don't take the time value of money into account, neither do the calculations for what I can expect to get. When that is taken into account, the figures look even worse.
And that is why politicians long since made sure it became illegal to hang them, along with publip horse whippingthem, tar & feathering them, and riding them out of town on a rail.
Currently, they have made sure it is a "terroristic act" to tomato or pie-in-the-face them, too...and they're working on making it illegal, rather than just "rude" to ask unscripted questions, or even record them, at a "public" meeting.
******* “ I hope you saved something over the years, because unless a miracle occurs, SS will be gone soon. “ ******
Sorry .... all Cash will soon be “Billion Dollar” bills once super inflation kicks in
Lead, Gold, Steel, Tools, ... Seeds, Land and Food ... buy it now while your cash is worth something
TT
I'd rather come at it that way than start cherry-picking who does and who does not "deserve"...that's part of the socialist model...leave it to central planners to pick winners and losers.
It’s the only sensible way to do it. 545 people cannot make decisions for 300 million as well as 300 million people can make decisions for 300 million. Decentralization = harnessing the power of parallel processing to produce prosperity.
Funny how some use the tea party as a monolithic blob with a central planner when it suits them...and points out the individuality of its "members" when THAT suits them...
Funny how some use the tea party as a monolithic blob with a central planner when it suits them...and points out the individuality of its "members" when THAT suits them...
To paraphrase Patrick Henry, “Under this constitution, there will never be a law against passing a bad law. Where is the means to punish them?”
I have this vision of two seniors going to see the grand kids sitting at a lunch table with the husband mulling over a 10% or 15% tip imagining he’s doing the waitress a favor by giving her a 15% tip.
It’s entirely unfair to those who think the money they paid in was saved somewhere but that’s what comes to my mind sometimes while reading these threads.
Just make it pay-go. If in any year it runs in the read, the next year the retirement age gets bumped up by two months. Pretty simple.
“For your information, social security was an investment of my own money”
What was it invested in?
I just sent my second off to college. It’s quiet around here (not too quite... the third is a girl). I’ve already told my oldest to move anywhere she wants. I buying the place next door and Amber alerts don’t work against grandparents taking grand kids out for ice cream.
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