Posted on 12/05/2013 4:34:37 AM PST by bestintxas
In his first term, Obama managed to get his paws on health care, banking, energy, student loans, the auto business, and more. Now he has his sights set on your 401(k).
The left has had its eye on retirement savings for years, but so far takeover attempts have been rebuffed. One egregious attempt was the proposal, following the 2010 financial crisis, to "safeguard" retirement savings by requiring that they be rolled over into Treasury bonds. Had this legislation succeeded, it would have appropriated all or part of the retirement savings of millions of Americans. The funds would have been used to finance further expansion of government. In return, savers would have received a promissory note from the federal government similar that issued by the Social Security Trust Fund.
Needless to say, most investors were not keen to convert their savings into Treasury obligations -- or, to be more precise, into an unsecured note promising a return approximating that of Treasury bonds. That is because, as with every other endeavor, government's management of retirement savings (aka Social Security) has been a disaster.
Those who believe that Social Security has done a good job of investing their savings are greatly mistaken. Over the past 200 years, the real, inflation-adjusted return of the U.S. stock market has been 7%. Had one invested $100,000 in the U.S. market in 1802, one's total return after inflation (or that of oneself and one's descendants) would have been more than $100 billion. By comparison, investment in government Treasury bills would have yielded approximately $50 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I’m no fan of SS.
Just saying that it’s not apples-to-apples to compare guaranteed returns with a risk-based market.
Kind of like defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans in the private sector.
BTW—I’m of the generation who won’t get back what I put in, not of those who, for example, are getting several times out of Medicare what they put in—using younger folks’ contributions as, yes, Ponzi scheme payouts.
And the government changes its mind on taxation on absolutely everything.
Social security was always just a tax and the rhetoric pretending otherwise didn’t change that.
SS payments have always been government entitlements—in line with WIC, Section 8, Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, etc.
They already impose a different tax rate on SS income depending on your other income. There would not even need to be a new legal precedent to just jack that up to 100% (or higher) for people who were stupid enough to save money for their retirement rather than blowing it all like the average schmuck American.
save for later...and thanks for posting this!
This is one thing that could lead to open rebellion by millions who have been responsible and saved for their futures.
I wish I had the forsight to invest back then. Darn, my investment timing is always off!
It's a Ponzi scheme. It's "delivered" paychecks on the backs of taxpayers, and in years when COLA was calculated and determined to be negligible, many felt screwed.
And your claim of the markets being overpriced is based upon a very static look at the stock market. You're looking at the market as a "pie," of only a fixed amount of value. A more market-based approach to investing in businesses, rather than the government, could just as easily create more value.
Not at the moment, the federal reserve is propping the stock market up. Once the fed is tapped out and can no longer inject billions a month, the stock market is going to tank as investors flee.
Scarcity creates value.
Thanks. Proof reading does make sense. It was supposed to have been 2010.
exactly
“This is one thing that could lead to open rebellion by millions who have been responsible and saved for their futures.”
One would think, but oen would also think that taking away one’s health insurance and forcing one into a substandard, more costly insurance plan controlled by DC bureacrats who make life and death decisions for you would lead to open rebellion as well since 70% of the people are against it.
See any rioters in the streets lately?
Correct. Whenever anybody says "Let's means-test SS," They are ripping the 401K money from the hands of everybody who has been sacrificing and saving for their retirement.
Classic FR argument: "Well, the SS money is already gone, and I don't care if you have to work for the rest of your life. Somebody's gotta lose, and it's you. Eff you if you were a sap and saved up."
Watch, we'll see one of these looters in this thread.
You saved? Then cough up, sap.
I LOVE it. That’s the best solution - evah! Imprison. Guantanamo?
Isn't that the truth! Our bank sold our business loan to some sharks in Massachusetts and they took a non-associated account containing money escrowed by our insurance company that had been earmarked for repair of our water-damaged interior after we get new financing to get the roof of our small manufacturing facility fixed. They just took it. Didn't say a word. Just took $50k that had been issued jointly to us and the bank specifically for the interior repairs. We didn't realize it until we went looking for a bank statement to supply to the new bank that will take over our financing.
I'm not happy with banks.
Create an IRA LLC and move it overseas...
this happened in greece.
first they “protected pensions” with public bonds.
THEN they screwed the retirees and workers with bond “haircuts”.
Obooboo will likely pull a Cyprus at some point. Everybody gets a 15% haircut.
You don’t even need to read a book. Watch the first half of Dr. Zhivago. It’ll become clear what they plan to do with you and your property.
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