Posted on 01/05/2005 4:05:33 AM PST by The Loan Arranger
Would liberals support Social Security reform if they thought of it as reparations for blacks?
The current Social Security system disadvantages blacks for reasons related to their historic mistreatment. Private accounts would go some way toward addressing this legacy of discrimination — as Democrats typically put it — but the supposed fiercest advocates of black interests are precisely the ones who will stand in the way.
There is a direct correlation between economic status and average life span. This means that blacks, who are disproportionately poor, partly for historic reasons, tend to have shorter life spans, especially black males. The average life expectancy of a black male is roughly 68.6. The retirement age of Social Security is set under current law to eventually rise to 67. You do the math — this cannot be a good deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
bump
Bump for a later read.
Great article, sure to elicit good feelings, thereby bringing the races closer together.
>>I turned 65 and I wish they had allowed even 10% of the pyramid scheme called social security to be used for personal investing.<<
Have you done well with personal investments with the same financial institutions that will be receiving the payroll taxes to manage under Mr. Bush's reform program?
I know many people, age 70 and older, who are working full time, because their pension funds sustained huge losses during the last market ‘adjustment, leaving them with little for retirement. I assume that their social security contributions have become very important to their ability to feed themselves. And what about the elders who are infirm? They eat because of their investment in social security. What if there had been only pension funds available to them and no tax fir social security--would the infirm eat at all?
Most people I know don’t even trust the current US investment community or the stock markets—too much corruption has been endemic for too long, so they sit on a lot of cash right now. I know I would not want my payroll taxes going to Wall Street.
One more thing...I hope those who oppose Social Security can derive a better argument for reform than the black discrimination thing--it's too laughable, the notion of the Republicans, whose minions have been accused of oppressing, suppressing and tampering with the black vote in several key states, now touting social security reform by funneling black tax dollars to the very people who helped disenfranchise them.
Social Security rewards the longer lived at the expense of the shorter lived. There is not doubt that the worker who pays into the system for his entire working life and then kicks the bucket at 63 is hosed under the current system, with nothing to show for his hard-earned money invested over all those years.
In as much as there is a racial component to lifespan, this is a racial issue. Social Security is a bad deal for White Americans, but it is a disaster for Black Americans.
>>And they trust the government?<<
Well, they haven't lost everything they had invested through the government. Government is supposed to be democratic. On the other hand, huge world monopoly corporations are not democratic--they are authoritarian by nature. I'd rather keep my money out of their coffers. Better to just do away with the SS tax, and let the people do with thewir money what they wish.
Why do you call social security 'welfare fraud"? What does the welfare entitlement program have to do with social security?
I don't think this makes any sense. What are you saying?
Also, on a slightly earlier post, you indicate that you wouldn't want your retirement money going to Wall St. Wouldn't that be voluntary? Your retirement money could go anywhere. The important point: currently, under SS, your retirement money is being spent (it's not being piled up waiting for you).
..partly for historic reasons...
But mostly for reasons of personal decision...
I invest. And since 1997 I have put just over 12 grand into one retirement plan and about 4 into another. The big one is worth just over 29 thousand now and the small one is at about 8. I can move them all over to either high, medium and low risk, move them into or out of NASDAC and into or out of the DOW and I keep a very close eye on them. The small one I have in commodities and can move them all over as well. So my account is worth about 37 grand and I have just about 16 into them..and all this since early 1997. Wanna know what my SS account is up to? A wopping 22 grand! WOW thats a bunch now aint it!!! WOW all that since 1969! I can collect and live in comfort with the whopping 700 bucks a month I MIGHT get when I retire. I say might..because I doubt it will be around when I retire.
Point is-those 70 years olds you mentioned made a mistake when they lost on their accounts. They didnt pay attention to them and listened to a investor "expert" and he told them to stay into what they had.
Just prior to the market "correction" I had tucked away some money in a taxable index fund (Vanguard Index 500). Yes it took a beating, but it's now worth more than the original investment. A lot of the people whose investments got hammered were greedy, stupid, or both. Remember all those Enron sad-sacks the MSM would air footage of? "I lost all my retirement savings, wah!" But if they had been properly diversified they should have only taken a 5 or 10% hit.
You wanna see SS at work just come on up here and go to the Indian Cusinos at take a look at all the seniors sitting at the one armed bandits stuffing the money into them. Then they got the guts to whine when they might have to pay a little for something. And their isnt one around jere that can call this BS because I have a retired brother on SS and he gets to the cusinos at least twice a week and dumps his money into the place. And he is a classic whiner!
Your absoluetly correct. I remember one Fox News they had some eager beaver geek who was this so called expert on the Nasdaq. He was saying stay stay buy buy and the Oct before GW Bushes first win it all started to come apart. And a lot of them watched it all go swirling down the toilet.
>>Social Security rewards the longer lived at the expense of the shorter lived. There is not doubt that the worker who pays into the system for his entire working life and then kicks the bucket at 63 is hosed under the current system, with nothing to show for his hard-earned money invested over all those years. <<
You make a good point - the system is unfair to those who die young, yet do you see Wall Street as a solution to this problem? Would it be best to just get rid of the payroll tax and let people do as they wish with it?
Black males life expectencies are skewed to the short because far too many of them wind up shot to death or OD in the streets before they reach 25, as well as much higher infant mortality rates. You take away those deaths and their life expectency is not as short as the activists want you to believe.
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