OT: Social security

What was Shakespeare's quote -- much ado about nothing?

Or at least much ado about doing nothing :)

There is no such thing as the "Trust Fund" that's just Washington's cute name for "We over tax now."

Social Security money can't just sit on a shelf somewhere -- that would cause inflation today as dollars get scarcer, then deflation later when all the boomers retire and the currency goes back into circulation.

If you can't invest legally in private enterprise or other gov't entities, the Federal Gov't has to spend the money. So SS buys Treasury Bonds.

Years later, income (and other) taxes will repay them.

A tax is a tax, and this is just some sort of government hybrid of the a ponzi scheme & and a shell game.

NOT THAT I SUPPORT INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS, and SS at least provides a backstop for those who haven't taken care of their own needs.

The best way to reform it would be to create an agency that's something like the Federal Reserve crossed with the Public Employee Retirement Programs -- effectively a Citizen's Pension Fund like one of the other posters mentioned -- and let them invest it across a wide variety of securitys -- stocks, bonds (both private and state/local gov't bonds), mortgage instruments, and yes even encourage a portion to be invested outside the U.S.

The Federal Gov't would move from providing this benefit, to only being the guarantor...but it's hard to imagine what would take down a properly managed pension fund of that size and leave the government standing.

That would create a true trust fund.

Of course, it would also deny Washington a huge source of money they use to fund other current expenses so the politicians would be pissed about it :) You would have to transition into this national pension fund, as our gov't right now has far too much pork depending on it.

When I was in the SS office waiting my 5 minutes for the appointment time, I looked around the room and saw not one non-deserving-looking person sitting there. Let's see, there was the 20ish year old looking black CRIPPLED boy (with a sister or someone to help him around and ..... .....

Mark

My dad went through the same thing when he went on SS. He was on a med. for years and when the insurance stopped paying the price went from $10 a month to $85.

I found out from a friend he may be able to get them from the Veterans hospital because he spent his 2 years in the army like most. I do not know all the details but you may want to check into that. His pills are now about $7 a month through the VA.

Mark

Years ago, I had to do a phone repair at the SS bldg downtown Chicago. When I walked in, many of the people in line were young (teens, twenties)and looked like they had slept in a box the night before. When I walked out, headed over to a place a few days down for lunch, but passed an alley where some of these guys were trading their SS checks for drugs to pushers in the alley - right around the corner. A months worth of OUR hard earned money up in smoke, literally.

My brother married a lady (he was her fourth, she's on her eighth now), whose first husband shot a couple of Florida Troopers when he was like eighteen. He's doing life without parole down there. He was shot in the arm during the commission of a felony and is getting a disability check that goes into a slush fund for him, that he'll never see. They had two children together, and he had one with some other lady, all 3 (toddlers at the time) whom collected monthly SS checks until they turned eighteen, or twenty-one if they went to school - none went to school. As one turned eighteen and dropped off of SS, that amount was split between the other two, and when the oldest of them turned eighteen and dropped off, the WHOLE amount went to the one still on SS. Was a total amount of like $1,200 per month, not including the amount being put in a slush fund for the bum sitting in prison for life for shooting two troopers, and getting shot himself, when he was eighteen. All of those months and years of SS being paid out - how much does anyone figure this guy contributed, if any, by the age of eighteen?

The govt. can not touch the Railroad Pension, but they try to get their fingers onto it every year. They just can't stand to see something work. It is their mission to deep-six everything properous. Thanks for the rant time all, and Kim.

Mark

She wrote off her college plans to become a nurse, to lay up with a piece of garbage and let the tax payers pay their way.

Call me mean if you will, but she can spend the rest of her life living in a trash dumpster and watch her plans in motion from there, so long as it's not anywhere near me.

Mark

Got on the www and went to the SS website and digested much info and answers to questions as fast as we could mouse the questions.

Got an 800 number from there and called it for an appointment at our local SS office. Call was promptly answered by a very polite PERSON (no recordings) who set us up for an appointment within 1 week of the call.

Somewhere in all this we received a list of things required to have an effective interview....like Birth Certificate, DD 214 if discharged from the military.

I have been tracking my SS inputs from my wages so I knew what wages I had been taxed on; didn't know the exact amount of taxes paid however.

Went to the SS office on the given day, walked in, registered with the door attendant (also a security guard....guess after 911) and sat down. About 5 minutes later a very polite person called me for my interview.

Went in and sat down. The attendant pulled my record up on the screen and looked at my documents. I had asked for a copy of my DD214 from the National Archives but it hadn't arrived.

I told the attendant that but it was not a problem as she had a copy on her computer. Everything was there; everything nice and orderly.

We discussed start date for retirement and I told her I wanted a directly deposited check (as did the wife). She told me how much I was going to get and that was that.

Took all of 15 minutes.

On the date she said, magically, our checking account increased by the stated amount and has ever since. No problems, no Hassle.

Don't know how much we paid in over the years but the payout we are getting would require an investment exceeding $500,000 at 4%. I know very well that we invested no ways near that amount; not even 10% of that.

You can't beat a deal like that.

My hat's off to them.

Nuf said.

Mark

The average Joe makes $40,000. per year and is putting 7% of that into SS. That is about $233 a month.

If you put $231.87 in a bank per month at 4% interest you would have $350,000. in 45 years. (Age 20 to 65)

If you lived to 85 (20 years) you could take out $2113.88 per month and it would last you the whole 20 years.

I do not know what SS pays but I think it is lower than $2110 a month per person.

The problem with these figures is I could have put $100 in the stock market at age 20 and it would be $1000 now. That is a 10% increase.

Like others have stated before... What is the government going to do when all these baby boomers get into the system. They have been spending the money on what ever all these years thinking that they would one day take in a dollar and pay out a dollar. Well with extended life age and fewer workers it is going to be more like 1 dollar in and 2 dollars out.

The thing that pisses me and most people off is that SS money was suppose to be saved for SS not to build bridges and fight starvation in the world. That is what income tax is for.

You may have the soap box now.

The problem I have had in raising 4 children with my wife of 43 years, is that when things were tight, we tapped what reserves we had. With that said, on paper it looks great. In reality, it doesn't work..... for me.

Thanks,

Mark

$251,640 divided by 180 months or 15 years is $1,398/month income. Another thing to consider is that employee didn't put $251,640 into SS, he only put in $125,820 and that number divided by the same 180 months would only give him/her $699/month to live on. If that person were to draw only his money out at the $1,398/month he would only have enough to live on for 7.5 years.

All this is why all the jobs are going overseas. The cost of hiring an employee in America, with all the added benefits, drives us out of competition with everyone else.

Mark