uk.

OK, now down to business. Social Security does go for the other things I mentioned because the government has been borrowing from it. And, yes, I have an IRA, but I can’t afford to add to it. That is a lie. If I am going to be responsible I have to admit that I could put money in my IRA but I don’t have a lot of disposable income and I spend what I have left over after paying taxes and paying bills. I am just as interested in living now as I am in living when I am in my eighties. And, I don’t believe that I misinterpreted your “73%” comment. What I took from that was this: in 2043 I could get (if I were eligible-which I wouldn’t be) 73% of the benefits currently being paid adjusted for inflation. If it were not adjusted for inflation, I guess you think I would be getting more than a 100% return. The problem is that, if it is not adjusted for inflation, it would be even less useless than it is now. Which brings me to my next point, you said that I needed to think of SS as a supplement. I do, which was why I referred to it as “bingo and golf money” in my last post. Even the Socialist Times (that would be Time Magazine to the liberals) admitted that no one could live off of social security. That money does not really help any retired person. However, if I could keep that money now I could invest it. And, despite what you think, the return would be higher and the admin costs lower. The government is bloated and inefficient. If we switched to private accounts, brokerage firms would get a windfall, but they would also have to operate in the free market so they would realize that the lower their fees, the more investments they would get. The gov’t has no such checks and balances. Furthermore, if my boss didn’t have to match my contribution he could pay me more and he would have to – again, because a competitor would do it in a free market.
However, my basic problem with SS is that I want my money. I don’t want to pay into this system. I want to make my own decisions. I don’t CARE if my personal account would exceed or equal with what SS would give me – I want to control my own life. I see by your last two posts that you also have a healthy sense of getting back what you earned. That encourages me. You are worried about your own retirement and pissed that you faithfully contributed into a system and now you are afraid that you are going to be double-crossed by Uncle Sam. See, we feel exactly the same way. The only difference is that you will be facing it soon and I see a lifetime of contributions ahead of me that I KNOW will never be returned to me. I sincerely hope that people of your generation don’t walk away from the bargaining table because of fear. All of this rhetoric is fun, but really, if Bush’s plan makes any headway it will be after massive compromises. The Baby Boomer’s will get all of their money and half of mine. I am not OK with that, but, as a member of a much smaller and much more laid-back generation I have to take what I can get.

Completely off the top of my head – how about something like this:

1. Immediately cut FICA on both employers and employees in half for employees under 50. The remainder will continue to go into SS to fund SS for current retirees for the next 20 or so years. This amount will decrease incrementally over an, as now, unspecified amount of time.

2. Cutting government grants to NPOs will fund the remainder.

3. The current liability that is the SS fund will also immediately be funded by cuts in government grants. Any NPO without an independent unqualified audit opinion will be denied Federal funds. Those with unqualified reports will then be audited by the Federal agency administering their funds to verify that they are fiscally responsible. Any found lacking will lose their funding.

4. A law passed that all bills with unrelated riders are automatically rejected from consideration, which would free up a considerable amount of money.

5. A government commission, with oversight from Greenspan, evaluates current private brokerage firms and gives Americans a choice of firms and funds (with an appropriate risk mix determined by age) to choose from to invest the other half of what was the FICA tax. This also has a cut-off date, after which Americans will have to make their decisions for themselves. Because many Americans are unfamiliar with investing at this point, the cut-off date will be a couple of decades in the future. In the intervening time, all high school seniors will have to take a class on personal economics, responsibility, and investing.

6. Further tax cuts (in the form of making invested income non-taxable until withdrawn) for Americans who choose to invest more than the 4% freed up by the cut in FICA. These tax cuts won’t hurt us because we have freed up a lot of money with 2., 3., and 4. above.

7. Right now, any many instances, states get back less Federal funds if they do not comply with things the Federal government thinks they should (seat belt laws, drinking age, grade-level testing for kids are 3 things that have been affected by the heavy hand of the Federal government in my lifetime.) Here, in the interest of comprise, I endorse the Federal government applying pressure. States would have to set aside a certain amount of expected revenue in their budgets to meet the needs of any Americans negatively impacted by SS reform to get back money from the Feds.

8. If there is still a short fall, we could begin a necessary trimming of gov’t excess by (1) making government’s hiring/firing policies match those of the private market and (2) eliminating bloated and unnecessary gov’t departments starting with the DOE. Any taxes paid toward DOE employees’ salaries the gov’t would keep first to pay back SS and second to fund general operating funds and the remainder of the tax would go back to Americans in the form of vouchers to private schools.

Like I said, it is off the top of my head so I expect many holes can be punched in it. Resist the temptation unless you have something constructive to add.

On a technical note: I think your site is generating typos in my posts. It could be that I forgot to spell check but (and maybe this is just Mom’s liberal genes surfacing in me) I doubt it could be my fault. Please look into it.

Thanks!

Just a few points before bed:

1. You are paying ss taxes on $90,000 not $87,000. Do your homework.. (Damn, I have already violated the 5th commandment)

2. When that socialist set up SS he was playing a game with the American people. He set the retirement age several years after the life expectancy. SS was never meant to be a retirement fund - only a feel good sop to idiots.

3. I have pointed out already that I will never be able to retire. It seems my grandmother’s generation was a bit randy and my generation has a lot of people we need to take care of. (I remember that when I was at USC I had a Chinese sociology professor who explained to us one day that China would collapse because the “sandwich” generation would not be able to care for both their parents and their children. The equivalent is my generation in America.)

3. Of course I would take care of you in your dotage, that wass what families were for before Big Brother.

4. I skirted around this in my first post so as not to make you feel old but the cut-off age where retirees would still receive their checks under Bush includes you. (What the hell-I have already broken the 5 commandment by not buying what you are selling hook, line, and sinker.)

6. What the hell good would 73% of my benefits due me at 2005 dollars in 2043?!?! (Oh, that’s right–accoridng to the letters Michael and I got from the SSA we are not eligble for full benefits unless we WORK until we are 75-so that is probably more like (to pull a fairly conservative number out of my…)55% at 2005 dollars. Whoopee! There is no way we could save that much by ourselves.)

7. if you were paying SS on more than $87,000–oops, scratch that I mean $90,000–that would not benefit me in any way. The gov’t would either give it to crack heads or spend it on pork and I will still end up in a worse position.

8. Bottom line–it is theft. The gov’t is stealing my money. It IS my money. I go to work everyday and I earn it. I love you Mom, but it is not your money and it is not the government’s money. It is my money. You raised me to be a hard worker but if you had told me so it was so the gov’t could steal from me maybe I would have considered other options. I could have been a crack whore-liberals would claim it was because I was downtrodden and I would have had a free ride for life. Or, I could have become a housewife with a pile of kiddies-conservatives would say I was doing my wifely duty and given me lots of nice tax cuts like the Child Income Credit. As it is I am paying for the welfare Moms, the soccer Moms, the Viagra needin’ leacherous old men, and I am staring down the barrel at having to fund the bingo and golf money for the enormous Baby Boomer generation–give me a break, can I please keep something for me??