A perspective on retirement

[macclary]

Pplooker, I am sure you know this but I'll say it anyway: military might comes from economic might. The military can't force our economy to get better at other's expense even if it really wanted to.

Here is a 'fun' fable about the plausibility of everyone earning 'enough' money at the same time:

"I Want The Earth Plus 5%"
http://www.relfe.com/plus_5_.html


Regarding SS here is a plan I have circulated before:

"How to End Social Security"

1) End the SS payroll deductions.

2) Refund SS contributions to everyone who has only contributed a small amount.

3) Fund current and future SS benefits that have already accrued from the general budget.

4) Refuse to accept any additional social security liabilities.

This plan would mean that those who had contributed a lot to SS and are counting on it for retirement would still get their benefits. Young people would not have to worry about whether to count on SS at all. Those people in the middle would pursue a hybrid approach saving money for retirement outside of SS to supplement the SS benefits; much like today.

Even though everyone knows that SS is not economically viable yet it is very politically difficult to fix: because it was designed to be so!! Here is a telling quote from FDR: "Those [payroll taxes] were never a problem of economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those payroll taxes there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no d--- politician can ever scrap my social security program."

Therefore, ending the payroll deduction is step #1 to breaking SS's spine.

[Pkg Man]

Here is a telling quote from FDR: "Those [payroll taxes] were never a problem of economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those payroll taxes there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no d--- politician can ever scrap my social security program."

Perhaps that's why my grandfather detested FDR...

My proposed "fix" to SS is to simply pass a law today that says we will only pay out as much as is paid in, and lock in the current payroll tax rate.  That would immediately wipe off the books a lot of the unfunded mandate.  Of course it wouldn't stop the pols from inventing other ways to redistribute our money. 

[MediumTex]

Here is a telling quote from FDR: "Those [payroll taxes] were never a problem of economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those payroll taxes there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no d--- politician can ever scrap my social security program."

Perhaps that's why my grandfather detested FDR...

My proposed "fix" to SS is to simply pass a law today that says we will only pay out as much as is paid in, and lock in the current payroll tax rate.  That would immediately wipe off the books a lot of the unfunded mandate.  Of course it wouldn't stop the pols from inventing other ways to redistribute our money.   :(

The trouble (and I'm not telling you something you don't already know) is that people don't seem to grasp the basic idea that the government can never give more back to society than it takes in the form of taxes because interest on the national debt and the cost of bureaucracy must be absorbed before any redistribution of wealth can occur (never mind the inherent inefficiency in any coercive redistribution scheme). 

Thus, the harder the government tries to give more free stuff to the populace, the poorer the overall society becomes.  That's the basic problem with communism.

It's so simple, but it goes against the "something for nothing" ethos to which many people have become accustomed.

[pplooker]

Here's something else: a great many of the people I talk to who tend to be of a certain political party affiliation believe the government invests our Social Security payroll taxes, producing profits which pay for the benefits.

[MediumTex]

Here's something else: a great many of the people I talk to who tend to be of a certain political party affiliation believe the government invests our Social Security payroll taxes, producing profits which pay for the benefits.

As Ross Perot would say: "Now that's just sad."

I suppose, though, that there is some truth in the idea that the payroll taxes have been invested, but they have been invested by the government in simply buying more government.