Posted on 12/26/2004 9:16:36 PM PST by pickrell
{I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it on Freerepublic, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?"} Virginia O'Hanlon
Virginia, your friends are wrong. The good news is that, yes, there is a Santa Claus. But, sit down, girl. The bad news is that YOU are 'it'. It doesn't matter that you were never told that you were Santa Claus, or that you had no say in the matter... the simple fact is that you're it.
You see, as you have been playing with your dolls for the last couple of years, we've been spending your money. Fortunately, you've been oblivious to all this, and will not realize all that this implies for quite a while. But soon, after your generation enters the workforce, we will all be reaching into that income bag you will eventually have. And what is left, if any, will go under YOUR tree.
You see, you need to repay that "trust fund" we humorously referred to in our past political fiction. What does that mean, you ask in mounting fear? Well... did you ever read that story about the emperor's clothes, and how no one would admit the fraud that was perpetrated on the kingdom? Guess what? You're still it.
Surprise! You... are the "trust fund"! You see, we've already spent every last penny that was taken from OUR generation's workers, including the extra hundred and fifty billion each year ABOVE what was needed to pay the retirees. That extra hundred and fifty billion was a hoax we constructed, that enabled us to continue an orgy of overspending, without the citizens having it thrust in front of their faces just how much more the country was going into debt than they realized.
Our "journalists" went along with the fraud that was carefully fabricated in the minds of the citizens over those years. These "journalists" were either utterly complicit in enabling the ponzi scheme, or else were utterly clueless about what they passed off while they posed as "purveyors of the truth'. When you fully realize, later, just what these creatures actually did to you, you will have to decide which ones were liars, and which ones were simply morons. There is NO third option. Of course, they will all be safely retired by then, gleefully untouchable by you... ensconced in history as the "mainstream mob".
The way it was done to you was to build a pyramid of lies, out in the open, and then to intimidate the citizens into pretending that the emperor wore clothes.
Lie Number One was the cornerstone of the pyramid.... "The money went into a Trust Fund". Upon this lie, all subsequent falsehoods were built. The truth was that every penny was spent, and none, zero, purchased ANY tangible, interest earning asset whatsoever. Camouflage was then draped around the lie, claiming that the money was safe in "government bonds." Sadly, I must tell you what "government bonds" really means.
It is a legal fiction, meaning only that as you get older, you will have to not only bear a great tax burden supporting the large government shoveled onto your back, but, in addition to the spending that we all bore in our time, you will ALSO have to pay EVEN MORE taxes to "redeem" these "government bonds". In short, they've already spent your money, much of it before you were even born!
Lie Number Two was built atop Lie Number One. This lie was meant to sooth the citizens' fears that they weren't seeing any return on their "retirement dollars" forcibly taken by this "Social Security Tax". This lie stated that "interest was being earned" on that non-existent trust fund. And Virginia, guess what this means? Yep. In addition to replacing the "retirement money" that they already spent, you will also have to pay even MORE money, that we will then humorously call "interest" on the missing money you are replacing. I can feel you shaking with mirth already!
Lie Number Three warned the objectors that they wouldn't "earn as much interest" if they cried out about the Emperor's Clothes, and broke loose from the grip of the liberals... even the "extra money" taken in by the Social Security scheme. They were told that this money would only remain "safe" if it was immediately spent to fund critical government projects such as Public Arts, Mating Habit Studies, and so many other crucial cash flows. As you see, each lie stacks upon the last, and the tower was propped up by a stonewall of embargo upon truth, as conspired and agreed to by the Respectable Media.
It's much like the truism farmers all instinctively know-that the only way to protect your seed corn from vermin... is to immediately eat it. As to what will then be planted next year, well, we have an IOU in our desk drawer for the seed. [ This will crack you up, I know, given that famous sense of humor of yours, but the IOU for the seed corn...is from you to us, signed not by you, but by us! Is that a hoot, or what?] Talk about safe! Wow, that was good thinking.
So, Virginia, you're screwed. Don't be a whiner. After all, our generation had to work past May until we had earned enough to pay our taxes! So how bad is it that your generation will have a tax-freedom day in December? After all, when YOU retire, your children will have to sell their body parts in order to live to reach kindergarten.
As the new year approaches, you will hear new calls, with your little ears, for us to again "Save Social Security". What can this mean? Let me explain. As time passes, the extra "take" of Social Security diminishes, and the $ 150,000,000,000.00 that Congress now "hides" in overspending, will slowly shrink. But, you ask, is that so bad?
Grow up, kid. Fast. If the "extra" money diminishes, it will have no effect at all on the money needed for payouts, but will expose more of our excesses to the view of the public. We can't openly tax ourselves any more without a revolt, and heaven knows we can't possibly limit our government largess to ourselves, but who can argue that Social Security needs to be saved?
Sure, we can all pay a few percent more from our paychecks, and then a few percent more after that. After all, it isn't "Taxes", it's "...more money going into the trust fund..."! Isn't that a neat trick?
Watch it happen, Virginia. Count on it, say around January 2005, or so.
And, you better not pout...you better not cry...you better not shout...I'm a tellin' you why... Tomorrow's laundry time!
Soon, YOU'll be coming to town.
And taken to the cleaners.
Pickrell
LOL
"tax-freedom day in December"
OUCH!
"flying flounder"? large minnows maybe for bait?
good post Ron
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