Posted on 05/12/2011 1:07:54 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
Readers may recall the 1950s TV show, "The Millionaire," which portrayed stories of individuals who were given a "no strings attached" gift of money by an anonymous benefactor. Each week in one of the show's opening scenes, a man representing the wealthy benefactor, John Beresford Tipton Jr., knocked on an unsuspecting recipient's door and announced: "My name is Michael Anthony and I have a cashier's check for you for one million dollars."
That TV program is scheduled to return next year as a reality show, and the new recipients will be the typical husband and wife who reach age 66 and qualify for Social Security. Starting next year, this typical couple, receiving the average benefit, will begin collecting a combination of cash and health-care entitlement benefits that will total $1 million over their remaining expected lifetime.
According to my calculations based on government data, such married couples will begin receiving monthly Social Security checks that will, on average, total about $550,000 after inflation. They will receive health-care services paid for by Medicare that, on average, will total another $450,000 after inflation. The benefactors will be a generation of younger workers who are trying to support themselves and their families while paying taxes to finance the rest of government spending.
We cannot even remotely afford to make good on these promised benefits. Although our system of personal liberty, free enterprise and limited government has made us an affluent and upwardly mobile people, we are not yet a nation of John Beresford Tiptons.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Saw a program on A&E (IIRC) where they give people $100,000 to get their lives back on track. Stupid, really.
So, one guy who’s a homeless drinker gets $100K.
Goes out and buys a new $35K truck, because the lack of a $35K truck has been what’s really holding him back.
Then he buys a beater for one of his trailer-trash girlfriends. No biggie.
Never quite gets out of the house, or the bar. Spends weeks buying people drinks.
In one hour and $100K, he really doesn’t evolve much. At the end, he refuses to tell the show’s producers what’s left in the bank, but then we already know.
A friend of mine is a millionaire retiree. He was cheap as all get out while he worked inorder to save for his retirement. He got a pension from the Naval Reserve as well as a pension from a New York City job. He was loaded when he retired at 55 years of age. The icing on the cake was when his mom died and left him a boatload of cash, and property. Inheritances and cheapness really added to his wallet. Last year he and his wife visited the Great Wall of China.
There is no free lunch. Yes, this typical 66 year old couple probably paid their taxes, and paid social security, but society does not owe them $1 million in benefits.
It won’t last.
If anyone feels compelled to donate to the brownsfan retirement fund, I’m here to accept.
I have no shame. :)
The quickest way to have someone destroy themselves for you is to give them a large sum of money. This only works if the person is a complete loser and user.
I often joke that If I woke up and had a time machine I would buy lottery tickets for all my worst enemies because they would end up destroying their lives quicker.
I would also buy lottery tickets for my friends, not directly, but i would help them pay off their houses and make some emergency funds for them on the condition that they only use them when absolutely needed.
Actually, if every dollar I ever gave to social security was put in a modest bond fund, I’d have MUCH more than $1,000,000.
Ever hear of the rule of 72?
Just in case you ever get that time machine...
...I hate you, you stink, you are stupid.
Now remember your enemies.;)
No problem.
I’m here to help.
I just need your SSN, bank account number and PIN.
I got your back, Buddy.
In order to be my enemy you have to be the type of person who is a leech and complete loser.
THAT was exactly my thought....give me a % of our investment....and forget Medicare....Just let us buy our own healthcare you idgits!
That would be a lot of winning lottery tickets, since over 62 million voted for obummer.
My parents are very typical of the people in the book “The Millionaire Next Door”. They’ve managed to retire with quite a pile despite living on one income all their lives and sending us to college nearly loan-free.
Living beneath your means, fixing your own stuff, wearing stuff out and not being stupid with your money can leave you with quite a savings account if you’re consistent and self-disciplined.
I hope to follow in their footsteps.
LQ
Sounds like my ex-, except that he’s not homeless thanks to government handouts.
I’ve failed to come up with a way to qualify for your enemies list, so can you put me down as a friend?
I remember years ago, Oprah gave 100 people $50,000 each to help them get “back on their feet”. Even SHE was amazed how quickly these people blew through the money and bought useless stuff. Out of all of them, I think ONE actually managed to turn her life around and put the money to good use.
“I got your back, Buddy.”
In a prison cellmate sort of way, I see.
Oprah would have learned something even more important had she offerred to give those people a $50,000 per year JOB.
She (in theory) would have gotten the work product of her $5mil, and coul have used it to hire more people.
But as soon as they unionized and demanded 15 minute coffe breaks every hour and paid parking spaced and free medical,...
The worst thing I can wish on liberals is that some day they come to understand the consequences of all their good intentions.
Many of these so-called millionaires are like myself and husband who decided to ‘retire’ because we could not find work - so we will be forced to live on savings for the years until we can collect SS.
In addition, we as do others, live in a house that is too far underwater in an area where every other home is for sale (or being given away, practically) for us to be able to downsize, much as we want to. So we will live with too much square footage, pay a lot more for utilities than we want to or can afford, and this situation shows NO signs of changing.
Yes, we saved enough money to not be a burden on our kids, and hopefully with careful budgeting will be able to control our remaining years, but odds are we will NEED social security and medicare to survive, as the money pit in which we live slowly drains our savings.
Additionally, because my husband had a heart attack at 58 we are concerned that we may not find health insurance to get him to medicare age - once you have a heart attack, you are denied by every health insurance company available and Obamacare isn’t going to change anything in that respect.
I sure wish we could consider ourselves millionaires, but with the cost of everything going up (Rush said hamburger has tripled in price in the last year), it is evident that the sooner we die, the better off we will be.
Sucks to be aging in this economy.
It's not an 'entitlement' program when people pay for it.
It's not a give-away unless you've got the HIV virus - which is not much more than having a cold - and you get full Social Security for YEARS. Or if you're one of the almost 30% of minority males who isn't employed but is disabled - say by alcohol? or drug problems? - both qualify for disability - and THEY get FULL Social Security - sometimes for 40, 50, 60 years...
None of this 'wait til retirement' crap for the drug addicts. They can start collecting in their 20's.
Are liberal elites worried about their favorite victim groups gaming the system? Hell no... Spread that wealth around - have older Americans work until they drop to keep that addicts on the money...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.