Posted on 12/08/2012 4:42:06 AM PST by IbJensen
Have you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment"?
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.”This isn’t a benefit – its earned income!
Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too.
It totaled 15% of our income before taxes. If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both your and your employer’s contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your personal investment.
Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.
That’s almost three times more than today’s average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration (Google it - it’s a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.
Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They “forgot” that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn’t have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them.
And they didn’t pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently, they’ve told us that the money won’t support us for very much longer. But is it our fault they misused our investments?
And now, to add insult to injury, they’re calling it a “benefit,” as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. Just because they “borrowed” the money, doesn't mean that our investments were a charity! Let’s take a stand.
We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government –
Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.
Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
“By what convoluted logic do you arrive at the premise that monies earned by me and taken from me and my employer with promise to start repayment at date certain, all of a sudden becomes an entitlement just because corrupt government officials have embezzled the funds? “
You f’ed up. You trusted them. You actually thought they were saving your money for you, didn’t you?
The first law of the Ferengi comes to mind “Once you have their money, never give it back”.
Okay, let’s fire the unionized ones first. Bye bye, USPS.
This purchase increases the Debt. It is a liability owed to the purchaser of the security. The balance is referred to as so called “Trust Fund”.
When the payouts are more than the receipts, the shortage does not come from the general fund ; The Treasuries are “cashed” which brings down the Debt.
That's why Obama’s threat to withhold Social Security checks was one of the more egregious statements he made during the debt ceiling debacle.
The confusion comes from the fact that the “Trust Fund” has been shown at various times as an off or on budget item.
During Clinton years, it helped to make the deficit look like a surplus.
It goes on and off budget depending on the prevailing politics of the period. Only when the Trust Fund balance is down to zero, will Congress have to hit the general fund, or some other fund to continue the benefits, or do nothing and let the recipients take an immediate 25% reduction in benefits.
“I think you underestimate the cost of illegal aliens, new immigrants on the dole, and the subsidies to low wage new immigrants. “
It doesn’t matter. They just cost us more money that we don’t have. We have already decided as a country we aren’t going kick them out, so those costs will continue. They will also be shocked when their checks stop, but I suspect a good share of them are working under the table so they’ll not be completely cut off.
“the extra is used to invest/purchase special non negotiable Treasuries, it does not go into the general fund.”
So the money goes to purchase special Treasuries, and THAT money goes to the general fund. It’s how the government launders money. It goes to the general fund. Yes, there is a “special Treasury not” generated too, but that’s irrelevant.
“When the payouts are more than the receipts, the shortage does not come from the general fund ; The Treasuries are “cashed” which brings down the Debt.”
No it doesn’t bring down the debt. The “special treasuries” are cashed by the government issuing other treasuries (which these days are purchased by the Fed mostly)
So the whole “Special Treasuries” idea was just a tool used to spend surplus SS money money when it was receied, to be paid back by our children and grandchildren if they don’t have the good sense to default on it.
The “Special Treasuries” are simply replaced with other debt - and if we can’t borrow the money, we’ll just effectively print it (laundered through the Fed.)
My position is that borrowing is the only way to “cash” in the Trust Fund therefore adding to the debt, not bringing it down. There is no cash. The way the government gets cash is by borrowing it. Thusly, credit creates money.
Hearing you explain the mechanics of bringing down debt by "cashing" in the Trust Fund should prove enlightening. Dare you explain it?
No the money used to purchase the special treasuries do not go to the general fund, it goes to the Federal Reserve Bank, where it is held as a “due to” account balance-in this case, due to the USA Government.
Call it Money laundering if you wish, as Beranke contiues to print money hand over fist, but this printing means the checks will keep coming-it just may take a whole check to purchase one loaf of bread at some point.
Cashing the security does reduce the debt. The fact that the Fed sells other securities later and increases the debt again and probably to even higher levels does nothing to change that.
Consider for example, if you had 2 credit cards, and made a payment on the first one with no additional charges-that would reduce your debt on that card.
The fact that you charged money on another card in sufficient enough amount to increase your overall debt does not negate the impact on the first card, and your overall debt is still better off than if you had skipped the payment.
Like I said it’s just a technicality. However, Social Security payments can keep coming legally as long as the Trust Fund has a balance, because Bernake can just keep printing whatever money he needs for payoffs.
If he keeps going, it may take the whole check just to buy a loaf of bread, but there you have it. USA citizen taxpayers get the shaft no matter how you slice and dice it.
IIRC, the Debt owed to ourselves is around 60% including all the various programs. When the USA defaults, I expect it will be a default to the citizens, not the other countries, but we’ll see where it goes.
Last time the country faced bankruptcy J.P. Morgan bailed them out. I bet that all the rich people in the whole country couldn’t bail us out today even if they chipped in their last dime. In fact, I doubt that many woulld even consider it let alone do it.
Hey! Where’s my 1.7 % goody?
I didn’t receive a letter. Where’s my stuff. I’ve paid into this freaking scheme since I was 14 years old. I’m now 76 and have paid the maximum since I was 24; this doesn’t include what my employer has ponied up!
Speaking of ponies.
How’s Bronco Bama?
“I seem not to have made by point clear enough. “
I get it now. THe point I was making is that folks self-justify their entitlement by claiming there is some other entitlement that is more worthy of cutting before theirs. It’s a psychological trick used to self-delude.
Ah yes, I had forgotten. Thanks for reviving my memory...........
Got the letter yesterday, but then I had to register democrat and buy a prayer rug to be on the list. LOL.
You may get something Monday.
Best wishes.
Nah, it ain’t pretty and it is a technicality. But the Fed can just the money it needs. Cash is deducted from paychecks and sent to the Governmet.
The excess receipts are required by law to purchase/invest these non-negotiable Treasury Securities. Reflected on the Federal Reserve Books in a “due to” account. Due to the USA Government as opposed to some other Government, other entity or individual.
The Treasury Dept. lets the Fed know that it is cashing in some of these securities. Just like some student’s parent may decide to cash in Government Bonds for the tuition.
When bonds are cashed that particular bond is no longer a liability owed, and is a subtraction to the Debt. There is always enough money for these transactions, because the Bernake can print money till the cows come home.
Consider for example if you had a couple of credit cards. You make a payment on the first card and no additional charges; your debt on that card goes down. If you make a payment on the second card, but charge more on the second card, the second card may or may not be reduced depending on the size of the charges. Hence your overall debt might go up even though the balance on the first card went down.
Now if you happen to approach you debt limit, sometimes the card company raises the limit and you go merrily on your way free to charge even more should you be deperate or imprudent.
Eventually, your payments exceed your ability to pay, at which point, maybe you get a raise or maybe you don’t. Maybe you file for bankruptcy.
But Uncle Ben could just say no problemo, hit the printing press and you’d have all the money you need. It will be even uglier when that printing party comes to an end.
Not a perfect example, but perhaps it illustrates the point?
Sorry about the typos. Seem to have left out a word too.
Insert the word print in the 2cnd sentence of the first paragraph after the word just.
deperate=desperate
The full faith and credit of the USG, ROFL. Pixie dust and unicorns. The USG is BROKE.
Bull sheet. It's a Ponzi scheme.
(revisiting the thread after working all day to pay into the socialits/totalitarian PONZI scheme)...I agree with most posters here that yours is an OUTSTANDING post! Thanks, trek.
BTTT!
He who expects nothing is seldom disappointed.
As it stands today and everyday since we started getting our Socialism Security, we have to pay income tax on every damn cent!
The US Congress is a sick joke that has been incestuously reproducing itself since 1913!
Down with the fruitcake Bronco Bama and down with the corrupt US Congress and the Soopreme Kort!
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