Let's Ignore Some More Inconvenient Facts

Social Security edition.  Using personal accounts for a national retirement system really does work.  The charts at the link are quite telling.

And yes, I understand that there is a modest amount of apples and oranges going on with the units.

A Brief Spasm Of Anglophilia

Because they are willing to make the hard choices.

Perhaps for similar reasons, nobody is talking about austerity in America. On the contrary, Republicans are still gunning for tax cuts, and Democrats are still advocating higher spending. Almost nobody—not Paul Krugman, not Newt Gingrich—talks enthusiastically about budget cuts. Instead, our politicians use euphemisms about "eliminating waste" or "making government more efficient," as if no one had ever thought of doing that before.

Well, to be honest, no one has taken any interest in actually making government more efficient or in really eliminating waste.  Because that would be the end of earmarks and a whole raft of graft.

But we do have a serious spending problem.  Our government spends too much.  It has made promises that are far too generous in the out years.  The fiscal debacle that I have been predicting for decades is upon us.

We face the choice of making hard decisions and surviving, or simply clinging to the hope that "things will all work out" and pile driving our country into fiscal ruin.

The former is easier to experience than the latter.  Unfortunately, the latter is easier to achieve than the former. 

Social Security - A Response

We had someone criticizing Tim Wahlberg for his support of privatizing Social Security.  I'm not wild about sending Tim back to Washington.  He was ousted by our current representative Mark Schauer.  Replacing a pack following Democrat with a pack following Republican doesn't sound like much of an improvement to me.

The following is my response to that letter to the editor.  I'll link to that original letter once it is posted online.

A word of advice to George Brown and others that believe that privatizing Social Security "threatens those benefits".  You have been fooled by generations of politicians that promised you wealth later if you would trust them to transfer your wealth to retirees now.

That Ponzi scheme has finally reached the end.  Social Security began life with over 30 workers providing benefits to one retiree.  Generations of lying politicians have finally whittled us down to the point where we have less than 3 workers per retiree.

The money you "paid in" was spent.  It is gone.  Most of the money was spent funding someone else's retirement dreams.  The rest of the money was spent; on the military, on welfare, on pork barrel projects, on the pockets of the well connected.  Instead of being saved and invested, those surplus FICA taxes were wasted funding our behemoth federal government.

What did you get for your money?  A promise to continue to strip wealth from our children and our grandchildren so that you could retire in style.

Like any other Ponzi scheme, Socialist inSecurity is about to coming crashing down because we can't find another generation that is willing to be suckered into the bottom of the pyramid.

The only hope we have left is to stop stealing from the young to pay for the old.  We must restore our common American values of industry, thrift, and fair play.  That means raising the wage cap on FICA taxes, means testing benefits, and allowing our children to put a portion of their FICA taxes in a private savings account.

Our money is safe only when it is locked safely away from the greedy, incompetent, and lying reprobates that we send to Washington D.C.

Link to the original letter added above.  I have no idea why it takes the CitPat so long to post letters that are in the same day's paper.  

Reason 3,984 Not To Listen to Paul Krugman.....About Anything

Mr. Krugman recently responded to those that are pointing out that almost half of all Americans pay no income tax.  It is a fact that roughly 47% of Americans pay no income taxes at all.  Yet what is the basis for Mr. Krugman's rejoinder?  Social Security [or FICA] taxes.

Apparently Mr. Krugman didn't do well in forensics class.  We are discussing income taxes not total taxes.

Mr. Krugman apparently didn't do well in basic economics class either.  I find that a bit surprising given the area of expertise for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. 

The fact is that your total Social Security tax rate must include any Social Security benefits that you may receive.  Currently, the vast majority of retirees have a negative Social Security tax rate.  Put another way, they receive more in benefits during retirement than they paid in taxes over their working lifetime.

Special note for those of us under 50.  The Social Security system is $8trillion in the hole.  Don't expect to get the same sort of benefits when you retire.

Jim Carrey And The Social Security "Lock Box"

An interpretive presentation.  Hat tip to the blogfather.