Offbeat

Rant

Social Security: Government-run Ponzi Scheme

Posted 10 months ago|25 comments|558 views
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It has been said... "Don't commit fraud, the Government hates competition!" So it would seem in the case of Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff... being prosecuted by those who do it best. Where can a President hold a country hostage every other year, for bailouts of one kind or the other?
Would the average person get away with this kind of behavior?

Read this letter by John Matthews, Abilene...
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/ju...

"Is this some sort of government Ponzi scheme? The federal government takes in more than it needs through FICA taxes to pay current Social Security recipients, spends the surplus on anything it wants, and has put into the Trust Fund $2.6 trillions of Treasury paper of no intrinsic value, a debt imposed on future American taxpayers. Had that $2.6 trillion been invested in American industry, in assets of real value, future taxpayers would not be obliged to pay off another one of Uncle Sam's huge debts. That investment would have created jobs and more wealth. But such simple economic sense is beyond the capability of our socialist bureaucrats and politicians in Washington."
http://thenewamerican.com/opinion/sam-bl...

In 2008 Anton Wahlman wrote an article to this effect, and every six months since someone is beating this drum... and in a couple of months another will be written...
WHO CARES? Who cares that the American Gov perpetrates a Ponzi scheme 1000 Times Worse than Madoff's? ...anyone bringing this up is just trying to "FOMENT" insurrection and anarchy... when simple accountability by those who
"represent' the country would be sufficient.

The problem sometimes is that people don't have the answers,
sometimes they don't have the right questions. So, my question is simple...
How many "LIGHTBULBS" does it take to SCREW-UP a country?
UPDATE - 1 month ago
"Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper
http://dwynrhh6bluza.cloudfront.net/reso...
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COMMENTS
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
10 months ago: Absolutely correct. First they start taking the money put in trust by the American people, then they start taxing the meager dividends paid out, then they start cutting benefits AND taxing what's left. We are being taxed for the privilege of loaning out money to the government and losing money in the process.

If the government had done what it said it would do and had kept its promise, our seniors would be retiring to a life of luxury, rather than a pauper's demise.
Altruist
Altruist
Eugene, OR
10 months ago: Absolute Rubbish! The Social Security System is the only part of government that is NOT Bankrupt. It is stable until 2037 when it will only be able to give 78% of what they are promising now. They have a total of $2.5 Trillion in the SS Trust Fund, but that trust fund is mostly illusory because the rest of the government is borrowing from that trust fund to run the government. http://seniorhousingnews.com/2010/08/08/...

If Al Gore had been allowed to take office he would have put the Trust Fund in a lock box but the supreme court went with Bush instead who didn't even know that SS was a federal program. Bush also claimed that SS was going belly up and tried to privatize it, as all conservatives have tried to do since it started, but the public loves Social Security and didn't want the conservatives to destroy it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

If Bush had his way and everyone had put their Social Security life savings into the stock market, there would be millions of seniors homeless and collecting cans to survive today, because his economic collapse would have wiped out their accounts.

Social Security is not a ponzi scheme. It is a simple pension plan with a guaranteed return, that is not subject to the volatility of the market, so people can plan for the future.

It is not in trouble, and only needs a bit of tweaking. Currently anyone making over $106,000 doesn't pay any taxes into Social Security. Obama proposed raising the ceiling to $250,000 which would keep it financially stable.
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
10 months ago: The point of the article is that the Government is, and has been for many years, stealing the retirement money of the citizens it claims to care for. Our own government has stolen trillions of our retirement dollars from the Social Security "lockbox" which was supposedly already pilfer proof.

Social Social Security is going belly up. They want to raise the tax and reduce the benefit to keep it alive for a few more years. It's just another failed socialist utopia experiment. Due to human nature and greed, people were promised that they would be taken care of in their old age, and their retirement savings were pilfered by greedy and corrupt people.

You say SS is a "simple pension plan with a guaranteed return". What is that guaranteed return? 78% of what was promised? So the amount I am promised every year when I get the Social Security letter that explains how much I have contributed and how much I can expect to get when I retire is guaranteed? Or are you saying I'm guaranteed to get something, just not the full amount the government promised?

The only way to make SS stable would be to make a Constitutional Amendment strictly forbidding SS funds from being used for anything else. Anything less than that would be just more of our money for the government to pilfer.

sunny2
sunny2
10 months ago: Al, That is true what you are saying but every single day, especially yesterday, it was all over the news that the Government has its eyes on Social Security and Medicare for cuts. It is difficult to hear their threats that if the budget is not met on time that the Federal Government will decide who gets paid and who doesn't and that threat of not paying Seniors looms up. Others say that nothing catastrophic will happen; only that the credit rating for America will go down, and they will resolve the budget issues as they move forward. I guess we will have to wait to see what this bunch springs on the people. It annoyes me that Boehner is trying to play himself up as a Good Ole Boy and that he checks his ego at the door. What does that have to do with an excuse for what he is doing I asked myself. I don't think he is open-minded enough to handle these issues and work together for the common good. He puts the President in a position of working for him. I don't like what I have been seeing.
Altruist
Altruist
Eugene, OR
10 months ago: If you are scheduled to receive SS before 2037 it is almost guaranteed that you will receive what your SS letter said you would. We have 25 years for someone to tweak the system to make it stable. Some time in the next 25 years we should get a rational president AND a Congress willing to do something.

The rate of return of SS is about 3% is perhaps low (30 yr. CD's are 3.&% now) but SS allows millions to plan for their retirement who wouldn't have saved at all. If the Republicans succeed in destroying SS and turning it into a private market based IRA then you would have whatever those terms and the markets are. If you are rich you would have a cushion in case the market crashed, if you are poor like me you would be SOL.

Although the government is borrowing from SS they are also paying interest on those funds so unless the US is forced to default on it's debt. SS should be stable (Never happened before so why would it happen now? Oh That is right! Half of our government is run by crazy people!)
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
10 months ago: What good is it to pay interest on an IOU with another IOU? It just creates more debt that the US taxpayer is liable for. If the government had kept it's greedy, grubby paws off the S.S. funds in the first place, there would be $3 trillion in funding already in place. Then people wouldn't have to retire into a life of poverty.
sunny2
sunny2
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sunny2
sunny2
10 months ago: Did you see the headlines, Box?
Huffpost.aolnews
WASHINGTON -- House Democratic leaders emerged from a Wednesday Caucus meeting with a message for President Barack Obama: Invoke the Constitution to resolve the debt standoff.
If Congress can't reach a deal on a long-term debt limit increase by August 2, Obama should "sign an executive order invoking the 14th Amendment," said Assistant Minority Leader James Cyburn (D-S.C
sunny2
sunny2
10 months ago: What happens if the President signs the Order invoking the 14th Amendment?
Looks like if they don't come to terms that's what will be done.
They don't care if it is legal, or not.
They say Clinton would of done it.
9 months ago: Yep. I saw that too.

But remember, Clinton has been impeached before. I don't think Obama wants to face that particular potentiality, especially at this juncture of his presidency if ever.
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: I would hate to see that happen in this Country.
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: I just saw this on the AOL News site:

Concern is rising that the US government might opt to skip the next round of Social Security payments if a deal isn't reached.

9 months ago: Sunny,

If this was an Iranian dictator, instead of an American one holding his people hostage... the Western world would want to invade and "stabilize" the country.
9 months ago: Huey...

Did Clinton get impeached... or just censured? I know he should have been impeached or just out-right fired...
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: I don't think so but he was close to it. I believe the last I heard he was wearing a blue tie to signal his friend. He finished his 2 terms.
He was a Big Liar. He got away with it. I suppose it was his charm. Perhaps Obama lost his.
sunny2
sunny2
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sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: What a difference from the feeling of Freedom. I don't think another President would be so unfeeling toward the people. You can't hide that stony lack of emotion for your Country if the passion as a Leader isn't there. This guy is a cold fish out of water, but all of them are. Where the heck did this freak show come from? What gets me he doesn't care what any of us think about him. No one is going to tell me this guy isn't hard.
Somehow it always works out. We have to vote them out.
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: I think this is what they had all intentions in doing manipulating in order to get their hands onto social security payments.
I do believe this has been a scheme.
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
9 months ago: Sunny

There is a scheme, but using the SS payments is just a fear tactic to garner support for raising the debt ceiling.

There are three possibilities. The scheme will work out to (a) pass a budget bill at the very last second, one that has been amended into a monsrosity in the dead of night, and passed before anyone can read or understand what is in it. That's what they did with the Obamacare bill and the Stimulus package.

or (b) allow Obama to raise the debt ceiling by Executive Order, rendering any contrary arguments moot. This will accomplish three things simultaneously: it will let both parties off the hook for Obama's spending increases, it will endear Obama to his liberal voting base, and it will set a precedent, effectively taking control of the purse strings away from the House of Representatives, where it belongs by Constitutional Law.
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: Box I can understand that. The very fact that they frighten people into taking away their stability is wrong. He has no right to use that on people.
I don't believe in raising the debt ceiling, but isn't it too late to have an alternate plan that will iron out all the problems. They are fighting like cats and dogs how can anything be resolved.
They certainly are not like the Founding Fathers of our great Nation. If only they could see our Government now. I'm sure they would think it is a disgrace. This guy lost his charm a long time ago when he turned deaf ears to the people's pleas.
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: Huffpost.aol.news:
Then there are the millions of social security payments due Aug. 3. President Obama told CBS News earlier this month that he could not promise that Social Security benefits would be issued if a debt-ceiling compromise is not reached.
It is possible that that furloughing government workers and delaying other payments would not raise enough cash to pay interest on the national debt, Behravesh said. In that case, social security benefits would have to be held.
"We think they would try to avoid this at all costs because it would be effectively hari-kari , and by that I do mean political suicide," Behravesh said. "But if that happens, there is no question that the consequences would, almost immediately, be enormous and painful for a lot of households
9 months ago: Sunny,

It looks like nothing is sacred... money is money...
and greed will have ALL of it!
sunny2
sunny2
9 months ago: Obama said there is an overwhelming response to his call for help from the people. I think he has some nerve because of the way he turned away from the people's shouts for help when they didn't know what to do.
This is the worse bunch I can remember, Truth.
sunny2
sunny2
1 month ago: Truth, you added a link "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper.

I read it through. My take on it is somewhat different.
"What was the opposite of not wasting my life?"

My complete life would be simply believing in Jesus Christ and right there life is not wasted. I don't really think anything else is really that relevant. Everything else that we do is because we are suppose to do it to survive and be happy.
What about the children who never make it through birth. There is a purpose for them. That's why I don't believe in abortion.
The sick children at the ages of 2, 3, and upward, become adults mentally and emotionally when they are faced with death.
They seem to grasp the meaning of life and death more than adults that worry about it all the time. They are far ahead of their years.
They face whatever is ahead bravely and courageously.
They don't understand about wasting their lives because they didn't get a chance to explore it. They hold on to what is ahead of them to achieve.

Time doesn't seem to factor into anything at all because we never know when it will end. Maybe it is all about believing in God and ourselves however long our journey is for us here. We have to prove ourselves each day that we are given.
I always believed that we will never stop learning wherever we are. So, I think our time here, although is short in comparison to eternity, will be the baseline that provides the means for us to continue our goals and achievements. Everything that we have pursued here, will be continued for a devine purpose.
So, I don't think we can waste our lives. Unless one doesn't believe in God and takes the wrong path toward corruption, then there is a problem of wasting the one chance they have been given here to go forward.


sunny2
sunny2
1 month ago: I have to add that everyone, an athesist, who doesn't believe in a higher power still holds onto hope. Hope is a gift of a higher power. They still wouldn't waste their lives living a moral, purposeful, and decent life because they are on the right track. Anyway that's my take on not wasting ones life.
1 month ago: Sunny,

Thanks for reading, the book is very compelling and a challenge to all to basically take inventory. It holds the reader accountable and clarifies priority... to waste one's life is to knowingly reject our God given purpose.
sunny2
sunny2
1 month ago: It does make a person think about the quality of their lives and take inventory as you say.
We are all born for a purpose, but I felt that the most important is recognizing our lives in God and have that test of belief. We are here I believe to help each other get through so that we keep life moving forward. Wasting away ones life in drugs, alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, extreme greed all these things are destructive to the road to Christ as it steers people in the wrong direction and a wasteful life. Good reading. The author makes good points.

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