There are Ponzi schemes and then there's Social Security. For the last ten weeks every politician from Obama to Sanders has been harping about the out-of-control social costs of Social Security and Medicare and our immediate need to raise taxes and reduce benefits. These political ideologues are liars because the entire Social Security system is nothing but lies.
According to the Social Security Administration, the average recipient collects $500,000 in retirement benefits but pays in only $278,000. Wrong! What they conveniently don't mention is that if the average beneficiary pays in $278,000 and the employer matches that with an equal amount, SS collects $556,000 per recipient.
Well, actually not, because in addition, the Social Security Administration does not pay one cent of interest on monies that they hold for an average of 35 years per recipient. The compounded interest on $556,000, based on a moderate average of 4% annually beginning with zero and climbing to the total amount paid in at time of retirement, results in about $540,000 of interest. Thus the paid-in amount per citizen is actually $1,096,000. That amounts to $540,000 more than SS pays out. In fact, if the proverbial "Lock Box" into which SS payments are supposed to go actually existed, then the entire present outlay of all SS payments could be made out of the interest collected on funds in that "Lock Box" – the interest alone!
Some years ago I had a good friend who worked as an actuary for NY Life. I asked him to figure out how much NY Life would pay me upon retirement at age 65 if I had paid all SS fees to them along with those I paid as an employer (self-employed). He calculated I would receive $3,400 per month, or $40,800 per year, and if I died before age 85 my wife would get over $80,000. In contrast, my Social Security payout is $1,200, or $14,400 per year, and my wife will get $34,000 when I die.
What the politicians refuse to tell you is that they looted the entire trust fund for among other things paying themselves $178,000 a year in salary, and that their own total individual benefit and payroll packages cost the taxpayers an average of $3.5 million per legislator per year. Of course, there are anomalies like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, whose packages are vastly greater.
Fire them all. We need a new slate!
Source
According to the Social Security Administration, the average recipient collects $500,000 in retirement benefits but pays in only $278,000. Wrong! What they conveniently don't mention is that if the average beneficiary pays in $278,000 and the employer matches that with an equal amount, SS collects $556,000 per recipient.
Well, actually not, because in addition, the Social Security Administration does not pay one cent of interest on monies that they hold for an average of 35 years per recipient. The compounded interest on $556,000, based on a moderate average of 4% annually beginning with zero and climbing to the total amount paid in at time of retirement, results in about $540,000 of interest. Thus the paid-in amount per citizen is actually $1,096,000. That amounts to $540,000 more than SS pays out. In fact, if the proverbial "Lock Box" into which SS payments are supposed to go actually existed, then the entire present outlay of all SS payments could be made out of the interest collected on funds in that "Lock Box" – the interest alone!
Some years ago I had a good friend who worked as an actuary for NY Life. I asked him to figure out how much NY Life would pay me upon retirement at age 65 if I had paid all SS fees to them along with those I paid as an employer (self-employed). He calculated I would receive $3,400 per month, or $40,800 per year, and if I died before age 85 my wife would get over $80,000. In contrast, my Social Security payout is $1,200, or $14,400 per year, and my wife will get $34,000 when I die.
What the politicians refuse to tell you is that they looted the entire trust fund for among other things paying themselves $178,000 a year in salary, and that their own total individual benefit and payroll packages cost the taxpayers an average of $3.5 million per legislator per year. Of course, there are anomalies like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, whose packages are vastly greater.
Fire them all. We need a new slate!
Source
That looting of the trust fund is why the politicos are against the citizens investing their retirement funds on their own. They know when it's time for retirees to get their retirement they, the politicians, will have absconded with it, personally gained because of it, and won't be found and held accountable. They will have led the dreamy eyed mass of leprechauns to the sea of belief only the abandon them to let them drown in the created debt.
ReplyDeleteFinally, someone said it. The money was never put in the "bank". It was spent the minute it was collected on partisan payoffs and closed door deals.
ReplyDeleteSocial Security, just like all forms of government thievery, is all about their empowerment and enrichment. They represent themselves and their interests, not us. They must be voted out of office before any of this will change, but that won't happen. There are far too many who have become dependent on government giveaways who (if they vote at all) will ALWAYS VOTE FOR THOSE WHO WILL GIVE THEM MORE. Our only hope is that enough of them won't bother to vote or will be too drunk or otherwise wasted to do so.
ReplyDeleteAnd that doesn't take into account the people who die early and never draw a nickel of it out. My father and step-father both died at the age of 63 and never drew a penny of social security out even though they paid in all of their lives. What happens to all of those people's money. Stolen like the rest I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteR E V O L U T I O N . I
ReplyDeleteIts the ONLY answer. We are being robbed, cheated, imprisoned and scammed on a scale that would shock Bernie madoff. On every front. Every day. They think the sheep are so cowered and stupid that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, HOWEVER they want. With TOTAL impunity. But as long as they let us "vote", we beleive we can influence thsi thievery. Buy guns. We're gonna need them. SOON.