At 11:00 AM -0700 5/30/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
And it's fun to play with. Let's say I was born in 1970 and make $30,000 a year (BTW, I wasn't and don't). Assuming I retire at 67 and inflation is 3 percent, Social Security would give me $1,293 a month after I retire. And that's if you assume Social Security won't go belly-up, a hard position to maintain since its own trustees say it's underfunded by 25 to 33 percent.
I paid into the SS fund from 1969 to 1986. And yet I knew from around 1975 or so that it was a Ponzi scheme, with current intake being used to pay ouflow and with no "trust fund." (The so-called "trust fund" is actually just a bunch of IOUs placed there by the government...the inflow is sent back out to welfare mothers, chiselers, and corporate welfare cases, and an IOU is placed back in the jar. This is *NOT* calculated into the $5.3 trillion national debt. That $5.3 trillion debt amounts to $53,000 owed on average by each of the 100 million or so taxpayers (the other 150 million being children, spouses, nonfilers, welfare recipients, spouses, etc.). Most of these 100 million do not have $53,000 in any form of assets, of course.)
Compare that to a stock fund, which yields so much more: $8,635 a month.
I expect to receive essentially nothing from the SS fund when I become eligible in 22 or more years (they are pushing out the eligibility age...it may be 75 by the time I "retire"). I won't try to dig up numbers right now, but the combination of the national debt, the unfunded liabilities (things the Feds have said they'll pay for but don't have the money in an account for), the SS crisis, the Medicare crisis, and the changing demographics (hint: the baby boomers retire in absolutely massive numbers beginning about 15-20 years from now)...well, the numbers don't look good. I've heard estimates that the tax rate on those still working in 2020 may have to be 80%. That won't fly. So some things are going to break, and break very badly. And the Congressvermin are still attempting to impose an "exit tax" on accumulated assets, so that if I tried to move my assets (remember, assets = property = purchased things, not at all the same thing as "income") to some other country. (There are those I mention this to who don't seem to understand the point, and who mutter about tax evasion. Well, the purpose of moving assets may indeed be avoid confiscatory taxes. But the fact is that it says one's property (jewels, furniture, stocks, etc.) are not one's own to move around as one sees fit, to take with one to a foreign residence. This would make the U.S. like the Soviet Union in this regard.) As we all know, the SS system is just a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Like gambling, the government runs operations it imprisons others for running. I'm not even sure that 60 megatons of disinfectant would handle the cancer that is Washington. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."