-------- Original message --------
From: Douglas Lucas <dal@riseup.net>
Date: 4/24/18 2:11 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: cypherpunks@lists.cpunks.org
Subject: Re: Juggalos Joining Libertarians, Mental Sovereignty vs Programming,   Burning Miracles

My understanding is that like all gall, Social Security payments are
divided into three parts: SSI, SSDI, and retirement benefits. Sometimes
people think of SSDI as retirement benefits for those forced, pressured,
or opting to retire early by disability qualification/identification,
and SSI is available to many more but the payments are low, not enough
to live on autonomously without participation in covert economies or
gray market economies.

A full SSI payment today is $981, more than many folks, including my, retirement benefit check. At 65 my retirement benefits, about 1/2 of minimum wage at the time my paycheck employment ended, will be brought up to that amount by supplementing it from the SSI fund. That fund is also a slush fund for certain people who are 'damaged' but not eligible for SSDI, like drug and alcohol casualties, who USED TO get SSDI, but are no longer eligible (the ones already on disability were 'grandfathered'). The thing about SSI is it's mutability. It's derived from the SS trust but there's nothing requiring it by law... meaning it could vanish and the funds allocated to other uses.

Rr


As many probably know, under US taxes freelancers today pay into
retirement benefits, which are only available to recoup if you've served
the overt economy enough for 40 "work credits". These same 40 come up if
a freelancer asks for a social security statement for purposes of, e.g.,
estimating SSDI payments. Some individuals qualified as disabled get
both SSDI and SSI, some only get one or the other. Today.
https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10022.pdf

I don't know exactly what this was like in Rand's day, nor how she got
paid royalties or advances for Fountainhead, the Gary Cooper movie based
on it, etc. Seems like she liked money enough to live in NYC for much of
her life. But, Rand's husband wanted to paint and drank himself to
death, is the prevailing story out of the Nathaniel Branden Institute
faction etc. So there's that. I assume the Ayn Rand Institute guards
Rand's business contracts etc. That funny story about Peikoff trying to
get back the Fountainhead manuscript pages he donated to the gubment
because of his choice of words, "stealing" some of the pages etc.

Razer wrote:
> She was a welfare slut more than any Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mother
> On Drugs, who never had a chance to have best-seller books that must
> have  made her millions. She was a hypocritical luzer, just like all
> Libertarians. Deluded, hypocritical, lying to themselves and others,
> luzers.

This is difficult for me to parse, sounds like misogyny, except I assume
there's some sarcasm/irony embedded that may make sense to you if not
others.

Razer wrote:

> SSI is paid to impoverished people who never worked a day in their
> lives once they turn 65 for instance, or to people who drug/alcohol
> damage themselves, can't work, and never got enough quarters of work
> in to qualify for retirement benefits.

For "never worked a day in their lives", define work. Is straightening
up one's home and volunteering for Food Not Bombs 'work' according to Razer?

Douglas

On 04/23/18 12:57, Razer wrote:
>
>
> On 04/22/2018 10:21 PM, Douglas Lucas wrote:
>> I hate Ayn Rand but this frequently cited fact -- that she took social
>> security payments -- is often cited to allegedly prove her hypocrisy. But
>> her argument was, the government stole from her
>
>
> It doesn't appear that she ever actually paid into the retirement system
> as a wage earner or by voluntary contribution.
>
> SSI is paid to impoverished people who never worked a day in their lives
> once they turn 65 for instance, or to people who drug/alcohol damage
> themselves, can't work, and never got enough quarters of work in to
> qualify for retirement benefits. My meager retirement check will be
> supplemented with SSI when I turn 65.
>
> According to FACT she took the money at the insistence of close
> acquaintances to keep her from going broke due to her medical bills.
> That's SSDI, again, NOT money derived for an individual's payment into
> the system.
>
> She was a welfare slut more than any Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mother On
> Drugs, who never had a chance to have best-seller books that must have
> made her millions. She was a hypocritical luzer, just like all
> Libertarians. Deluded, hypocritical, lying to themselves and others, luzers.
>
> Rr
>