A noble concept, Nathan, and I agree in principle. The problem with this
country (or at least one among many problems) is that we are run by
professional politicians who have no sense of fiduciary responsibility and
whose main concern from the minute they set foot in Washington is how do I
get re-elected. It matters not how much they fund a program, the very next
moment they begin to expand it to pander to a population of voters.
Charlie
On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 3:32 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Even though I am a US citizen (dual with another country, but still--at
> least I chose it rather than being born into it), I subscribe to various
> un-American notions such as inter-generational solidarity. My ideal pension
> system is one like the Danish one: financed out of the regular income tax
> revenues (i.e. no special pension tax), with a basic pension guaranteed to
> all, with various add-ons (for example, to pay for medications for chronic
> diseases) depending on other income. Nobody there talks about the system
> "going bust", and my parents got to live out their lives in a decent
> manner, with no luxuries, but enough to visit me abroad from time to time,
> have a decent place to live, free health care to the very end, etc. This is
> my definition of capitalism with a human face.
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> http://www.greatpix.eu
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
>
> YNWA
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 19, 2014, at 8:17 PM, Charles Geilfuss wrote:
>
> > Nathan, I agree with everything you've said except the first sentence.
> > It is not fiction. If two people work for 30 years, and one earns twice
> as
> > much as the other, if you go to SS's website the year before they retire
> > and plug in their SS numbers, (all other things being equal) they will
> not
> > receive the same SS monthly benefit. US social security is a legalized
> > Ponzi scheme. It will work so long as there are more paying in than
> taking
> > out. But a time of reckoning is coming. At current trends, outlays will
> > exceed inputs in about a decade or two and they will have to dip into
> that
> > binder full of IOU's at the Treasury Office to make up the difference.
> But
> > as you rightly point out, there is no Trust Fund. Congress has used SS
> > surplus funds to make the US budget deficit look less bad for decades.
> The
> > Trust is simply a promise to get those funds elsewhere: they will either
> > borrow more (if they can), print more or tax more. I personally have
> > planned my life finances as if I will never see a penny of SS, which I
> > probably won't.
> >
> > Charlie
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >wrote:
> >
> >> This is a fiction. The money you pay into SS is used to pay today's
> >> pensions. It is not squirreled away for your future retirement. Those
> >> benefits will come out of the SS taxes paid by your children. It is the
> >> most hare-brained retirement scheme in the world. It was set up this
> way,
> >> with a cosmetic layer of something that looks like insurance, and the
> whole
> >> ridiculous trust fund fiction, so that it would be politically
> palatable. A
> >> normal system financed by taxes was considered to "socialist" for the
> US.
> >> Nonetheless, that is exactly what SS is.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Nathan
> >>
> >> Nathan Wajsman
> >> Alicante, Spain
> >> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> >> http://www.greatpix.eu
> >> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> >> Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
> >>
> >> YNWA
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mar 19, 2014, at 5:56 PM, Charles Geilfuss wrote:
> >>
> >>> The system (or scheme, if you
> >>> prefer) is designed such that what you receive in benefit is determined
> >> by
> >>> what you pay into the system.
> >>
> >> --
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