The GOP have been trying to gut or privatize Social Security ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt put it into place in 1935. They refer to it alternatively as a Ponzi scheme, or as socialism…
Unfotunately they can. There are legions of expats drawing Social Security, but not Medicare.
Back before the Panama Canal was relinquished to Panama, there were a class of citizens known as Zonies, and that included Africano Carbs, descendants of persons recruited from the Caribbean as labor
They paid into Social Security, at least the Canal Zone employees, and received benefits, The
Zonies who had U.S. citizenship had to have a permament stateside address and every five years return to the U.S. to keep their citizenship
That was returning the Zone to Panama...if Texas secedes, that's defying Texas v. White (I love the irony). I don't think that would be done by an amicable treaty between the two parties.
I think that Washington would deny Texans their citizenship.
“MY” representatives are installed Puppets working with Fascist Billionaires Charles KKKoch, Joe Ricketts and the Peed Family. As Libertarians, they are dedicated to robbing the people, destroying social systems, health systems, education and infrastructure while avoiding taxes. Absolutely greedy—Look no further than Chile in the 1970’s to see what Fascist Billionaires have in mind for the rest of us. No, “my” representatives are puppets and they are happy to hitch their wagons to the Uber wealthy, rather than to do anything moral, decent or patriotic.
OT: I haven't yet read the article, but will. I just have to blurt this out. I watched the SOTU speech last night and I am enthused, finally Biden breaks out of his chains, and he sure shut up the dissenting Republicans without losing it.. bravo. And that MTG, what an ass, but she will get reelected her district is a bunch of rich white racists as bonkers as she is.
The GOP has been obstructing any progress for the working man going back to the early 1900s or farther.
The GOP just wants a cut of the action, like the mob does. Privatize social security, or else abolish it. The bankers will look after the social security fund /s.
There is money in looting a government and that's where the GOP comes in. We need strong laws protecting democracy with swift and just punishment!
Another off topic comment, but this one is also a question.
I get a lot of newsletters, especially from Never Trumpers, but one refrain is common, Polls say Biden is trailing Trump.
That causes me a problem. I don't believe polls, because polls are funded by organizations which have their own agenda, and that agenda is a maximum positive quarterly profit and earnings report.
Media is of the same, after all it is corporate.
The organizations are funded by private equity funds, investment bankers, and corporations who all have a vested interest in cutting taxes, labor expenses, and making as much profit as they can, while delivering minimal quality and services.
The point is that because of the profit motive the polls and the media can't be trusted.
A prime example is this. The polls ask, in various ways, whom do you view favorabbly or unfavorably, and Biden comes out with unfavorable ratings more than Trump.
The question should be, and I want to see a poll that asks this question, and it is the only important question (but not for the media and pollsters whose livelihood relies on the horse race)
Who will you vote for in November?
Biden or Trump.
That is the only question that is relevant that is the only question that should be asked.
I've had an unfavorable opinion of Biden, for his bipartisanship and timidity , but will crawl over broken glass to vote for him, and I am not alone, hence the polls are pure unadulterated bullshit and are to be ignored.
The only poll that counts is Nov 5th.
The powers that be use polls to fashion attitudes and opinions and create self fulling prophecies.
The money, the CEO's, millionaires and billionaires (the Plutocrats) are almost to a person Trump Humpers, not because of his social policies, but because he promises to cut (eliminate) all taxes for the wealthy and corporations and deregulate industry (financial and manufacturing) that they can rape and ruin the world and society without any fear.
Mr. Farrar. I regard "processed food" as industrial poison which is sold as food. There is a best selling novel about farm-life in Iowa: A THOUSAND ACRES, by Jane Smiley who was on the faculty at Iowa State Univ. after I left the place. Cancer is a real and disproportionate problem in Iowa. You can guess why. Smiley's book is about cancer. The entire three years I lived in Iowa I had congested lungs and coughed often. I am not a smoker. Six months after I left my lungs cleared. The coughing stopped.
Wow Gerald. Living in Iowa made you cough. The media should get ahold of that, then of course it would bury the story, Agribusiness is a source of revenue.
I read a great, but scary book, back in the early 90's Beating the Food Giants. They are able to save costs, by adulterating products, even 1/100 th of a cent. One thing they do is hire chemists to produce a cheaper product, then have the employees taste the new product and see if they can tell it from the old. Most times they can't, but that explains why the Tastykakes and Animal Crackers, etc are tasteless today compared to the products I ate back in the 1940's and 50's.
And of course the chemicals are processed by the kidneys and liver, and they cause problems, and the need for medical care, and insurance... it is a vicious circle,one feeds the other and it all starts with the petro chemical corporations
As previously mentioned I am diabetic resistant, in my case genetic. A problem of that is obesity, but the fat is limited to accumulation in the upper stomach. Not a pot belly, not in the arms and legs, but in the upper abdomen.
I weighed 220 lbs at 5'8" I started to take Berberine and modified my diet, eliminated all simple carbs, and carbs as best I can, not to mention sugars.
My weight has dropped to between 171 and 178, and I am starving myself and just can't lose any more weight. I've hit a plateau, for two months now.
All I had yesterday was a small bowl of steel cut oatmeal and a spinach and tomato salad and gained 1 lb. My blood glucose even went up from 99 to 106 (110 an hour earlier) I am doing everything I can, but still struggling.I don't know how much of the problem is genetic or environmental.
By the way I read something yesterday that the size of the penis comes from the X (mothers chromosome) not the fathers. That should blow some minds.
Get some good exercise, do exercises, join a workout program. Mind and body work together. The hunter and gatherer needs to be alive and well within you
Thanks, but I had a tumor removed from my brain in 2017, along with some grey matter, then 10 bouts of radiation. plus I am 85, have no sense of balance anymore, frequent bouts of vertigo, my exercise is limited to working out with my Cubii while sitting at the computer and watching TV.
I wish I could do more, I was a long distance runner and a special operator, loved PT
There is an ancient Greek Riddle. What crawls on all fours in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three in the evening.
You know the answer, and damn if it isn't true.
Thanks for the thoughts though.
In the days of hunting and gathering, when folks reached my age and condition, they would wrap a fur around them and walk off into the forest too die.
I wonder whether any Republican members of Congress will support the legislation, even when their friends and family desperately need it. As of today, the Catfood commission, which Thom has discussed previously, is poised to recommend cuts to all benefits.
Social Security is social insurance and everyone who is fully and currently insured has the equivalent of a million dollar policy covering the entire family. There are two funds, the retirement fund and the disability fund. As of today, the funds are still solvent, although it's estimated that the retirement fund will "default" in 2033. Republicans tried to kill the disability fund several times. I've written about it, Save the Social Security Disability Trust Fund! and Reduce SSI Exposure to the General Fund, 36 J. Nat’l Ass’n Admin. L. Judiciary 142 (2016). https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&context=naalj
I've also written about the retirement fund. The main problem is that baby boomers had huge populations that will expend expenses until the apex in 2033, when population should return to normal. Once upon a time, my theory was that if the rate of contribution were supplemented, using charitable deductions, the apex could be exceeded.
Here's a paper I wrote for lawyers, December 01, 2011 FINANCIAL PLANNING
Social Security—Maybe Charity Should Begin at Home
By Daniel F. Solomon
For most of its history, Social Security was a terrific bargain: our parents and grandparents most probably received significantly more benefits than they paid into the Social Security Trust Fund. The trust fund comprises the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds (OASDI, collectively).
In most cases, because our family units could rely on these benefits, they were able to enjoy enough financial independence to send people like us to school so that we could become lawyers—productive and, in some cases, wealthy, members of society. For 75 years, the Social Security Trust Fund has helped enable American soci- ety to achieve far beyond the aspirations of its founders, ultimately providing more than subsistence to retirees by also protecting widows, orphans, and disabled people. The dignity provided to needy beneficiaries surely far outweighs the economic value of the funds.
However, financial experts have long predicted a future insolvency of the funds. A majority of Americans have invested in the funds, recognize their social utility, and do not want to burden their heirs. Although there have been legislative attempts to “fix” the system, there is no consensus how to do it. The Congressional Research Service reported:
For example, for workers who earned average wages and retired in 1980 at age 65, it took 2.8 years to recover the value of the retirement portion of the combined employee and employer shares of their Social Security taxes plus interest. For their counterparts who retired at age 65 in 2002, it will take 16.9 years. For those retiring in 2020, it will take 20.9 years.
Geoffrey Kollmann and Dawn Nuschler, “Social Security Reform” (October 2002).
The National Commission on Social Security Reform (informally known as the “Greenspan Commission” after its chairman) was appointed by the Congress and President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in response to a short-term financing crisis that Social Security faced at that time. Estimates were that the OASI Trust Fund would run out of money possibly as early as August 1983. Congress rendered a compromise that extended the retirement age from 65 to 67, through a deal that raised payroll taxes and trimmed benefits enough to keep Social Security solvent. See Jackie Calmes, “Political Memo: The Bipartisan Panel: Did It Really Work?” New York Times, January 18, 2010. However, the legislation addressed only the immediate problem and did not address the long-term viability of the fund. See also Rudolph G. Penner, “The Greenspan Commission and the Social Security Reforms of 1983,” in Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency, David Abshire, Editor. Washington: Center for the Study of the Presidency, pp. 129–31.
The George W. Bush administration commission deliberated on the issue and then called for a transition to a combination of a government-funded program and personal accounts (“individual” or “private accounts”) through partial privatization of the system.
President Barack Obama reportedly strongly opposes privatization or raising the retirement age but supports raising the cap on the payroll tax ($106,800 in 2009) to help fund the program. He has appointed a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which is to report and offer another fix.
Current estimates predict that payroll taxes will only cover 78% of the scheduled payout amounts after 2037. This declines to 75% by 2084. 2010 OASDI Trust- ees Report, Figure II.D2, www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/ trTOC.html.
Although the congressional plan was to ensure solvency through Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax, there is a private means to help: to also consider the humanitarian and charitable nature of the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has been possible since a legislative fix in 1972. Before then, bequests naming Social Security or a trust fund as a beneficiary could not be accepted, which caused problems in administration of some estates. Money gifts or bequests may be accepted for deposit by the managing trustee of the OASI and DI funds. Section 170(c)(l) of the Internal Revenue Code lists the U.S. government among the educational or charitable organizations to which donations are acceptable. Gifts must be unconditional, except that the donor may designate to which fund the gift should be donated. If no fund is designated, the gift is credited to the OASI Trust Fund.
However, SSA has not publicized its charitable persona. Although the agency has received some gifts and bequests, they have been insignificant and not given consideration in a possible fix. The concept has been so unimportant to the experts that the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin does not specify how much the administration has received in gifts and bequests. Total revenue from gifts to the trust funds has been quite small. From 1974 to 1979 the most received in any one year was $91,949.88. During that period, the average annual amount was only $39,847. In 1980, almost two-thirds of the gifts were less than $100. The median gift size was $50. One person, for example, donated $13.11. She arrived at that amount by applying 5.85% (the employee tax rate then in effect) to her benefit amount and donated it to help “‘shore up’ the sagging, dwindling Social Security fund.” However, the 2010 Social Security Trustees Report lists them as about $98,000 (www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/III_ cyoper.html#2). Compared to many other charities, this is a paltry amount.
Apparently, SSA has never done a feasibility study nor marketing research to determine how an aggressive campaign could raise funds to support Social Security, or how gifts and bequests could reduce the current estimates of impending doom. According to some estimates total deductions taken for all charities next year would be $413.5 billion. Estimates for fiscal year 2011 are that SSA will spend $730 billion. That amount is already covered through “contributions” (taxes), but it is reasonable that charitable contributions to the trust fund could significantly lessen taxpayer exposure for impending doom, if not return the fund to solvency.
As lawyers, we have the capacity to remind our families, our clients, and the public at large that there is a way to contribute to help endow future generations in the pursuit of the same kind of social stability that Social Security provided to our parents and grandparents.
The propaganda, the scare tactic that SSA will run out of money or is a ponzi scheme, originates in Wall Street, or rather private equity funds and investment bankers (which are all bankers today since Clinton), as a scare tactic to justify privatizing social security and Medicare.
As is calling your retirement insurance premiums, known as FICA (Federal Insurance Contribution Act), payroll taxes. For corporations they are indeed a payroll tax, which is also tax deductible, but corporations don't want to pay taxes.
Why do they want to privatize SSA? Because they can get their mits on the trust fund, and the monthly contributions.
They don't tell anyone, but the contributions will continue only they will go to who ever manages the trust fund. And it will not be just one financial institution. It will be a cabal, like the Association of Primary Dealers in Government Securities a cabal of about 25 Investment bankers which has a monopoly on purchasing government securities which it then sells to the Fed and overseas investors (central banks, monetary funds, sovereign funds like Saudi Arabia and China).
This cabal will use the trust fund and your insurance payments to juice the stock market, gambling your retirement, and raking in hundreds of millions if not billions in commission.
Until it all goes bust, and it will. Nothing is forever, especially the stock market, and infinite growth is not possible, eventually a tree will outgrow it's roots, topple and die, or a good strong wind will uproot it.
You're right about privatization. GWB thought he had a mandate to privatize everything.
Goes back to his uncle who worked for Goldman Sacks at one time. In '78 GWB ran for Congress and proposed that in essence, his uncle Pres be given the commissions. Later, Keating and other crooks proposed that the fund be used to finance housing, via savings and loans. Bribed the Keating 7, including John McCain. Greenspan, head of the Fed and the Greenspan Commission was a front man for the privatizers. His wife, Andrea Mitchell can not get herself to say the word "president" when speaking of Biden, who had her husband pegged.
The Bush family is the 20th Century Crime family. Granddaddy Prescott Bush was a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman.
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy
Dubya, was commissioned a 2nd Lt by his father, the Governor of Texas, in the Texas Air National Guard, on the day he completed basic enlisted training. He never even attended Officer Training School, which was conducted at an annex of Lackland AFB , Texas
This is unheard of, but he was Daddy's little boy.
The Bush family bought United Fruit and re named it Chiquita Banana and has hired death squads to deal with union organizers and keep the peons in penury.
They are also butt buddies with the Saudis and the bin Ladens.
Who invested in Dubya's failed oil ventures, and financed his purchase of the Texas Rangers, and he paid them by opening the airways for them to fly back to the Kingdom, in the days following 9/11 in which all air traffic in the US was cancelled.
I abhor the whore Andrea Mitchell, and she is one MSNBC host I will not watch.
In Breaking Up with Cuba, I lay out the role of United Fruit. The Dulles brothers had been on the board, were related to the ownership, TD Cabot president of the company had a brother, John Moors Cabot, in the state department, the head of PR was married to Ike's secretary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dudley_Cabot
GHWBush had Zapata Oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HRG_Group Two of the ships involved in the Bay of Pigs were named for him and his wife, Barbara. He was the acknowledged "money man" of the operation.
I have enough material for another book, which I may never publish that lays out the history after "Breaking Up." I've been waiting for the release of rest of the Bay of Pigs docs, which I assume have more info on GHW Bush.
I know some of the Devine family, involved in the Tejas Rangers deal.
Daniel, since there is a housing shortage, I would propose that we build millions of studio apartments for senior citizens, that way they could get their meals on wheels, and medical needs much faster and wouldn't have to look after a big house and take care of the lawn and painting the house and roofing the house and fixing that water heater and replacing the rugs... That would also be a lot more green energy wise. Then we could cut back on the social security payments about 25%? There would be more affordable housing available for the young people to trudge into the dark bleak future in? If the fascist foreign endomestic billionaires, quit buying up real estate and flipping it. Instead of producing manufacturing jobs they're just jacking the cost of living up with higher costs.
WE DON"T NEED TO CUT BENEFITS!!!!!! Just need to ,make a few minor adjustments to get beyond the apex.
If economics was actually a science, the market could self correct. In economic theory "allocation of resources."
I am originally from a small rust belt town. Plenty of cheap existing housing. True throughout the rust belt. In places like California, NY, MA, etc the cost of housing is roughly ten (10) times more expensive
times the cost in my home town. People on fixed incomes are entitled to pay a maximum 25% of their adjusted gross income for rent in subsidized housing. Take the housing vouchers from, say SF, to places where costs are low.
A typical retiree from DC, for example can get 5 homes in my home town for the sale of their house. No state taxes. In some places in California 10 houses.
Taken to an extreme, tens of thousands of similar properties in flyover country could change entire states politically from red to blue.
Sorry Carolyn, collectibles are a fad, the go up and down in value, my mother has a room full of Beanie Babies, she spent and lost a fortune, but nobody wants them. My mother collected dishes and paper money from all over the world, spent her social security on the stuff. She died and neither I or my sisters have been unable to find a buyer.
Gold is not of any value in itself, it is of mythical value, it was silver in the days of the Vikings and Saxons. Salt still has value in some parts of the world, more valuable than gold, as it preserves food, gold does not.
Marx declared that gold was the standard of value. the USSR adopted that notion, and a ruble was worth .9871 grams fine gold. The amount of gold on hand limited the amount of rubles in circulation, the result was a perpetual depression, which was covered up by the Kremlin who used the cold war as an excuse.
Gold and silver had value until the Spanish conquest of the Americas, then Spain and Europe were hit with gold inflation. The Conquest of the America's also spurred the renaissance, and led to the Royal Dutch Empire, which was Britain''s East India Company biggest competitor.
Spain was too successful, because the opened the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia and flooded Europe with silver, causing inflation,and wrecked the Spanish Empire
The early United States was bimetal, however coins were minted in silver, there was no paper money per se, but there evolved Bank Notes, a bank could issue it's own notes, and states like North Dakota had their own bank and bank notes.
There were recessions as the supply of silver, waxed and waned as the country expanded westward, and engaged in wars like the war with Mexico.
Thinks when downhill fast with the discovery of the Comstock Lode of silver.
So much silver poured forth, that the country was hit with a horrendous inflation, the congressional reaction to the problem, was demonetizing silver.
And that created a depression that lasted seven years, and was, in my opinion, the real reason that Garfield and McKinley were assassinated, both were the only Presidents who wanted to go back on the bimetal standard, rather than just gold.
As regards gold as money. there is not, and never has been enough gold in existence to fulfill the need for a medium of exchange. If gold were money, we would be in a perpetual depression, like the USSR was.
And we have had gold inflation, one of the primary reasons that the Federal Reserve Act (Title12 USC) was passed.
What happened is that investors like JP Morgan bought up all the gold, with bank notes and securities, hoarded it till it drove up the price, creating a depression, and then dumping it, creating inflation and walking away with the profits in form of real wealth (not gold or paper)
Money is not wealth, money is a tool to acquire wealth.
Everything is relative. Too many charlatans in the construction industry. Where I live the last stage of construction of every new project is bankruptcy.
One of the failed developers here in Baghdad By the Sea, who walked away from a major project, has a "Christian" development in my home town seeking public financing. Fools rush in....
We have a tiny island of Democrats within a gerrymandered sewer. . . This year, we do have two Dem. Candidates, great ones, facing biased MSM and an opposition funded by billionaires.
Trump’s campaign ran commercials against Haley, saying she would end Social Security and that he would save it. A complete lie, but I’m sure many fell for it.
The only one who believes his lies or any gop's lies, are the children who were detached from reality by religion. Just believe whatever you want to believe, whatever makes you feel good! 🤬
This is hard to wrap one's mind around, but evidently the vast majority of Americans are unaware and ignorant, if it isn't on their favorite channel after work, they don't know about any issues. The young are tuned into the likes of Tik Tok, but there the fascist right has made a big investment in taking over the minds of the young. The Chinese own Tik Tok, Musk owns Shitter, Zuckerberg owns Face Book, what chance does truth have. Even the print media is biased for the corporations and the shareholders.
And with voter suppression, negation laws, gerrymandering, armed poll watchers, and MAGAts driving out honest election officials and taking over the jobs, I feel like we are doomed, and now with the Muslims of Michigan showing their ass, and even black males. it is easy to be depressed, all we can do is hope, that the women of America, those that don't suffer from Stockholm Syndrome like ACB, MTG, Boebert, Virginia Fox, come to their senses and vote out the fascist Republicans.
WTF do you mean, that I haven't examined religions. Most of what I do is warn against the theocracy of religions. I certainly do know about Mormons, but the cult is irrelevant to todays political discussions about Arabs and Jews.
Don't try to change the subject or put me on the defense, moron, it doesn't work.
The Repubs congressional members all want to get rid of Social Security because their ideology is against democratic socialism better known as regulated capitalism. Hard core no soul capitalism is all they believe in and to hell with the people it crushes. They simply do not believe in win win wins.
To the wealthy, the elite there are only winners and losers.
Until Henry VII , England was a state of nobles, serfs and a handful of freemen who were skilled artisans.
Henry killed Richard III on Bosworth field, but found that he was the owner (sovereign) of a country that was the armpit of Europe, run down, impassable roads, especially in winter where potholes could swallow a horse and carriage.
Henry enacted tariffs, on imported luxury goods and exported raw wool. His purpose was to force the English to develop their own industries, and they did.
My 14th GGF was a wool dyer, but through marriage and a land grant, he came a wool producer, and eventually, because of H7, a textile manufacturer and the family was wealthy, wealthy enough to send a third son to the joint venture of Virginia to found his own dynasty, for it was not yet a colony in 1618.
By the time H8 inherited his fathers kingdom, England was no longer the poor man of Europe, but wealthy, so wealthy that there was a middle class who could dress and live as elegantly as nobility.
Thus enters the tale. Commoners were walking around dressed in fine silks, furs, ruffled collars, and living like nobles.
The nobility was alarmed and H8 issued a Sumptuary Law, that forbid commoners from wearing silks, furs, fine linen and dressing like nobility.
There is no sense in being of the upper class, the nobility, the 1% unless you can flaunt it,like a male peacock.
What it all boils down to is class struggle, and except for those living on sidewalks and under bridges. The average person in America and the west, lives better, is more comfortable, lives longer and is safer, than H7, H8 or the nobility of the time.
I have an inkling to include the homeless if they live in a tent and especially if they have a cell phone.
The elites who have been supported by both parties want hungry workers who will work for the lowest possible wage and require the least support in terms of schools and infrastructure and services. It was Bill Clinton with his welfare cuts that put an additional 1 million children into poverty. It was Clinton that doubled the prison population in the USA. It was Bill Clinton that pushed for NAFTA that made it easy for companies to move manufacturing jobs out of the country. It was Bill Clinton that deregulated the banks and commodity exchanges that led to the 2007 financial crisis and Larry Summers increasing the federal debt to bail out the banks under Obama to the tune of $7 trillion.
Sorry for the length of this, BUT there are many, MANY reasons why privatizing Social Security will never work, and we all need to be aware of them and able to talk about them...
There are numerous reasons why privatizing Social Security is doomed to catastrophic failure.
Keep in mind, we’re a nation with nearly 340 Million people, all of whom must be served (or offered service) from the system. Here my high level and abbreviated observations, and some calculations that for me is more than enough to confirm that privatized retirement systems of any kind will Never work. Any of these points can be more deeply looked into and expanded upon, but there’s not enough time in my day to lay out all the details.
A.. There is not enough wealth in America to privative it…
There is far too little wealth in:
Stock Market valuation ($50T market cap valuation - it’s not Real Money!)
Bonds ($45T)
Savings (< $1T)
because...
B.. Take a closer look at the largest of those investment pools - stock market wealth (capitalization or value), with the top 10% of Americans owning 92% of stock market wealth.
That leaves just $4 Trillion to be divided amongst 300 Million people. Without allocating it by demographics for all of us, this simplified picture here is grim. That leaves just $13,333 Total - Per Individual, whereas each retiree gets on average $20,000 EACH year now in Social Security benefits. If that $4T doubles to $8T, that's only $26,666 total. Remember that years from now retirees will need much more.
C.. Forcing the input of $ trillions into and out of stocks, bonds and savings will put massive and new pressures on capital markets, causing wild swings of prices and valuations, causing enormous volatility - and surges and crashes that we’ve not seen before. All surges and crashes will impact retirement portfolios, be they managed by individuals or big banks.
D.. Each retiree needs nearly $500K in a personal drawdown annuity to earn $20K-$30K/yr in retirement, which eventually goes to $0 and leaves them broke. America's savings and investments are nowhere near sufficient to grow into even this size nest egg.
E.. Wages are not high enough for individuals to each save a nest egg of $500K.
To save 10% of your income over 30 years to build $500,000, you’ll need to be earning over $100,000 Per Year for 30 years. And while needing to earn annual interest that can never go below 3.4%. We are nowhere near doing that! Again, wages are nowhere near what’s required for all of us to do that.
F.. Saving 10% of workers’ salaries EACH year by putting it into stocks, bonds and bank CDs takes a huge amount of money OUT of the consumer and industrial economies, reducing economic growth, harming companies and workers. This money will be sequestered into only investment instruments for 25-45 years! The harm to the economy has not been studied. In the current system, the 6.2% from payroll taxes and 6.2% from employer contributions is effectively being funneled right back into the economy, providing for growth and stimulation.
G.. Wall Street will take a cut off the top of Each and Every dollar you have already earned for their profit and executive pay. There is no reason on earth for retirees to be forced to pay a percentage of their hard earned wages to banks and Wall Street.
H.. When Wall Street and Banks FAILS, as they always do, the Federal government will be forced to bail them out. Get ready for the Mother of All Bank and Wall Street Bailouts.
It will be bigger than anything America has ever seen.
I.. Stocks and bonds go down in value. When Wall Street loses your retirement, the Federal Government will need to do a massive multi-trillion dollar bailout of WS. And like the Wall Street and Big Bank Bailout of the Great Recession, they will take that money to pay their executives first.
For this we will need to get used to Wall Street becoming a retirement savings incinerator.
J.. The Employer Contribution will vanish immediately. Bye bye!
K.. in a privatized personal retirement system,it is ridiculous to require every individual to become a stock market analyst and broker, in direct competition with Wall Street. Why should Every Worker need to compete against Wall Street insiders, analysts and brokers? You’ll never have the inside information and immediate access to company performance data vs. Wall Street. Workers will be left holding the bag after Wall Street has already cashed in on stock market increases. You’ll never be on top of all the daily and hourly announcements that drive stock prices up and down - you’ll be at your day job!
L.. We already had privatized retirement accounts and systems for the first 150+ years in America. It was a catastrophic failure. Banks and corporations were never able to fund our citizens retirement, nor were individual citizens. Epic. Catastrophic. Failure. - Always.
Learn from the past. Social Security works spectacularly well, whereas private systems failed to work for all of us.
M.. A $500,000 nest egg will not be enough for retirees 30, 20, or even 10 years from now, as inflation will have eaten away the money you’ve been forced to give to the Big Banks. They will pay themselves profits long before they give you a Cost Of Living Increase.
N.. Federal Social Security has the ability to protect seniors when the cost of living goes up. SS can raise payments and revenues by an act of Congress. Private accounts and private systems have no such protection ability. Under privatization, as the cost of living increases, there are no cost of living increases of any kind. It’s problematic to allow or require private banks to measure inflation and pay for COLAs. Today, banks and bond issuers do not give inflation adjustments after you’ve bought a regular CD at a fixed rate. Banks and Wall Street will pay themselves first, like they do with Medicare Advantage.
O.. Having millions of workers buy FDIC insured CDs opens up massive risk to the Federal government if banks default. Workers will also demand the FDIC cover up to 1 million, whereas it’s just $250,000 now.
P.. Where is the demand for bank loans to come from when banks become bloated with millions of workers’ trillions in investment savings CDs? This would push interest rates lower, requiring workers to put in even more savings to make up for losses in interest paid to them.
Q.. It is a VERY bad idea to place everyone’s retirement security in the hands of the same brokerages and banks who gave us the Great Depression and Great Recession. Peoples’ retirement savings and investments were wiped out. The same people as taxpayers were then stuck with the bill as the Federal government had to spend $ trillions to bail out the offending banks and brokerages. Whereas the Social Security system is guaranteed by the Federal government.
There is Nothing guaranteed or secure about stocks and bonds.
Plus, corporate failures and interest rate declines will wipe out peoples’ investments.
R.. As Thom recently reminded us of the FDR and Truman era mantra, “Don’t Be A Sucker.”
Privatizers like Romney and Pence get air time to float their simple notion (shabby sales pitch) of “allowing an individual to X dollars that will grow into their retirement nestegg.”
Many people have heard how, “You can save $2000 per month tax deferred at 7.5% for 20 years and you’ll be a millionaire!”
Wow, That’s Exciting! But it’s for suckers. Most people can’t save that monthly amount, The 7.5% rate for 30 years won’t happen in any safe and secure investment, like Federally insured instruments. It MAY have happened for some period of time for those who made great stock market investments. But for reasons noted above, it won’t work as any kind of privatized retirement system. If everybody actually did this, we're needing to pump in and grow over time $300 Trillion in valuation.
The 25 wealthiest men in Germany made a deal with Hitler and the Nazi party leaders to support the party financially (as it was bankrupt) in return for Hitler banning workers unions. Their businesses took a portion of each worker's paycheck and gifted it to a slush fund controlled by the Nazi party leaders. Hitler rose to power with the support of these men and these men profited enormously while the Nazi were in power and were allowed to retain that wealth by the American administrators after the war.
The elites prefer is not desire a fascist state that makes democracy impossible at any level. It maximizes their profits and protects their wealth. The mistake Americans make is thinking that it is Republicans versus Democrats when it is actually the elites against everyone else.
"It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people." - Gore Vidal
Outstanding commentary Bruce, but I think you mangled the first sentence in the second paragraph, I've done the same, and have had to back and correct with an edit.
What I think you meant is that "The elites prefer a fascist state, that makes democracy impossible at any level.
Thom has said as much, many times. Mussolini adopted the term fascism, he didn't invent a poet he admired did, and the Fascist state was run by a Chamber of Deputies, all of whom were representatives of a corporation.
With that I have to mention that Lenin called the USSR a corporate state, or state capitalism., and indeed it was, for it was a combine of seven trusts organized along resource lines, eath trust had their own bank, and cleared accounts with barter first, then gold via the GoSBank.
Sweden was the safe deposit box, which guaranteed their neutrality, until the USSR dissolved in 1989 and was reorganized as a Plutocracy.
The elites never seem to grasp the concept that if the poor have no money, they will be a burden on society. It looks like Putin is getting rid of all of his useless eaters and are sending them off to war, and only keeping the contributors. The dictators are betting that they can sustain a society that way, especially by making abortion and birth control illegal.
People who are trying to survive a day at a time with jobs like "door dashing" have no idea what is going on in Congress. I try, but I miss a lot. Our daily newspaper never even mentioned the State of the Union Address. I find out what's happening from some substacks like this one and some podcasts. It feels like the oligarchs are going to do what they're going to do no matter what the people want. We are on our way back to the middle ages.
I beg to disagree Gloria. I worked sometimes over 70 hours a week and still kept up on current events. I've always been fascinated by the world outside myself since a very young child. I don't think that the children are being raised properly and they are not interested or desire to think rationally.
The Internet keeps me updated on current events. I'm talking about what is coming up for votes at the state and local level as well as the federal government. It used to be in the daily paper when a bill was coming up for a vote and when it's time to pick up petitions to run for office. Now we find out incidentally after the fact.it would be a full time job to keep track. There should be reporters doing that for busy citizens and it should be in one place.
Thank you! Every time I read you I dive deeper into catatonic state. Gonna open a bottle of prosecco. Maybe the bubbles will lift me in a higher mood. Mama miiiiiaaa
Same old, same old GOP BS year in and out. connive to steal the money we spent our lives paying into Social Security, by any of several shady means, and when the President calls them on it in public (SOTU), they're all shocked monkeys, full-fisted, locked in the cookie jar, "Not me, did not, nuhn-uhh".
Yeah, but ALL Republicans HAPPILY accept and cash their Social Security checks....
Not to mention the exorbitant benefits they receive as members of Congress . . .
And how they double-dip from the Military-Industrial Complex, the lecture tours, the book tours....
Worse, much worse, than the MIC, is the financial sector, Wall Street, Chamber of Commerce PhRMA and AHIP (Association of Health Insurance Providers)
That is why we don't have single payor or universal health coverage like Europe.
And they own politicians in both parties.
These guys learned from the MIC.
The AMA was absolutely against Medicare until it was passed. Then the AMA realized how much money their doctors MADE from it, and swiftly shut up.
As did to the end of her days, Ayn Rand, she would had died sooner were it not for Medicare.
Hypocrisy abounds
Of course she did.
I like how the Texit activists are wondering if they will still get their Medicare and Social Security benefits once the state secedes.
They should not get a penny if they get their wish. You make your bed, you have to lie in it.
Unfotunately they can. There are legions of expats drawing Social Security, but not Medicare.
Back before the Panama Canal was relinquished to Panama, there were a class of citizens known as Zonies, and that included Africano Carbs, descendants of persons recruited from the Caribbean as labor
They paid into Social Security, at least the Canal Zone employees, and received benefits, The
Zonies who had U.S. citizenship had to have a permament stateside address and every five years return to the U.S. to keep their citizenship
I remember the Zonies.
That was returning the Zone to Panama...if Texas secedes, that's defying Texas v. White (I love the irony). I don't think that would be done by an amicable treaty between the two parties.
I think that Washington would deny Texans their citizenship.
“MY” representatives are installed Puppets working with Fascist Billionaires Charles KKKoch, Joe Ricketts and the Peed Family. As Libertarians, they are dedicated to robbing the people, destroying social systems, health systems, education and infrastructure while avoiding taxes. Absolutely greedy—Look no further than Chile in the 1970’s to see what Fascist Billionaires have in mind for the rest of us. No, “my” representatives are puppets and they are happy to hitch their wagons to the Uber wealthy, rather than to do anything moral, decent or patriotic.
Same here. We don't even have Democrats on the ballot anymore.
OT: I haven't yet read the article, but will. I just have to blurt this out. I watched the SOTU speech last night and I am enthused, finally Biden breaks out of his chains, and he sure shut up the dissenting Republicans without losing it.. bravo. And that MTG, what an ass, but she will get reelected her district is a bunch of rich white racists as bonkers as she is.
A MAGA hat at that.
Too bad I don't believe in Karma, because she and Gaetz sure deserve a Karmic blowback.
The GOP has been obstructing any progress for the working man going back to the early 1900s or farther.
The GOP just wants a cut of the action, like the mob does. Privatize social security, or else abolish it. The bankers will look after the social security fund /s.
There is money in looting a government and that's where the GOP comes in. We need strong laws protecting democracy with swift and just punishment!
Another off topic comment, but this one is also a question.
I get a lot of newsletters, especially from Never Trumpers, but one refrain is common, Polls say Biden is trailing Trump.
That causes me a problem. I don't believe polls, because polls are funded by organizations which have their own agenda, and that agenda is a maximum positive quarterly profit and earnings report.
Media is of the same, after all it is corporate.
The organizations are funded by private equity funds, investment bankers, and corporations who all have a vested interest in cutting taxes, labor expenses, and making as much profit as they can, while delivering minimal quality and services.
The point is that because of the profit motive the polls and the media can't be trusted.
A prime example is this. The polls ask, in various ways, whom do you view favorabbly or unfavorably, and Biden comes out with unfavorable ratings more than Trump.
The question should be, and I want to see a poll that asks this question, and it is the only important question (but not for the media and pollsters whose livelihood relies on the horse race)
Who will you vote for in November?
Biden or Trump.
That is the only question that is relevant that is the only question that should be asked.
I've had an unfavorable opinion of Biden, for his bipartisanship and timidity , but will crawl over broken glass to vote for him, and I am not alone, hence the polls are pure unadulterated bullshit and are to be ignored.
The only poll that counts is Nov 5th.
The powers that be use polls to fashion attitudes and opinions and create self fulling prophecies.
The money, the CEO's, millionaires and billionaires (the Plutocrats) are almost to a person Trump Humpers, not because of his social policies, but because he promises to cut (eliminate) all taxes for the wealthy and corporations and deregulate industry (financial and manufacturing) that they can rape and ruin the world and society without any fear.
Mr. Farrar. In both my masters and PhD. programs I designed surveys. You are correct in your assessment. One of the biggest sponsors was Monsanto.
Monsanto, a corporate criminal if ever there was one. Their Roundup has killed more people, animals, fowl, pollinators, than war,
If you eat any cereal crop, wheat, maize, barley, rye or use rape seed oil, Canola, you have eaten glycophosphate
Mr. Farrar. I regard "processed food" as industrial poison which is sold as food. There is a best selling novel about farm-life in Iowa: A THOUSAND ACRES, by Jane Smiley who was on the faculty at Iowa State Univ. after I left the place. Cancer is a real and disproportionate problem in Iowa. You can guess why. Smiley's book is about cancer. The entire three years I lived in Iowa I had congested lungs and coughed often. I am not a smoker. Six months after I left my lungs cleared. The coughing stopped.
Wow Gerald. Living in Iowa made you cough. The media should get ahold of that, then of course it would bury the story, Agribusiness is a source of revenue.
I read a great, but scary book, back in the early 90's Beating the Food Giants. They are able to save costs, by adulterating products, even 1/100 th of a cent. One thing they do is hire chemists to produce a cheaper product, then have the employees taste the new product and see if they can tell it from the old. Most times they can't, but that explains why the Tastykakes and Animal Crackers, etc are tasteless today compared to the products I ate back in the 1940's and 50's.
And of course the chemicals are processed by the kidneys and liver, and they cause problems, and the need for medical care, and insurance... it is a vicious circle,one feeds the other and it all starts with the petro chemical corporations
As previously mentioned I am diabetic resistant, in my case genetic. A problem of that is obesity, but the fat is limited to accumulation in the upper stomach. Not a pot belly, not in the arms and legs, but in the upper abdomen.
I weighed 220 lbs at 5'8" I started to take Berberine and modified my diet, eliminated all simple carbs, and carbs as best I can, not to mention sugars.
My weight has dropped to between 171 and 178, and I am starving myself and just can't lose any more weight. I've hit a plateau, for two months now.
All I had yesterday was a small bowl of steel cut oatmeal and a spinach and tomato salad and gained 1 lb. My blood glucose even went up from 99 to 106 (110 an hour earlier) I am doing everything I can, but still struggling.I don't know how much of the problem is genetic or environmental.
By the way I read something yesterday that the size of the penis comes from the X (mothers chromosome) not the fathers. That should blow some minds.
Get some good exercise, do exercises, join a workout program. Mind and body work together. The hunter and gatherer needs to be alive and well within you
Thanks, but I had a tumor removed from my brain in 2017, along with some grey matter, then 10 bouts of radiation. plus I am 85, have no sense of balance anymore, frequent bouts of vertigo, my exercise is limited to working out with my Cubii while sitting at the computer and watching TV.
I wish I could do more, I was a long distance runner and a special operator, loved PT
There is an ancient Greek Riddle. What crawls on all fours in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three in the evening.
You know the answer, and damn if it isn't true.
Thanks for the thoughts though.
In the days of hunting and gathering, when folks reached my age and condition, they would wrap a fur around them and walk off into the forest too die.
I wonder whether any Republican members of Congress will support the legislation, even when their friends and family desperately need it. As of today, the Catfood commission, which Thom has discussed previously, is poised to recommend cuts to all benefits.
Social Security is social insurance and everyone who is fully and currently insured has the equivalent of a million dollar policy covering the entire family. There are two funds, the retirement fund and the disability fund. As of today, the funds are still solvent, although it's estimated that the retirement fund will "default" in 2033. Republicans tried to kill the disability fund several times. I've written about it, Save the Social Security Disability Trust Fund! and Reduce SSI Exposure to the General Fund, 36 J. Nat’l Ass’n Admin. L. Judiciary 142 (2016). https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&context=naalj
I've also written about the retirement fund. The main problem is that baby boomers had huge populations that will expend expenses until the apex in 2033, when population should return to normal. Once upon a time, my theory was that if the rate of contribution were supplemented, using charitable deductions, the apex could be exceeded.
Here's a paper I wrote for lawyers, December 01, 2011 FINANCIAL PLANNING
Social Security—Maybe Charity Should Begin at Home
By Daniel F. Solomon
For most of its history, Social Security was a terrific bargain: our parents and grandparents most probably received significantly more benefits than they paid into the Social Security Trust Fund. The trust fund comprises the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds (OASDI, collectively).
In most cases, because our family units could rely on these benefits, they were able to enjoy enough financial independence to send people like us to school so that we could become lawyers—productive and, in some cases, wealthy, members of society. For 75 years, the Social Security Trust Fund has helped enable American soci- ety to achieve far beyond the aspirations of its founders, ultimately providing more than subsistence to retirees by also protecting widows, orphans, and disabled people. The dignity provided to needy beneficiaries surely far outweighs the economic value of the funds.
However, financial experts have long predicted a future insolvency of the funds. A majority of Americans have invested in the funds, recognize their social utility, and do not want to burden their heirs. Although there have been legislative attempts to “fix” the system, there is no consensus how to do it. The Congressional Research Service reported:
For example, for workers who earned average wages and retired in 1980 at age 65, it took 2.8 years to recover the value of the retirement portion of the combined employee and employer shares of their Social Security taxes plus interest. For their counterparts who retired at age 65 in 2002, it will take 16.9 years. For those retiring in 2020, it will take 20.9 years.
Geoffrey Kollmann and Dawn Nuschler, “Social Security Reform” (October 2002).
The National Commission on Social Security Reform (informally known as the “Greenspan Commission” after its chairman) was appointed by the Congress and President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in response to a short-term financing crisis that Social Security faced at that time. Estimates were that the OASI Trust Fund would run out of money possibly as early as August 1983. Congress rendered a compromise that extended the retirement age from 65 to 67, through a deal that raised payroll taxes and trimmed benefits enough to keep Social Security solvent. See Jackie Calmes, “Political Memo: The Bipartisan Panel: Did It Really Work?” New York Times, January 18, 2010. However, the legislation addressed only the immediate problem and did not address the long-term viability of the fund. See also Rudolph G. Penner, “The Greenspan Commission and the Social Security Reforms of 1983,” in Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency, David Abshire, Editor. Washington: Center for the Study of the Presidency, pp. 129–31.
The George W. Bush administration commission deliberated on the issue and then called for a transition to a combination of a government-funded program and personal accounts (“individual” or “private accounts”) through partial privatization of the system.
President Barack Obama reportedly strongly opposes privatization or raising the retirement age but supports raising the cap on the payroll tax ($106,800 in 2009) to help fund the program. He has appointed a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which is to report and offer another fix.
Current estimates predict that payroll taxes will only cover 78% of the scheduled payout amounts after 2037. This declines to 75% by 2084. 2010 OASDI Trust- ees Report, Figure II.D2, www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/ trTOC.html.
Although the congressional plan was to ensure solvency through Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax, there is a private means to help: to also consider the humanitarian and charitable nature of the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has been possible since a legislative fix in 1972. Before then, bequests naming Social Security or a trust fund as a beneficiary could not be accepted, which caused problems in administration of some estates. Money gifts or bequests may be accepted for deposit by the managing trustee of the OASI and DI funds. Section 170(c)(l) of the Internal Revenue Code lists the U.S. government among the educational or charitable organizations to which donations are acceptable. Gifts must be unconditional, except that the donor may designate to which fund the gift should be donated. If no fund is designated, the gift is credited to the OASI Trust Fund.
However, SSA has not publicized its charitable persona. Although the agency has received some gifts and bequests, they have been insignificant and not given consideration in a possible fix. The concept has been so unimportant to the experts that the Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin does not specify how much the administration has received in gifts and bequests. Total revenue from gifts to the trust funds has been quite small. From 1974 to 1979 the most received in any one year was $91,949.88. During that period, the average annual amount was only $39,847. In 1980, almost two-thirds of the gifts were less than $100. The median gift size was $50. One person, for example, donated $13.11. She arrived at that amount by applying 5.85% (the employee tax rate then in effect) to her benefit amount and donated it to help “‘shore up’ the sagging, dwindling Social Security fund.” However, the 2010 Social Security Trustees Report lists them as about $98,000 (www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2010/III_ cyoper.html#2). Compared to many other charities, this is a paltry amount.
Apparently, SSA has never done a feasibility study nor marketing research to determine how an aggressive campaign could raise funds to support Social Security, or how gifts and bequests could reduce the current estimates of impending doom. According to some estimates total deductions taken for all charities next year would be $413.5 billion. Estimates for fiscal year 2011 are that SSA will spend $730 billion. That amount is already covered through “contributions” (taxes), but it is reasonable that charitable contributions to the trust fund could significantly lessen taxpayer exposure for impending doom, if not return the fund to solvency.
As lawyers, we have the capacity to remind our families, our clients, and the public at large that there is a way to contribute to help endow future generations in the pursuit of the same kind of social stability that Social Security provided to our parents and grandparents.
[signed me]
I would support Bernie's plan for Social Security funding as if anything we want makes a difference.
The propaganda, the scare tactic that SSA will run out of money or is a ponzi scheme, originates in Wall Street, or rather private equity funds and investment bankers (which are all bankers today since Clinton), as a scare tactic to justify privatizing social security and Medicare.
As is calling your retirement insurance premiums, known as FICA (Federal Insurance Contribution Act), payroll taxes. For corporations they are indeed a payroll tax, which is also tax deductible, but corporations don't want to pay taxes.
Why do they want to privatize SSA? Because they can get their mits on the trust fund, and the monthly contributions.
They don't tell anyone, but the contributions will continue only they will go to who ever manages the trust fund. And it will not be just one financial institution. It will be a cabal, like the Association of Primary Dealers in Government Securities a cabal of about 25 Investment bankers which has a monopoly on purchasing government securities which it then sells to the Fed and overseas investors (central banks, monetary funds, sovereign funds like Saudi Arabia and China).
This cabal will use the trust fund and your insurance payments to juice the stock market, gambling your retirement, and raking in hundreds of millions if not billions in commission.
Until it all goes bust, and it will. Nothing is forever, especially the stock market, and infinite growth is not possible, eventually a tree will outgrow it's roots, topple and die, or a good strong wind will uproot it.
It happened in 1929 and will happen again.
You're right about privatization. GWB thought he had a mandate to privatize everything.
Goes back to his uncle who worked for Goldman Sacks at one time. In '78 GWB ran for Congress and proposed that in essence, his uncle Pres be given the commissions. Later, Keating and other crooks proposed that the fund be used to finance housing, via savings and loans. Bribed the Keating 7, including John McCain. Greenspan, head of the Fed and the Greenspan Commission was a front man for the privatizers. His wife, Andrea Mitchell can not get herself to say the word "president" when speaking of Biden, who had her husband pegged.
The Bush family is the 20th Century Crime family. Granddaddy Prescott Bush was a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman.
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy
Dubya, was commissioned a 2nd Lt by his father, the Governor of Texas, in the Texas Air National Guard, on the day he completed basic enlisted training. He never even attended Officer Training School, which was conducted at an annex of Lackland AFB , Texas
This is unheard of, but he was Daddy's little boy.
The Bush family bought United Fruit and re named it Chiquita Banana and has hired death squads to deal with union organizers and keep the peons in penury.
They are also butt buddies with the Saudis and the bin Ladens.
Who invested in Dubya's failed oil ventures, and financed his purchase of the Texas Rangers, and he paid them by opening the airways for them to fly back to the Kingdom, in the days following 9/11 in which all air traffic in the US was cancelled.
I abhor the whore Andrea Mitchell, and she is one MSNBC host I will not watch.
In Breaking Up with Cuba, I lay out the role of United Fruit. The Dulles brothers had been on the board, were related to the ownership, TD Cabot president of the company had a brother, John Moors Cabot, in the state department, the head of PR was married to Ike's secretary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dudley_Cabot
They also precipitated the Guatemala incursion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#:~:text=The%20CIA%20armed%2C%20funded%2C%20and,City%20and%20a%20naval%20blockade.
GHWBush had Zapata Oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HRG_Group Two of the ships involved in the Bay of Pigs were named for him and his wife, Barbara. He was the acknowledged "money man" of the operation.
I have enough material for another book, which I may never publish that lays out the history after "Breaking Up." I've been waiting for the release of rest of the Bay of Pigs docs, which I assume have more info on GHW Bush.
I know some of the Devine family, involved in the Tejas Rangers deal.
Daniel, since there is a housing shortage, I would propose that we build millions of studio apartments for senior citizens, that way they could get their meals on wheels, and medical needs much faster and wouldn't have to look after a big house and take care of the lawn and painting the house and roofing the house and fixing that water heater and replacing the rugs... That would also be a lot more green energy wise. Then we could cut back on the social security payments about 25%? There would be more affordable housing available for the young people to trudge into the dark bleak future in? If the fascist foreign endomestic billionaires, quit buying up real estate and flipping it. Instead of producing manufacturing jobs they're just jacking the cost of living up with higher costs.
WE DON"T NEED TO CUT BENEFITS!!!!!! Just need to ,make a few minor adjustments to get beyond the apex.
If economics was actually a science, the market could self correct. In economic theory "allocation of resources."
I am originally from a small rust belt town. Plenty of cheap existing housing. True throughout the rust belt. In places like California, NY, MA, etc the cost of housing is roughly ten (10) times more expensive
times the cost in my home town. People on fixed incomes are entitled to pay a maximum 25% of their adjusted gross income for rent in subsidized housing. Take the housing vouchers from, say SF, to places where costs are low.
A typical retiree from DC, for example can get 5 homes in my home town for the sale of their house. No state taxes. In some places in California 10 houses.
Taken to an extreme, tens of thousands of similar properties in flyover country could change entire states politically from red to blue.
Sorry Carolyn, collectibles are a fad, the go up and down in value, my mother has a room full of Beanie Babies, she spent and lost a fortune, but nobody wants them. My mother collected dishes and paper money from all over the world, spent her social security on the stuff. She died and neither I or my sisters have been unable to find a buyer.
Gold is not of any value in itself, it is of mythical value, it was silver in the days of the Vikings and Saxons. Salt still has value in some parts of the world, more valuable than gold, as it preserves food, gold does not.
Marx declared that gold was the standard of value. the USSR adopted that notion, and a ruble was worth .9871 grams fine gold. The amount of gold on hand limited the amount of rubles in circulation, the result was a perpetual depression, which was covered up by the Kremlin who used the cold war as an excuse.
Gold and silver had value until the Spanish conquest of the Americas, then Spain and Europe were hit with gold inflation. The Conquest of the America's also spurred the renaissance, and led to the Royal Dutch Empire, which was Britain''s East India Company biggest competitor.
Spain was too successful, because the opened the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia and flooded Europe with silver, causing inflation,and wrecked the Spanish Empire
The early United States was bimetal, however coins were minted in silver, there was no paper money per se, but there evolved Bank Notes, a bank could issue it's own notes, and states like North Dakota had their own bank and bank notes.
There were recessions as the supply of silver, waxed and waned as the country expanded westward, and engaged in wars like the war with Mexico.
Thinks when downhill fast with the discovery of the Comstock Lode of silver.
So much silver poured forth, that the country was hit with a horrendous inflation, the congressional reaction to the problem, was demonetizing silver.
And that created a depression that lasted seven years, and was, in my opinion, the real reason that Garfield and McKinley were assassinated, both were the only Presidents who wanted to go back on the bimetal standard, rather than just gold.
As regards gold as money. there is not, and never has been enough gold in existence to fulfill the need for a medium of exchange. If gold were money, we would be in a perpetual depression, like the USSR was.
And we have had gold inflation, one of the primary reasons that the Federal Reserve Act (Title12 USC) was passed.
What happened is that investors like JP Morgan bought up all the gold, with bank notes and securities, hoarded it till it drove up the price, creating a depression, and then dumping it, creating inflation and walking away with the profits in form of real wealth (not gold or paper)
Money is not wealth, money is a tool to acquire wealth.
I didn't bash you or your comment, but I did have to correct your mis or disinformation.
Everything is relative. Too many charlatans in the construction industry. Where I live the last stage of construction of every new project is bankruptcy.
One of the failed developers here in Baghdad By the Sea, who walked away from a major project, has a "Christian" development in my home town seeking public financing. Fools rush in....
Do you live near Ave Maria? A Catholic only town in Florida, built by Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's pizza.
I live on the east coast - it's on the west. They have a law school -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_School_of_Law
We have a tiny island of Democrats within a gerrymandered sewer. . . This year, we do have two Dem. Candidates, great ones, facing biased MSM and an opposition funded by billionaires.
Trump’s campaign ran commercials against Haley, saying she would end Social Security and that he would save it. A complete lie, but I’m sure many fell for it.
The only one who believes his lies or any gop's lies, are the children who were detached from reality by religion. Just believe whatever you want to believe, whatever makes you feel good! 🤬
This is hard to wrap one's mind around, but evidently the vast majority of Americans are unaware and ignorant, if it isn't on their favorite channel after work, they don't know about any issues. The young are tuned into the likes of Tik Tok, but there the fascist right has made a big investment in taking over the minds of the young. The Chinese own Tik Tok, Musk owns Shitter, Zuckerberg owns Face Book, what chance does truth have. Even the print media is biased for the corporations and the shareholders.
And with voter suppression, negation laws, gerrymandering, armed poll watchers, and MAGAts driving out honest election officials and taking over the jobs, I feel like we are doomed, and now with the Muslims of Michigan showing their ass, and even black males. it is easy to be depressed, all we can do is hope, that the women of America, those that don't suffer from Stockholm Syndrome like ACB, MTG, Boebert, Virginia Fox, come to their senses and vote out the fascist Republicans.
WTF do you mean, that I haven't examined religions. Most of what I do is warn against the theocracy of religions. I certainly do know about Mormons, but the cult is irrelevant to todays political discussions about Arabs and Jews.
Don't try to change the subject or put me on the defense, moron, it doesn't work.
When it comes to you Carolyn, or whoever you really are. I am indeed Mr nasty and a hateful man and anything else that come to your demented mind.
The Repubs congressional members all want to get rid of Social Security because their ideology is against democratic socialism better known as regulated capitalism. Hard core no soul capitalism is all they believe in and to hell with the people it crushes. They simply do not believe in win win wins.
To the wealthy, the elite there are only winners and losers.
Until Henry VII , England was a state of nobles, serfs and a handful of freemen who were skilled artisans.
Henry killed Richard III on Bosworth field, but found that he was the owner (sovereign) of a country that was the armpit of Europe, run down, impassable roads, especially in winter where potholes could swallow a horse and carriage.
Henry enacted tariffs, on imported luxury goods and exported raw wool. His purpose was to force the English to develop their own industries, and they did.
My 14th GGF was a wool dyer, but through marriage and a land grant, he came a wool producer, and eventually, because of H7, a textile manufacturer and the family was wealthy, wealthy enough to send a third son to the joint venture of Virginia to found his own dynasty, for it was not yet a colony in 1618.
By the time H8 inherited his fathers kingdom, England was no longer the poor man of Europe, but wealthy, so wealthy that there was a middle class who could dress and live as elegantly as nobility.
Thus enters the tale. Commoners were walking around dressed in fine silks, furs, ruffled collars, and living like nobles.
The nobility was alarmed and H8 issued a Sumptuary Law, that forbid commoners from wearing silks, furs, fine linen and dressing like nobility.
There is no sense in being of the upper class, the nobility, the 1% unless you can flaunt it,like a male peacock.
What it all boils down to is class struggle, and except for those living on sidewalks and under bridges. The average person in America and the west, lives better, is more comfortable, lives longer and is safer, than H7, H8 or the nobility of the time.
I have an inkling to include the homeless if they live in a tent and especially if they have a cell phone.
The elites who have been supported by both parties want hungry workers who will work for the lowest possible wage and require the least support in terms of schools and infrastructure and services. It was Bill Clinton with his welfare cuts that put an additional 1 million children into poverty. It was Clinton that doubled the prison population in the USA. It was Bill Clinton that pushed for NAFTA that made it easy for companies to move manufacturing jobs out of the country. It was Bill Clinton that deregulated the banks and commodity exchanges that led to the 2007 financial crisis and Larry Summers increasing the federal debt to bail out the banks under Obama to the tune of $7 trillion.
Sorry for the length of this, BUT there are many, MANY reasons why privatizing Social Security will never work, and we all need to be aware of them and able to talk about them...
There are numerous reasons why privatizing Social Security is doomed to catastrophic failure.
Keep in mind, we’re a nation with nearly 340 Million people, all of whom must be served (or offered service) from the system. Here my high level and abbreviated observations, and some calculations that for me is more than enough to confirm that privatized retirement systems of any kind will Never work. Any of these points can be more deeply looked into and expanded upon, but there’s not enough time in my day to lay out all the details.
A.. There is not enough wealth in America to privative it…
There is far too little wealth in:
Stock Market valuation ($50T market cap valuation - it’s not Real Money!)
Bonds ($45T)
Savings (< $1T)
because...
B.. Take a closer look at the largest of those investment pools - stock market wealth (capitalization or value), with the top 10% of Americans owning 92% of stock market wealth.
That leaves just $4 Trillion to be divided amongst 300 Million people. Without allocating it by demographics for all of us, this simplified picture here is grim. That leaves just $13,333 Total - Per Individual, whereas each retiree gets on average $20,000 EACH year now in Social Security benefits. If that $4T doubles to $8T, that's only $26,666 total. Remember that years from now retirees will need much more.
(See Robert Reich’s video reels on wealth inequality, and the Federal Reserve source data, this link shows a bit more owned by the bottom 90% - the 300 million of us, https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/#quarter:134;series:Corporate%20equities%20and%20mutual%20fund%20shares;demographic:networth;population:1,3,5,7,9;units:levels;range:2008.1,2023.2 )
C.. Forcing the input of $ trillions into and out of stocks, bonds and savings will put massive and new pressures on capital markets, causing wild swings of prices and valuations, causing enormous volatility - and surges and crashes that we’ve not seen before. All surges and crashes will impact retirement portfolios, be they managed by individuals or big banks.
D.. Each retiree needs nearly $500K in a personal drawdown annuity to earn $20K-$30K/yr in retirement, which eventually goes to $0 and leaves them broke. America's savings and investments are nowhere near sufficient to grow into even this size nest egg.
E.. Wages are not high enough for individuals to each save a nest egg of $500K.
To save 10% of your income over 30 years to build $500,000, you’ll need to be earning over $100,000 Per Year for 30 years. And while needing to earn annual interest that can never go below 3.4%. We are nowhere near doing that! Again, wages are nowhere near what’s required for all of us to do that.
F.. Saving 10% of workers’ salaries EACH year by putting it into stocks, bonds and bank CDs takes a huge amount of money OUT of the consumer and industrial economies, reducing economic growth, harming companies and workers. This money will be sequestered into only investment instruments for 25-45 years! The harm to the economy has not been studied. In the current system, the 6.2% from payroll taxes and 6.2% from employer contributions is effectively being funneled right back into the economy, providing for growth and stimulation.
G.. Wall Street will take a cut off the top of Each and Every dollar you have already earned for their profit and executive pay. There is no reason on earth for retirees to be forced to pay a percentage of their hard earned wages to banks and Wall Street.
H.. When Wall Street and Banks FAILS, as they always do, the Federal government will be forced to bail them out. Get ready for the Mother of All Bank and Wall Street Bailouts.
It will be bigger than anything America has ever seen.
I.. Stocks and bonds go down in value. When Wall Street loses your retirement, the Federal Government will need to do a massive multi-trillion dollar bailout of WS. And like the Wall Street and Big Bank Bailout of the Great Recession, they will take that money to pay their executives first.
For this we will need to get used to Wall Street becoming a retirement savings incinerator.
J.. The Employer Contribution will vanish immediately. Bye bye!
K.. in a privatized personal retirement system,it is ridiculous to require every individual to become a stock market analyst and broker, in direct competition with Wall Street. Why should Every Worker need to compete against Wall Street insiders, analysts and brokers? You’ll never have the inside information and immediate access to company performance data vs. Wall Street. Workers will be left holding the bag after Wall Street has already cashed in on stock market increases. You’ll never be on top of all the daily and hourly announcements that drive stock prices up and down - you’ll be at your day job!
L.. We already had privatized retirement accounts and systems for the first 150+ years in America. It was a catastrophic failure. Banks and corporations were never able to fund our citizens retirement, nor were individual citizens. Epic. Catastrophic. Failure. - Always.
Learn from the past. Social Security works spectacularly well, whereas private systems failed to work for all of us.
M.. A $500,000 nest egg will not be enough for retirees 30, 20, or even 10 years from now, as inflation will have eaten away the money you’ve been forced to give to the Big Banks. They will pay themselves profits long before they give you a Cost Of Living Increase.
N.. Federal Social Security has the ability to protect seniors when the cost of living goes up. SS can raise payments and revenues by an act of Congress. Private accounts and private systems have no such protection ability. Under privatization, as the cost of living increases, there are no cost of living increases of any kind. It’s problematic to allow or require private banks to measure inflation and pay for COLAs. Today, banks and bond issuers do not give inflation adjustments after you’ve bought a regular CD at a fixed rate. Banks and Wall Street will pay themselves first, like they do with Medicare Advantage.
O.. Having millions of workers buy FDIC insured CDs opens up massive risk to the Federal government if banks default. Workers will also demand the FDIC cover up to 1 million, whereas it’s just $250,000 now.
P.. Where is the demand for bank loans to come from when banks become bloated with millions of workers’ trillions in investment savings CDs? This would push interest rates lower, requiring workers to put in even more savings to make up for losses in interest paid to them.
Q.. It is a VERY bad idea to place everyone’s retirement security in the hands of the same brokerages and banks who gave us the Great Depression and Great Recession. Peoples’ retirement savings and investments were wiped out. The same people as taxpayers were then stuck with the bill as the Federal government had to spend $ trillions to bail out the offending banks and brokerages. Whereas the Social Security system is guaranteed by the Federal government.
There is Nothing guaranteed or secure about stocks and bonds.
Plus, corporate failures and interest rate declines will wipe out peoples’ investments.
R.. As Thom recently reminded us of the FDR and Truman era mantra, “Don’t Be A Sucker.”
Privatizers like Romney and Pence get air time to float their simple notion (shabby sales pitch) of “allowing an individual to X dollars that will grow into their retirement nestegg.”
Many people have heard how, “You can save $2000 per month tax deferred at 7.5% for 20 years and you’ll be a millionaire!”
Wow, That’s Exciting! But it’s for suckers. Most people can’t save that monthly amount, The 7.5% rate for 30 years won’t happen in any safe and secure investment, like Federally insured instruments. It MAY have happened for some period of time for those who made great stock market investments. But for reasons noted above, it won’t work as any kind of privatized retirement system. If everybody actually did this, we're needing to pump in and grow over time $300 Trillion in valuation.
The 25 wealthiest men in Germany made a deal with Hitler and the Nazi party leaders to support the party financially (as it was bankrupt) in return for Hitler banning workers unions. Their businesses took a portion of each worker's paycheck and gifted it to a slush fund controlled by the Nazi party leaders. Hitler rose to power with the support of these men and these men profited enormously while the Nazi were in power and were allowed to retain that wealth by the American administrators after the war.
The elites prefer is not desire a fascist state that makes democracy impossible at any level. It maximizes their profits and protects their wealth. The mistake Americans make is thinking that it is Republicans versus Democrats when it is actually the elites against everyone else.
"It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people." - Gore Vidal
Outstanding commentary Bruce, but I think you mangled the first sentence in the second paragraph, I've done the same, and have had to back and correct with an edit.
What I think you meant is that "The elites prefer a fascist state, that makes democracy impossible at any level.
Thom has said as much, many times. Mussolini adopted the term fascism, he didn't invent a poet he admired did, and the Fascist state was run by a Chamber of Deputies, all of whom were representatives of a corporation.
With that I have to mention that Lenin called the USSR a corporate state, or state capitalism., and indeed it was, for it was a combine of seven trusts organized along resource lines, eath trust had their own bank, and cleared accounts with barter first, then gold via the GoSBank.
Sweden was the safe deposit box, which guaranteed their neutrality, until the USSR dissolved in 1989 and was reorganized as a Plutocracy.
The elites never seem to grasp the concept that if the poor have no money, they will be a burden on society. It looks like Putin is getting rid of all of his useless eaters and are sending them off to war, and only keeping the contributors. The dictators are betting that they can sustain a society that way, especially by making abortion and birth control illegal.
People who are trying to survive a day at a time with jobs like "door dashing" have no idea what is going on in Congress. I try, but I miss a lot. Our daily newspaper never even mentioned the State of the Union Address. I find out what's happening from some substacks like this one and some podcasts. It feels like the oligarchs are going to do what they're going to do no matter what the people want. We are on our way back to the middle ages.
I beg to disagree Gloria. I worked sometimes over 70 hours a week and still kept up on current events. I've always been fascinated by the world outside myself since a very young child. I don't think that the children are being raised properly and they are not interested or desire to think rationally.
The Internet keeps me updated on current events. I'm talking about what is coming up for votes at the state and local level as well as the federal government. It used to be in the daily paper when a bill was coming up for a vote and when it's time to pick up petitions to run for office. Now we find out incidentally after the fact.it would be a full time job to keep track. There should be reporters doing that for busy citizens and it should be in one place.
Thank you! Every time I read you I dive deeper into catatonic state. Gonna open a bottle of prosecco. Maybe the bubbles will lift me in a higher mood. Mama miiiiiaaa
I cannot share these articles to my facebook! Used to be easy, now nothing goes through. Any help?
Ever since Zuck had his secret meetings with Trump, it’s been rough for progressives on Facebook…
Same old, same old GOP BS year in and out. connive to steal the money we spent our lives paying into Social Security, by any of several shady means, and when the President calls them on it in public (SOTU), they're all shocked monkeys, full-fisted, locked in the cookie jar, "Not me, did not, nuhn-uhh".