Should the Social Security and Medicare Age be Raised

[Blues Man]

Why would I want to?
If I want to invest in treasuries I can do so from treasurydirect.gov for little as $100.

Treasury Bills — TreasuryDirect

www.treasurydirect.gov

The treasury bills bought by Social Security are the same as those bought by the public with one exception they can not be sold on the open market thus they are call Special Issue Treasury Bills. They carry the same guarantee of payment as the one you might buy and carry almost the same interest rate although it calculated differently.

Few budgetary concepts generate as much unintended confusion and deliberate misinformation as the Social Security trust funds which are required to invest in Special Issue Treasury Bills. This subject has been discussed over and over for many years. If you want to discuss the subject, I suggest you start a new topic. You will find plenty of people interested in it. I for one am not. I've been there many times.

You have no choice when it comes to the money the fucking government takes from you to fund the fake SS trust fund

And this is about Social Obscurity so the special class if T bills that the government made up to cover up the looting of the so called SS Trust fund are relevant to the discussion.

 

[Blues Man]

But to hear you talk you’re doing really well. How much do you NEED? Is enough ever enough?

I worked hard for that money only to watch the fucking government rape me with lost opportunity costs.

SS is a fucking scam designed to keep people poor.

As I said if a person made 35K a year with no raises for a 45 year working life and he put the 12.4% of his income that was taken by the fucking government in a balanced portfolio designed to get an average 8% ROR he'd retire with about 1.75 million dollars

But no all he'll get is a paltry monthly allowance and he won;t be able to leave any of that 12.4% of his lifetime income to his kids

The last thing the fucking government wants is for average people to have the chance to create wealth

 

[Blues Man]

Kinda what happened in Chile when they privatized

Once again Chile is a 3rd world backwater with politicians that are even more corrupt than ours and their regulatory agencies suck

Why do you insist on using such a piss poor example? You got nothing better?

 

[DBA]

Kinda what happened in Chile when they privatized

It is Democrats that would be hurt the most. The poor vote overwhemingly Democratic. They are poor for a reason and much of that has to do with lack of work ethic. If I could set aside my 6.2% SS contributions, I would have a lot more money in retirement than SS will provide(if any). Democrats want their government to support them cradle to grave. Adolescent fools, all of them.

 

[Blues Man]

It is Democrats that would be hurt the most. The poor vote overwhemingly Democratic. They are poor for a reason and much of that has to do with lack of work ethic. If I could set aside my 6.2% SS contributions, I would have a lot more money in retirement than SS will provide(if any). Democrats want their government to support them cradle to grave. Adolescent fools, all of them.

Don't forget the employer contribution

That's a total of 12.4% of your lifetime income

 

[Lesh]

Once again Chile is a 3rd world backwater with politicians that are even more corrupt than ours and their regulatory agencies suck

Why do you insist on using such a piss poor example? You got nothing better?

Because Chile actually TRIED what you want to do and it failed miserably

 

[DBA]

Because Chile actually TRIED what you want to do and it failed miserably

They required a 10% contribution to the private fund and fund managers took advantage of the pensioners with exorbitant fees and limited investment options.

That is quite a bit different than what would be proposed in the US. Financial management fees would need to be capped and the investment options should not be nearly as limited, though a certain percentage of "safe" investments may be required.

If you don't like the system, continue to contribute to standard SS as you do now, but give the option of contributing from 6%(current rate) up to 10% or so. Maybe even mix 3% to standard SS with an employer 3% match and 3% private investment. There are plenty of options that would be much better than what we currently have. Government is horribly inefficient if you haven't figured that out yet.

 

[Lisa558]

They required a 10% contribution to the private fund and fund managers took advantage of the pensioners with exorbitant fees and limited investment options.

That is quite a bit different than what would be proposed in the US. Financial management fees would need to be capped and the investment options should not be nearly as limited, though a certain percentage of "safe" investments may be required.

If you don't like the system, continue to contribute to standard SS as you do now, but give the option of contributing from 6%(current rate) up to 10% or so. Maybe even mix 3% to standard SS with an employer 3% match and 3% private investment. There are plenty of options that would be much better than what we currently have. Government is horribly inefficient if you haven't figured that out yet.

Sidebar: My brother had to call the IRS. He was on hold for - no exaggeration - four hours, as they transferred him from department…..to department…..to department. He finally got it straightened out, and last week, he got a letter from them. STILL not right! Maybe the government needs to stop the “work-from-home” nonsense and get some of these agents back to work, instead of threatening to hire 80,000 more.

 

[Lesh]

Sidebar: My brother had to call the IRS. He was on hold for - no exaggeration - four hours, as they transferred him from department…..to department…..to department. He finally got it straightened out, and last week, he got a letter from them. STILL not right! Maybe the government needs to stop the “work-from-home” nonsense and get some of these agents back to work, instead of threatening to hire 80,000 more.

MAYBE...we should stop defunding the IRS

Republicans have a history of underfunding programs and then whining when they don't work well

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Because controlling your retirement money gives Congress lots of power. And they've been able to convince the rubes that it's necessary.

It does now but that was not the intent. The intent was for retirees (the few who made it to that age) would not have to worry about income as much. There were more people back then who weren't educated enough to make retirement plans. As you stated now that most depend on that stipend being there when they retire, it gives government (Democrats) more power over us. That being said, not everybody will be smart enough to make those investments.

LOL - sure man. Cause they just don't let fools in government. That's not allowed. Never, ever happens.

Never said that wasn't the case, but a much more likely case would be individuals buying day trading stocks or something because it pays well not figuring that the gravy train will end up crashing and then crying to government they can't retire broke and we're right back to where we started. What I'm talking about here is the government doing the research to make sure people are not investing with a guy like Bernie Madoff. You would still choose the company out of several dozen to handle your money out of the group the government permits you to invest with. These would be companies that have been around a long time with a very successful record of safety and growth. It would be a bipartisan committee that has no personal investments with any of these companies.

 

[Lesh]

What I'm talking about here is the government doing the research to make sure people are not investing with a guy like Bernie Madoff.

Sadly that is exactly what would happen

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Sadly that is exactly what would happen

No, it could happen. But what we have now with government handling everything is a program that's going broke and nobody with the balls to fix it. Just keep kicking the can down the road until the program is totally bankrupt. Then it will be the problem of those in Congress to fix it which will be way too late. We should have been looking at the fix over 20 years ago.

Only a fool would expect the entity that created the problem to have a solution to it. As President Reagan famously said many years ago, government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.

 

[Blues Man]

Because Chile actually TRIED what you want to do and it failed miserably

There is absolutely no comparison between the US and Chile.

Have you ever been there?

I have.

 

[Blues Man]

Sadly that is exactly what would happen

Wrong again.

Anyone and I mean anyone can buy an indexed mutual fund without any involvement from any investment firms.

Anyone and I do mean anyone can do just a little research and have a solid understanding of asset allocation and long term investing.

You're making the mistake of thinking that everyone is as stupid as you are.

 

[Lesh]

Wrong again.

Anyone and I mean anyone can buy an indexed mutual fund without any involvement from any investment firms.

Anyone and I do mean anyone can do just a little research and have a solid understanding of asset allocation and long term investing.

You're making the mistake of thinking that everyone is as stupid as you are.

Dumping trillions into the market would turn the market into the Wild West and ya know who would get screwed?

Yea retirees

 

[Blues Man]

Dumping trillions into the market would turn the market into the Wild West and ya know who would get screwed?

Yea retirees

Nope.

There are very easy ways to conserve your capital and protect it from market volatility.

Like I said you just think everyone else is as stupid as you are

 

[Lesh]

There is absolutely no comparison between the US and Chile.

Have you ever been there?

I have.

Social Security Privatization is a disaster in Chile; Anti-union politicians and Wall St. still want it here - ILWU

The following article looks at Chile’s disastrous experiment with privatizing their once-public Social Security system.

www.ilwu.org

Cato Institute

Milton Freidman

This was an American idea that failed miserably...

 

[Lesh]

Nope.

There are very easy ways to conserve your capital and protect it from market volatility.

Like I said you just think everyone else is as stupid as you are

Regarding investing...most people are DUMBER than me and I'm no rocket surgeon

 

[Blues Man]

Social Security Privatization is a disaster in Chile; Anti-union politicians and Wall St. still want it here - ILWU

The following article looks at Chile’s disastrous experiment with privatizing their once-public Social Security system.

www.ilwu.org

Cato Institute

Milton Freidman

This was an American idea that failed miserably...

It's Chile.

Third world country, uber-corrupt government, shitty laws and regulations.

It's not the idea it's the IMPLEMEMTATION and laws of oversight

You do like to put your ignorance on display don't you?

 

[Blues Man]

Regarding investing...most people are DUMBER than me and I'm no rocket surgeon

Once again you illustrate that you're too stupid to realize the very little effort it takes to learn about the market and investing with a long term strategy.