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By Brooks A. Mick, M.D.
Dec. 28, 2006 I applied for SoshSec today and was--Oh frabjous day!--allowed to begin collecting some of the money I sunk into that Ponzi scheme over many years. It reminded me somewhat of the day I came out of my military hiatus and signed up again for the Reserve Component. By then I was old enough that it appeared I would reach mandatory retirement age before ever being able to collect retirement pay. I explained to the friendly young female recruiter that I wasn't joining in order to collect retirement pay and didn't plan on being in long enough to do so. I was joining to contribute what knowledge I had gained in my Vietnam experience to young troops just joining. It had struck me that there were nearly two generations of young soldiers with no significant combat experience and that the world was clearly becoming a dangerous place again and that some experience in the ranks might be useful. I fooled myself, however, and fooled the military and stayed in 19 more years, after being granted extensions and exemptions, and thus did qualify for military retirement pay and medical benefits. And with Social Security, it is always a gamble whether one will live long enough to collect the money. As pointed out by many actuarial analysts, black men frequently die before reaching retirement age and thus most of their SoshSec contributions go toward supporting elderly white women, a demographic group that lives much longer. But here I am, 65 years old, and able to begin getting "my check" in February. I just checked with one of the web sites that calculates probable life span after inputting data related to present health and habits. The calculator said I could well live to age 102. That's 37 more years on the dole! Assuming, of course, that all my work and money contributed over the years goes for naught when the Democrats get their hands on the system and begin extending retirement age, instituting means testing, and tweaking other parameters which will make it likely that people who didn't earn and contribute will get their hands on the money I forked over. And assuming that they do not simply raise taxes and otherwise damage the economy so much that all collapses. Given our global economy now, such a collapse might make The Great Depression look mild. One of the many softballs President Bush served up to the Republican congress of the past few years was privatizing part of Social Security. That would have removed the social engineering function from the fed's grubby hands, and it would have made most, if not all, retirees rather wealthy on retirement, no longer dependent upon the government dole. It would have increased the savings rate that some in congress gripe about continually. It would have removed the political club of SoshSec from the hands of Democrats who unmercifully belabor Republicans about the head with it before every election. But the Republicans, wimps and wienies and totally oblivious to the monstrous home run they would be knocking out of the park and across the street into a WalMart parking lot, stood there like wooden dummies and took three called strikes. They never even swung at it. Another softball Bush tossed was the "make the tax cuts permanent" pitch. The Republicans again refused to swing. The Democrats now have to do absolutely NOTHING to raise taxes. They just have to refuse to extend the tax cuts. Thus the economy will likely take another hit. Bush threw a real curve ball, however, in the Medicare drug bill pitch, and unfortunately congress did take a swing at that one and hit a little bloop single. Unfortunately, that runner will be stranded on base when all the costs come due. It was a bill which made no one really happy. It was too complicated for many to understand. It will be another huge drain on the government coffers. But it's the end of the 8th inning and the other team, the Democrats, is coming to bat. I am not looking forward to it. That's one reason I have decided to take my SoshSec and military retirement when I did. They are less likely to begin taking away money from people already receiving it. We'll see how the game ends up. Back to my Social Security, I showed up exactly on time and sat around for about a half hour while absolutely nobody else was there and the employees stapled papers together endlessly. While sitting in the waiting room, I read a sign on the wall that went something like this: WARNING! It is a federal offense to murder, kidnap, threaten, or intimidate a federal employee in the performance of their duties. I am glad that sign was there--otherwise I would have thought it perfectly OK to murder, kidnap, etc. Another thing I learned today was that the federal employees of the SoshSec office have no sense of humor. A lady finally came to the door, called my last name, and I followed her back to a cubicle with a computer terminal, and sat down. She introduced herself and said "I'm here to help you." I replied, "That's strange, because nobody else has been very helpful all day." No laugh. Puzzled look. Went on reading her questions from a little card. "Have you any felony warrants outstanding?" I resisted the urge to claim that all my felony warrants had been graded outstanding, and decided to just be totally serious and get it over with. Unfortunately, I had mailed them my birth certificate and other papers they claimed necessitated originals--and they had no record they had ever received those papers. Luckily, I had anticipated such an eventuality and had with me other original proof of birth, military service, etc. Faked the government out again! Collect the money and run before it is too late. SoshSec, by the way, will be paying a measly return of around 1%, if any, for new enrolees. That is not even the rate of inflation. You will be receiving back LESS MONEY THAN YOU PAID IN! I suspect that also applies to most of us except white women. Those who rail against privatization should note that, if the money were put in federal bonds, even safer than Social Security (the bonds promise to pay you--SoshSec has NO LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PAY YOU ANYTHING!), you would earn around 4% and thus get a return many times greater due to the magic of compound interest. Carriage House Investments and the Cato Institute calculate that a low income worker would more than double his SoshSec yearly payout. A middle income worker would collect nearly 3 times as much--help the middle class!--and a higher income worker would collect more than four times as much. EVERYBODY would benefit from privatization. But the Republicans stood there like the proverbial wooden Indian and let the softball pitch go by rather than hit that homer. Wouldn't everybody vote for the party that more than doubled your retirement income? How much of a no-brainer was that one? The answer, clearly, is that Republicans had no brains, other than President Bush, who served up the softball. Now the worry is that Bush will cave and go along with more hair-of-the-dog-that-is-gnawing-us and sign a SoshSec tax increase. That would be a tragedy. Enough baseball analogies. Sorry. Wait till next year! ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: Physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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