The crux of our disagreement, John, is that I think systems are to blame and you think people are to blame. If everyone was as good as you, as hardworking, smart, prudent, they would be successful. Unlike you, other people are greedy. You were able to succeed in this system and that proves that the system works, except where it's not fair to you like Social Security.
There are many facts I can point to but if they don't support your premise, you won't accept them no matter what references I cite. As I've said, I have only one dogma which is that I'm no better than anyone else. I think we're in basic disagreement because you do believe you're better than other people. And anything I say in defense of other people is only going to be interpreted as me trying to make myself better than you. I don't know where to go from there.
Are we in disagreement? It seems we both agree the systems need to be fixed. Of course, it's humans that created the systems and maintain the systems to maintain their power so yes, I do blame them.
Have I succeeded in this system? I don't think so. I've survived it. Well so far anyway. It's still unclear if I will be able to retire above a poverty level.
"There are many facts I can point to" - on this we may be in disagreement. For a long time I've tried to promote the understanding that there are very few "facts". What we call "fact" is almost always only evidence and different viewpoints.
My opinion is that all people have equal rights, but they certainly are not identical and thus not "equal". We all have our strengths and weaknesses. One of my weaknesses was to let the system take advantage of me. It's been a long hard life to learn these lessons to reduce the advantages the wealthy have over me.
Sigh. Yes we agree that the system needs to be fixed and I've spent a decade researching how it actually works, thinking through alternatives and writing a book about it. You have some opinions on the topic but, being a man, those override my decade of research.
There are definitely behaviors that are better and worse than others, although I reserve the word evil for the actions that cause others to commit crimes against humanity and torture. To say that people find pleasure in that is something you really can't know without being inside that person's head. Those who are most removed from the action set up the systems driving young people with no options (like those where I am now, close to West Virginia) to become Guantanamo guards who do stupid things. But the real torture and justification of torture comes from well-respected experts who rake in billions and are the same owners of the money system whether backed by gold or our housing.
Torture is required for keeping our system going because the enslaved and colonized are going to rebel, and torture is the main tool to keep them in line. In fact, I'd say our money is backed by torture, since it's backed by slave labor as I show in my book.
Are those who participate in a system that requires torture better people than those compelled by circumstance to sell their own souls and inflict the torture? I'd guess that we have more choices the further removed we are from doing something abhorrent directly. We are either all guilty or we're all innocent. I entertain the latter.
Something to keep in mind is that we are different people at different points in our lives. I've always enjoyed helping others, but I'm certainly not the same person I was in my twenties.
I've observed many personalities over the decades and some people definitely don't seem like good people, however I've always felt that in *their* minds they do not roll out of their beds each morning thinking "what harm can I do". Most of them I believe are deluded and cause most harm in the name of "good".
If there is a hell, it would seem that Flip Flop Fauci deserves an express trip there! The seat next to him should perhaps be reserved for Belligerent Biden. Certainly there is no shortage of people that should join them. One thing that offends me are those who set up trusts and foundations with the appearance of being "charities" but actually are clever ways to further enrich themselves and enslave the rest of the people. The "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" comes to mind.
In my episode on reinventing retirement (https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/reinventing-retirement) I quote from an excellent 700 pp tome called The People's Pension, which I reference in my book. There are two different things that help in retirement, one is a pension that gives a steady income, and the other is some form of savings to supplement and handle emergencies. You really need both.
John's right that SS isn't savings, it's a pension. You get it when you're alive and it never runs out but there's nothing left for your kids to inherit. Savings are the opposite, a gamble, but a pension means you can't outlive it.
I think you'd like my retirement article, Heather, it has some good history of the plan and it also talks about the SS Trust Fund, which is just under $3T, at least on paper. To give them credit (no pun intended), it's a tricky thing to have that much money held in trust. You can't take it out of circulation without crashing the economy, and you can't invest it in anything risky. As the interest rate has neared zero there are few ways to invest it and get any return. So as the old investments term out, there's nowhere new to put it.
Like everything, though, there are more nefarious things at play. Disability was never supposed to be merged with it--would you want disability coming out of your pension plan? SS is entirely predictable, disability is an insurance. And because it's a fund that isn't reported to Congress in the budget, Presidents since Reagan have used it as a slush fund. As Bush the Shrub said, "There is no Trust."
That's why I think SS is the most bipartisan issue that could enable us to take back the mortgages backing a decentralized sovereign credit. You're not alone in being outraged if it disappears. I'm certainly with you and so are people on both sides of the aisle. And with mortgages backing the Trust Fund, it would be solvent with a 7% return forever, but it would be getting an actual 30-50% return if fully utilized. That funds the rest of my system. Thanks for asking.
No doubt others are more qualified to write about the details of the Social Security system and it probably deserves an article or two!
I'll touch on a few things quickly. Yes, I think many people think SS is a "savings plan" but it definitely isn't. We don't get back the money we paid in. There are a number of reasons for this. One factor is that SS is adjusted for cost of living so that introduces some unpredictability into the system. A major factor is that nobody knows how long someone will live and thus can't fund an accurate estimate of how much they will be guaranteed for the rest of your life. Would you really want a system that when you turned 103 said "Well, sorry you have used up your savings, no more money for you."
Keep in mind that I believe those statements you receive are estimates based on the assumption that you will continue paying in at the rate you currently are until you actually reach retirement age.
Of course many others receive Social Security very early in life for "disability" and that's hard to predict how many will get that. This is one reason I believe in a "universal income": to take any judgement out of whether or not someone is eligible for benefits.
I wish I had the actual data to know how much I've paid into SS so I could compare it to how much I expect to receive. Of course if I die tomorrow I won't get anything. But if I live to 125 then maybe I'll get back more than I paid in? So you can see just with life expectancy alone it's a little bit of a guessing game.
An example that is given is Ida Fuller, the first person to receive SS benefits. Fuller paid in $24.75 in three years working when the social security program started, and received a total of $22,889 in benefits before passing at age 100. Thus she received $925 in benefits for every dollar she paid into the program.
The money doesn't "go" anywhere. The SS taxes are collected from all of us as we work and they are immediately paid out to those receiving SS. Any "extra" goes into a trust fund (that was great back in the 1950s when the USA was booming), but currently there isn't any extra and there is in fact a loss of 3.61% currently and thus the trust funds are expected to run out in 2034 unless there is *another* change made.
The crux of our disagreement, John, is that I think systems are to blame and you think people are to blame. If everyone was as good as you, as hardworking, smart, prudent, they would be successful. Unlike you, other people are greedy. You were able to succeed in this system and that proves that the system works, except where it's not fair to you like Social Security.
There are many facts I can point to but if they don't support your premise, you won't accept them no matter what references I cite. As I've said, I have only one dogma which is that I'm no better than anyone else. I think we're in basic disagreement because you do believe you're better than other people. And anything I say in defense of other people is only going to be interpreted as me trying to make myself better than you. I don't know where to go from there.
Are we in disagreement? It seems we both agree the systems need to be fixed. Of course, it's humans that created the systems and maintain the systems to maintain their power so yes, I do blame them.
Have I succeeded in this system? I don't think so. I've survived it. Well so far anyway. It's still unclear if I will be able to retire above a poverty level.
"There are many facts I can point to" - on this we may be in disagreement. For a long time I've tried to promote the understanding that there are very few "facts". What we call "fact" is almost always only evidence and different viewpoints.
My opinion is that all people have equal rights, but they certainly are not identical and thus not "equal". We all have our strengths and weaknesses. One of my weaknesses was to let the system take advantage of me. It's been a long hard life to learn these lessons to reduce the advantages the wealthy have over me.
Sigh. Yes we agree that the system needs to be fixed and I've spent a decade researching how it actually works, thinking through alternatives and writing a book about it. You have some opinions on the topic but, being a man, those override my decade of research.
I wouldn't generalize if it didn't match my general experience with men, as I mention in this article: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/mansplaining-economics.
There are definitely behaviors that are better and worse than others, although I reserve the word evil for the actions that cause others to commit crimes against humanity and torture. To say that people find pleasure in that is something you really can't know without being inside that person's head. Those who are most removed from the action set up the systems driving young people with no options (like those where I am now, close to West Virginia) to become Guantanamo guards who do stupid things. But the real torture and justification of torture comes from well-respected experts who rake in billions and are the same owners of the money system whether backed by gold or our housing.
Torture is required for keeping our system going because the enslaved and colonized are going to rebel, and torture is the main tool to keep them in line. In fact, I'd say our money is backed by torture, since it's backed by slave labor as I show in my book.
Are those who participate in a system that requires torture better people than those compelled by circumstance to sell their own souls and inflict the torture? I'd guess that we have more choices the further removed we are from doing something abhorrent directly. We are either all guilty or we're all innocent. I entertain the latter.
Something to keep in mind is that we are different people at different points in our lives. I've always enjoyed helping others, but I'm certainly not the same person I was in my twenties.
I've observed many personalities over the decades and some people definitely don't seem like good people, however I've always felt that in *their* minds they do not roll out of their beds each morning thinking "what harm can I do". Most of them I believe are deluded and cause most harm in the name of "good".
If there is a hell, it would seem that Flip Flop Fauci deserves an express trip there! The seat next to him should perhaps be reserved for Belligerent Biden. Certainly there is no shortage of people that should join them. One thing that offends me are those who set up trusts and foundations with the appearance of being "charities" but actually are clever ways to further enrich themselves and enslave the rest of the people. The "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" comes to mind.
In my episode on reinventing retirement (https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/reinventing-retirement) I quote from an excellent 700 pp tome called The People's Pension, which I reference in my book. There are two different things that help in retirement, one is a pension that gives a steady income, and the other is some form of savings to supplement and handle emergencies. You really need both.
John's right that SS isn't savings, it's a pension. You get it when you're alive and it never runs out but there's nothing left for your kids to inherit. Savings are the opposite, a gamble, but a pension means you can't outlive it.
I think you'd like my retirement article, Heather, it has some good history of the plan and it also talks about the SS Trust Fund, which is just under $3T, at least on paper. To give them credit (no pun intended), it's a tricky thing to have that much money held in trust. You can't take it out of circulation without crashing the economy, and you can't invest it in anything risky. As the interest rate has neared zero there are few ways to invest it and get any return. So as the old investments term out, there's nowhere new to put it.
Like everything, though, there are more nefarious things at play. Disability was never supposed to be merged with it--would you want disability coming out of your pension plan? SS is entirely predictable, disability is an insurance. And because it's a fund that isn't reported to Congress in the budget, Presidents since Reagan have used it as a slush fund. As Bush the Shrub said, "There is no Trust."
That's why I think SS is the most bipartisan issue that could enable us to take back the mortgages backing a decentralized sovereign credit. You're not alone in being outraged if it disappears. I'm certainly with you and so are people on both sides of the aisle. And with mortgages backing the Trust Fund, it would be solvent with a 7% return forever, but it would be getting an actual 30-50% return if fully utilized. That funds the rest of my system. Thanks for asking.
No doubt others are more qualified to write about the details of the Social Security system and it probably deserves an article or two!
I'll touch on a few things quickly. Yes, I think many people think SS is a "savings plan" but it definitely isn't. We don't get back the money we paid in. There are a number of reasons for this. One factor is that SS is adjusted for cost of living so that introduces some unpredictability into the system. A major factor is that nobody knows how long someone will live and thus can't fund an accurate estimate of how much they will be guaranteed for the rest of your life. Would you really want a system that when you turned 103 said "Well, sorry you have used up your savings, no more money for you."
Keep in mind that I believe those statements you receive are estimates based on the assumption that you will continue paying in at the rate you currently are until you actually reach retirement age.
Of course many others receive Social Security very early in life for "disability" and that's hard to predict how many will get that. This is one reason I believe in a "universal income": to take any judgement out of whether or not someone is eligible for benefits.
I wish I had the actual data to know how much I've paid into SS so I could compare it to how much I expect to receive. Of course if I die tomorrow I won't get anything. But if I live to 125 then maybe I'll get back more than I paid in? So you can see just with life expectancy alone it's a little bit of a guessing game.
An example that is given is Ida Fuller, the first person to receive SS benefits. Fuller paid in $24.75 in three years working when the social security program started, and received a total of $22,889 in benefits before passing at age 100. Thus she received $925 in benefits for every dollar she paid into the program.
The money doesn't "go" anywhere. The SS taxes are collected from all of us as we work and they are immediately paid out to those receiving SS. Any "extra" goes into a trust fund (that was great back in the 1950s when the USA was booming), but currently there isn't any extra and there is in fact a loss of 3.61% currently and thus the trust funds are expected to run out in 2034 unless there is *another* change made.