Social Security

SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth the read. It's short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security and of course, they do not collect from it.

Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. Many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressman or congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this. When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die, except it
may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand) with their wives drawing $275,000.00
during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00. Nada.Zilch. This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds-our tax dollars at work! From our own Social Security Plan which you and I pay or have paid into every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)--we can expect to get an average $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (l) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. And that change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us and then watch how fast they would fix it.

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve. How many people can YOU send this to? Or will you just read this and ignore your rights, saying what good would it do? That's what most people will do.



James Langston
langston@xtalwind.net
www.xtalwind.net/~langston Designed Illusions
www.geocities.com/la1ng2sj334423 Designed Illusions 2

A man robs me at gunpoint, pockets part of the money and gives the rest to some third party. He tells me not to fret because, in a few years, he'll rob someone else and give part of the money to me. Any sane society would label him a psychopathic criminal and put him behind bars. Ours calls him the Social Security Administration and worries that he's not stealing enough to keep his promises.

This is why I prefer the IRS. At least when they take my money they don't offer platitudes about how I'm investing in my future. They just say pay up or else. I'll take the honest theif anytime.

Consider these concepts:

The current senior citizen generation is the very FIRST generation of people in the entire history of the world to retire!!!!! In every other society in the history of the world, people were expected to do some sort of work until they died.

When social security was established and the age of beginning to receive benefits was set at 65, the average life expectancy was right at about 67 years old. People were expected to die after about 18 mos. of collecting benefits.

In 1966, when Medicare was established, the absolute limit that a person could be required to pay in taxation was $10 per month, regardless of how much they made. I don't care how aggressive a growth account you put that much money into, you CANNOT live off of it in 40 years' time!

Social Security was NEVER supposed to be the sum total of income for seniors. It was established and advertized as a SUPPLIMENTAL safety net, and people were supposed to have saved on their own in addition to what the government was going to provide.

Baby Boomers are quickly approaching the age of retirement. When they do, because they out number Gen X'ers and because current seniors are living longer and longer, we are QUICKLY approaching the time when we will have close to TWO people collecting social security for every ONE person paying into the system. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that this situation cannot go unchanged for many more years.

Folks, I am almost 37 years old. I have been paying into the system for twenty years, now. Even so, there is NO WAY that system will be there for me. If you are still working, you better be making plans on your own FOR your own, because the governmental plan currently in force likely won't do squat for you!


Social Security

I'm 48 years old, and am completely disabled with FMS/CFS/MCS, not to mention Lupus AND Osteoarthritis in my neck, back, and hips. I have worked since I was 16, put myself through college while working 60 hour weeks, spent 26 years as a Chemical Engineer working my a$$ off for companies like Morton-Thiokol, Honeywell, Western Digital and Canon. I once earned a six figure income, and live in the SF Bay Area where the average cost of a 1,200 sq.ft, 3/brm 2/ba house is around $480,000.00... around a half a million bucks!

Feel sorry for me yet?

Well, after exhausting my State Disability (which I also paid into), my own personal savings, 2 appeals with the Feds to collect MY own money paid in to Social Security, and 5 years of bureaucracy, I am now able to collect $1280/mo in benefits. My attorney that helped me get my own money only charged me 40%, thank goodness! This money is gross pay and does NOT include what they take out for Medicare, or income tax (Fed and State). That leaves around $750.00/mo. to live on.

Now, depending where you live that could be a lot of money, but when you figure an average monthly car payment is around $300-$400, an average mortgage here is about $3,500/mo, gas costs $1.70 per gallon and the average commute is over 45 miles (one way), our utility bills in California run between $150-$400/mo. God forbid you have any credit card debt! Then of course there's groceries, auto and health insurance, etc, etc.....

So, I guess I should be happy I'm at least getting my $750.00 per month now, because it won't last long!

My advise? Well.......

1.) Never become permanently disabled or reach the age of 68
2.) Work 2 full-time jobs now, and save the second income in a coffee can buried in a place that won't eventually get paved
3.) Live in a small travel-trailer behind someone elses house now, so it will be paid off by the time you reach 65
4.) If you get sick, just bite-the-bullet
5.) Let your kids pay their own damn way through college
6.) Think about ways to push around a shopping cart everywhere you go

OR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Learn to hate ALL Americans and move to a third-world country that the USA pays billions and billions of dollars to!