Illinois - save the pensions!

[HalvOnHorseracing]

Originally Posted by newtothegame

Then please explain how all the funds that have been collected by SS will de dispersed properly back to those people.....
Seems the government is saying that SS wont be solvent but several more years....

Right now they predict SS goes belly up in 2033. I'm not eligible for SS, but I still hate to see people suffer in their later years.

[Tom]

SS not a pension, but a legal mandate.
Whole different thing.
We had no choice.

[Parkview_Pirate]

Originally Posted by Tom

SS not a pension, but a legal mandate.
Whole different thing.
We had no choice.

I won't argue with your statement, but personally I'd just call SS another tax.

However, we know it's marketed as a ploy to provide a safety net for elders, with the understanding that paying into the system provides one to become eligible for benefits at some point. Therefore, it does have a pension like "feel" to it, especially for those who do not have another pension or retirement funds to rely on. The seniors are viewed as a voting demographic that politicians fear, even more so than the tiresome "it's for the children" mantra we hear justifying other spending today. Because of course, kids can't vote. Yet.

Whether we're in a personal situation where we're having our pension "stolen" or reduced, our Social Security benefits cut, our property taxes going up, or our medical coverage and costs escalating out of control, very few of us will be able to weather the storm ahead without a significant change in expectations. If you have any sort of asset, from cash, a home, property, a business, retirement accounts, cryptos, precious metals, firearms, stocks, bonds, annuities, - well, you get the idea, there will be no shortage of forces (often behind the government) trying to separate you from your assets.

I remember an old episode of Sanford and Son, when Grady was getting a social security (or some of .gov check) that was way too high because a mistake had been made. Fred and Lamont are giving him hell, and telling him he's a thief, and Grady's response was classic.

"When I paid into Social Security, a dollar was worth a dollar. Now that a dollar is worth a quarter, why shouldn't I get four dollars for every one I put in?"

Indeed.

[Tom]

Sharp post!

[davew]

Originally Posted by mostpost

It may not be a right to have a pension, but if you have one you have the right to not have it stolen from you when you retire.

It is too bad when Al Gore invented the internet, he did not impose a 1 cent transaction fee to subsidize the loss in income to USPS. At least he went on to bigger and better and invented global warming. He has saved the world be declaring oil as the cause.

mostpost, do you have a current value on your pension and how many more months you will receive payments? I am curious just how much could be stolen from you.

[forced89]

Originally Posted by newtothegame

Then please explain how all the funds that have been collected by SS will dispersed properly back to those people....

The secret is to just live long enough. At one time I thought paying into SS was a waste but after having collected over $350,000 in benefits I look at it a little differently.

[NJ Stinks]

Originally Posted by Parkview_Pirate

However, we know it's marketed as a ploy to provide a safety net for elders, with the understanding that paying into the system provides one to become eligible for benefits at some point. Therefore, it does have a pension like "feel" to it, especially for those who do not have another pension or retirement funds to rely on.

From thefreedictionary.com:

ploy (plɔɪ)
n
1. a manoeuvre or tactic in a game, conversation, etc; stratagem; gambit
2. any business, job, hobby, etc, with which one is occupied: angling is his latest ploy.
3. chiefly Brit a frolic, escapade, or practical joke


How stupid does one have to to be to believe that Social Security benefits one receives in old age is not really a benefit at all but is some kind of ploy that needs to be marketed?

Everybody knows somebody who relies on their SS checks to get by. Period.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by Parkview_Pirate

... personally I'd just call SS another tax.

That's what SCOTUS called it in 1963.

[Tom]

Everybody knows somebody who relies on their SS checks to get by. Period.

Yes, and that is because it has been used as a ploy to create dependency.

I could have done FAR better investing that money myself over the years.

[LemonSoupKid]

Originally Posted by Parkview_Pirate

The reason I posted this thread is because the vast majority of us, regardless of their financial position, will be affected by the problem, because there is no workable solution. How it all plays out, and the particulars, is anyone's guess. My guess is that selling Chicago area residents' firearms in Texas would be of limited use, especially considering anyone who owns a firearm today may just want to hang on to it, if possible. I do appreciate your sense of humor and the accompanying irony though - you'll hear of many equally dubious and even more insane suggestions down the road.



It's not sustainable - thus a predicament, and not a problem.



Good question. Like many pensions, especially the public ones, funds have been "diverted" from SS to other spending. Some folks have gone to court over that, insisting it was their "account" and arguing about benefits - to no avail. I should have mentioned that more senior citizens will struggle as benefits decline, or inflation kicks in. There are many in dire straits already.



FWIW, I believe many pensions will be blowing up prior to that - the only question is whether Illinois can get a Federal bailout by being first to the trough. And I believe the answer is no.

My best guess is that by 2025 or so the financial system will be in full on collapse. Whether that means a deflationary spiral where the insane levels of debt are defaulted, or whether that means hyperinflation and gas is $50 per gallon and a loaf of bread is $25, I don't know. Venezuela and Greece will have nothing on us....

Did you lift that from me? Because I have made the same year prediction, plus or minus a little time.

Federal bailouts may occur, but they will be like 15% of what the promise (agreement) supposedly was. This has been done already in TX during a few defaults ...

I subsequently wonder what the best devices are to have your money in, in order to prepare. I'm already thinking about it.

[LemonSoupKid]

Originally Posted by forced89

The secret is to just live long enough. At one time I thought paying into SS was a waste but after having collected over $350,000 in benefits I look at it a little differently.

It helps when longevity was 60 years of age in 1935, retirement was 65, and that didn't change for 80+ years ... yet longevity now is low 80s for all comers, 79ish for men and 83 for women.

Yes, living long enough only really matters when you have a retarded gov't. And it's just for one or two generations; those benefit while everything else collapses.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by Tom

Yes, and that is because it has been used as a ploy to create dependency.

To what end?

Originally Posted by Tom

I could have done FAR better investing that money myself over the years.

Some people could have. Others could not. When you were a young man just starting out how could anyone tell which group you were in?

[Tom]

Some people could have. Others could not. When you were a young man just starting out how could anyone tell which group you were in?

They call that life. You make decisions and you get rewarded if you make the right ones. You eat soup the rest of your life if you make the wrong ones. Gives a little incentive to get off your ass and pull your weight.

Not having a choice ensures everyone will end up dependent, and that is the ploy that is SS. The goal of the democrats os to have everyone totally dependent on THEM for everything.

[Actor]

Originally Posted by Tom

They call that life. You make decisions and you get rewarded if you make the right ones. You eat soup the rest of your life if you make the wrong ones. Gives a little incentive to get off your ass and pull your weight.

Straw man.. You claim that you could have made more money if you had been allowed to invest it. As a young man, with no experience to back up the claim, how could you prove that?

Originally Posted by Tom

Not having a choice ensures everyone will end up dependent, and that is the ploy that is SS. The goal of the democrats os to have everyone totally dependent on THEM for everything.

Again, to what end?

[Tom]

Straw man.. You claim that you could have made more money if you had been allowed to invest it. As a young man, with no experience to back up the claim, how could you prove that?

By doing it.
By making my own choices.
Looking at what choice I did make, had I been able to add the SS money every paycheck, I would be enjoying a lobster-scrambled egg and champagne breakfast right now instead of this PopTart.

Do you comprehend the idea of making your own choices, of winning or losing on your own merit?

To what end?
Those dependent on you vote for you.
Look the Black community and the democrats - the war on poverty, which was really a war on poor people.