Michael Ramirez Could Not Have Been More Accurate.
The Administrations' failures in the past as well as the current ilk that pace those hollowed halls of Congress and Pennsylvania Ave. need to have the living &$%# beat out of 'em, and we all know why.
The off the books accounting of American's Money must cease immediately.
As dismal as it may seem to those in power, we Americans can handle the truth unlike what Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Col. Nathan Jessup in the movie 'A Few Good Men'. We can't fix the problem if we don't know it's broken, and it's not just broken,
We are.
The President tells us to not buy a new boat and remember to pay the mortgage. You should smell what you are shoveling Mr. President.
Here are a few facts that should scare the excrement out of every American.
By 2030 there will be 57.8 million Baby Boomers between the ages of 66-84 (US Census) Think that's far off? do you remember 1990? We're there.
57.8 million will expect their monthly check of, conservatively, $1876 (2008 Dollars) simple math tells me that this will cost us $1.3 TRILLION a Year, Not to mention another global financial melt down. Don't think so? What will happen to the stock market when most of those in that demographic start to take their REQUIRED withdrawals our of their 401k's and IRA's? Again lets speculate that half of that number takes out $2000 a month for a whopping total of $3876 a month. That's another $7-800 BILLION a year coming out of the Market. I hope your home and cars are paid for.
The sad part about this all is that this could have been avoided. Both Sides of the aisle are to blame and it's now up to us to fix this debacle.
For those that are young enough to opt out of the system and self fund their own retirement, we allow them to use the monies that would be normally be sent to Washington, D.C. and invest it on their own. Crazy? no crazier than leaving it to the politicos in D.C. to manage, They have shown us what great stewards of our retirement money they are. Remember, doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of stupidity, or it should be. Some will say "Wall St. is no better!" No? Well we can debate that another time but at least I can control that part of the equation with a Donald Trump inspired 'Your Fired!"
The primary litmus test that I am using is simple, It's called "Reality"
When Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman derides the so called crisis saying that the problem is modest within the framework of the GDP. (requiring additional revenues of only .54% of that figure) Well Dr. Krugman Macroeconomic factors are wonderful to tote, but the reality is if our GDP is (2008 Dollars) 14 trillion than that .54% equals $2478 for every Man, Woman and Child, in the U.S. All 305 Million of us. So a family of fours' taxes goes up about $826 a month. So much for eating. But Hey, it's only 1/2% of GDP. Considering the Ave. family only makes about (US Census) $46K a year, lets just take 20+% more from you because we were too stupid to plan.
The other reality test is all of this is predicated on one fact; there will be people still paying into this ponzi scheme. Dr. Krugman makes a huge assumption that in order to make this work current workers must continue to pay so that others can receive. What if we choose to no longer participate in this money pit? If someone did this out in the Market Place they would be....oh,wait.
This is not true financial security.
I suggest that we look at several options that the American People can choose from;
1. Stay in Social Security and nothing changes
2. Give American's the option to use their retirement funds as they see fit. i.e. some in the Social Security or cash, gold, stock, real estate etc.
3. Everything to the taxpayer.
We need to ensure that those who bought into this and have planned to have these funds available in their retirement, have them, but we can't continue down this path. We need options. After all....it is your money, shouldn't you have a real say in where it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment