My Future Security

News stories recently stated the SSA trust fund will dry up by 2033.  This is 7 years before I become eligible for retirement benefits.  I could get lucky and become eligible for disability payments before the money is gone. 

Here is what I see as the SSA's problems.  You may or may not agree with some or all of my opinions, but they are just that, MY opinions.  If you don't like them, you can exchange them for your very own opinions.

1. In order to qualify for Retirement Benefits, I have to work a total of 40 quarters, or the equivalent of 10 years.  Paying into the system as I go.  However if a person whom has never worked a day in their lives, qualifies, they can collect government checks.  This includes, people that have headaches (not necessarily debilitating ones either), people such as myself that have OCD, who can't seem to manage to deal with the world on whole long enough to earn a living. The earn money from home market was practically designed for you.   Disabled people that can work, but choose not to because the rather live off the US. I'm sorry if you are in a wheelchair, you can certainly handle a desk job.  I'm not asking you to work construction, but do something.  These days it seems like we give checks to anyone.  I have a great doctor. If I ask, I'm sure he can come up with a valid reason for me to collect.  I have a ton of mental and physical issues, but I still get up 5 days a week and schlep to my job and work long past 8 hours each day.  Part of my check goes to pay for those on disability to stay home.

2.  There is no alternatives.  I have a 401K account.  I need it.  However I still have to contribute to SSA every week regardless.  If there is going to be no money left by the time I retire, I want a refund immediately of all I have contributed in the last 25 years.  I also would prefer to defer future contributions to my 401k or Roth IRA.  I don't have a choice on this.  My employer is required by law to take this money I EARNED and give it away to the government dependents.  I would prefer if they put my money in an interest bearing escrow account, where I could monitor it.  I have say over how my 401K money is distributed, why not my SSA contributions.

3.  A never changing environment.  Countless economist and congressional panels have spent exorbitant amounts of money studying the problem, but little time and effort trying to fix the problem.  Ask a 5 year old this question.  "If I take all of your toys and give them to another kid, how many toys will you have?  That child will respond not with a logical number, but with outrage that you have given all of his/her toys away, and that it is unfair because now they don't have any to play with.  That same 5 year old will come up with at least 3 ways to compromise that scenario so that both children will have at least 1 toy to play with.  WHY? because that 5 year old has a vested interest in finding a solution.  Congress has a spectacular pension fund,  they will not be relying on SSA to live. While many say that privatization is not the answer, neither is doing nothing.

Each year I get a statement from SSA detailing my employment history, and my expected benefits.  Can I call bullshit on this statement?  Can I charge them with fraud?  I will expect that on the next statement my expected benefits will be zero, zilch, nada, nothing. I want honesty!!!  I have been faithfully contributing to this fund,  I want the government to look me in the eye and say OOPS!  We F***ed up and lost your investment in your future. Bernie Madoff stole peoples retirement accounts and is now incarcerated.  Why is the SSA not being charged with pension theft?

I have no answers to this problem other than to let me decide where my retirement money goes. Given the choice, I would rather invest in my own retirement fund. I am willing to give up my 255 dollar death benefit, and the possibility of disability payments. (I pay for disability insurance). If I am going to lose everything, I would rather it be at my own hands.  How about you?

TAXES, TOLLS & FEES

I for one am tired of giving away my hard earned cash.  Every day there is a new tax, toll or fee that will just piss people off and be misused as always.  These extra payments aren’t for the product or service, but to supplement other areas of government.  If the government would stop spending money for stupid stuff, (yes I said stupid stuff) maybe we wouldn’t need the supplemental pocket picking.  

I offer as an example.  My town recently hired a consultant, at a $20,000 fee to research whether or not town employees should be subject to more pay grades with lesser raise percentages per grade, while also adding a cap to each grade.   If the changes are to be made, the employees may lose some of the wages they currently get.  The hope is that this will help with the fiscal budget.  Here’s a taxpayer thought.  Ask me.  I will tell you for free, if you want to save money, don’t pay someone $20G to tell you what should be common sense.       

Added Taxes are getting out of control.  Take the Gas Tax for example.   We are taxed on a state level and a federal level.  I’m sure we should only be taxed once on any given item or service, but I digress.  What am I paying for?  Why gasoline?  I’m told it is to fix road and bridges.  Isn’t that what excise tax is for?  Toll Roads?  We are forever hearing rumblings about raising the gas tax.  Why? don’t you get enough already?  If you can’t afford to fix the roads, stop hiring overpriced, under qualified contractors.  Turn the penal colonists into contract workers.  They can do more than pick up trash.  Hell they used to break rocks with pick axes.  Let’s teach them a real trade and let them earn their room and board.    

While we are paying double tax and outrages prices at the pumps, oil companies are recording record prices.  Where is the Federal Trade Commission and why isn’t congress filibustering about this?  The same could be said about cigarette tax.  This was instituted to generate revenue for Cessation programs and anti-smoking campaigns.  Instead about 5% is used as intended and the rest are used to supplement budget gaps.  Non-smokers champion these taxes as a punishment for those that smoke. (full disclosure, former smoker blogging).  Is this fair?  Was it fair to tax tea?  Why not disposable diapers?  They clog landfills and introduce fecal matter into the environment.  Would parents that spend a fortune on Pampers® be willing to pay a nappy tax?  I think not.  They want to tax soda to combat obesity, why not coffee, it would generate more revenue for the state than soda.  The problem here is they are taxing them self into a corner.  As the taxes and prices increase, user-ship decreases, revenue decreases.       

We have gotten comfortable letting citizens bleed cash because of government mismanagement.  Tolls on roads are meant to recoup the cost of construction.  Once paid for in full the tolls should come down.  Not here, the roads are paid for, but are breaking down, so we need money to fix them.  The rub is that only those that drive the select portion of road is penalized.  This again is grossly unfair. “ Such is the way of life” as the saying goes. 

 Between gas and tolls, excise tax and insurance, those that can’t afford to drive, take public transportation.  Those people are going to be walking soon as yet another round of fare hikes is coming.  I used to ride the bus for a dime or quarter, now it is about $2.50.  The transportation authority claims it can’t afford to run.  So cut some services.  Instead of running 2 buses,  run one bus for both routes and cut the frequency of the stops.  Do an internal audit and eliminate the redundancies.  Gone are the days when if you couldn’t afford to operate, you closed down. Nowadays you squeeze the stone until blood runs dry.  

The Post Office is raising the price of stamps again.  They played with the idea of cutting delivery days, but no, let’s raise prices again.  We are in an age when they should be cutting back.  We are moving away from mail service, and moving to the digital age.  It is inevitable that the post office should fail.  Private delivery services will take over.  The more they raise prices, the less mail we post.  Email and Online bill pay are free!!!!     

I’m tired of being told we don’t have enough.  Stop spending on consultants, stop voting yourself pay raises, start doing your government shopping at Walmart® and Target®.  We don’t need to pay people to tell us what we already know, or should know.  I am sick of paying Taxes, Tolls & Fees.