CON-gressmen & SIN-ators
Have a Much Better Retirement Fund than US
To All of US
Owners of business typically enjoy profits, while laborers receive a wage!
Jim Rohn stated, "Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune."
Our SEN-ators & CON-gressmen have changed "the system" whereby they achieve great wealth & are unjustly rewarded! Please read on, IFF you dare! These men & women do not pay into the Social Security System & as we might expect, these men & women do not collect from the Social Security System. This is a reasonable statement until you investigate closer. The reason is the SEN-ators & CON-gressmen created a special retirement plan, which they voted for themselves many years ago. Who do you think is responsible for funding their pension fund? That's right, All of US.
For all practical purposes, it works like this:
When our SEN-ators & CON-gressmen retire, they continue to draw their same pay, until they die, except it may be increased from time to time, by cost of living adjustments. The level of pay is based on the base salary & IFF they were on committees &/or chaired a committee. This is a sweetheart deal IFF I ever heard of one. Vote for ME, please!
For instance, former SEN-ator Bradley, & his wife, may be expected to draw $7,900,000, with Mrs. Bradley drawing $275,000 during the last year of her life. This is calculated on an average life span for each.
This would be well & good (NOT), except that they paid nothing in on any kind of retirement, & neither does any other SEN-ator or Con-gressmen. This is outright theft, but what should we expect from traitors, liars, & thieves.
These retirement funds come right out of the General Fund: our tax money. While we who pay for it all, draw an average of $1000/month from the Social Security Fund the SEN-ators & CON-gressmen live on in luxury!
Imagine for a moment that you could structure a retirement plan so desirable, that people would have extra monies deducted, so that they could increase their own personal retirement fund. A retirement plan that works so well, that the Railroad, Postal Workers, & teachers would clamor to get in.
Yes, it is possible, these groups & others are doing just that! They have Non-FICA accounts! In a recent article by a Dallas Morning News Journalist, Scott Burns he determined that these retirees make a considerable better return on their investment than the rest of US. Is 200% an unreasonable sum?
IFF pro means good & progress means to move forward. IFF con means bad, what does CON-gress mean?
I believe All of US can figure this out! IFF you need more help E-mail ME!
Who's to blame for this outrageous system? Yes, it is the same people who are responsible. These men & women need to be reasonable, responsible, & accountable for their actions.
The Social Security System could be a wonderful system IFF the SEN-ators & CON-gressman were not elevated above We the People.
Aren't the SEN-ators & Congressman public servants?
I ask you, are these men & women acting in the best interests of the people they swore an oath to serve?
Are the SEN-ators & Con-gressmen grandstanding & stealing from the people?
You will know your enemy by their actions or lack of action! In this case I think both!
Let's change the system & jerk the "Golden Fleece" retirement out from under the SEN-ators & CON-gressmen, & put them in Social Security System with the rest of US. Then we can watch how fast the SEN-ators & CON-gressmen fix the bankrupt Social Security System.
"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him." Charles de Gaulle
"In free governments, the rulers are the servants & the people their superiors & sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to return among the latter is not to degrade but to promote them." Benjamin Franklin
"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, & pursued unalterably through every change on ministers (administrations), too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing US to slavery." Thomas Jefferson
Please forward this article. IFF enough people receive this, maybe the pertinent questions will be asked.
The only constant is change. When right is wrong, change is overdue!
Remember it all! Never forget! I am what I am!
Katman International Freedom Foundation http://www.iff-ifoundfreedom.com
Scott Burns: Pension plans work outside Social Security
10/08/2000
By Scott Burns
Instead of projections, let's try facts.
That notion came to mind as I contemplated the ongoing discussion of partial privatization of Social Security. Gov. George W. Bush feels comfortable with it & has made it a central part of his campaign. Vice President Al Gore wants to "save" Social Security. Both use projections to support their positions.
For ME, projections just don't cut it. At the far extreme, it was nearly 30 years ago that the famed Club of Rome projected that the world was going to become a very dark & dreary place. Thankfully, they were quite wrong.
Less than 4 years ago, the Congressional Budget Office was projecting federal budget deficits that went on forever. Now they are projecting surpluses that go on forever.
So instead of building models & projecting, let's ask another question: What has happened to workers who were covered by a private pension plan, not Social Security? Did they do better or worse?
Mr. Bush may have gotten his confidence in privatization by considering the employees of Brazoria, Galveston & Matagorda counties or those of Amarillo College, all in Texas. They're doing just fine without Social Security, thank you.
But let's take a broader look.
In March 1997 two economists - William E. Even of Miami University & David A. Macpherson of Florida State University - published a study of seven state & local pension plans that operated independently of Social Security.
Altogether, the seven plans covered 1 million workers who were exempt from Social Security. The plans ranged from Maine (the State Retirement System), to Ohio (the State Teachers' Retirement System), to California (the Los Angeles City Employees Retirement system) &, like Social Security, included provisions for early retirement, disability & survivor benefits. The two economists made multiple adjustments to be certain they were making apples-to-apples comparisons.
What did they find?
Non-FICA pension plans had higher benefits. A $40,000-a-year worker retiring at 62 would receive a $30,194-a-year pension, nearly twice the $15,804-a-year pension a married worker would receive from Social Security. In addition, workers could retire as early as 55, something you can't do in Social Security could.
Higher-income workers had even higher benefits. Because the Social Security benefits formula is skewed toward lower-income workers & private pensions give benefits in direct proportion to income, an $80,000 worker could retire at 65 with an average pension of $75,803 a year while the same worker would receive only $22,003 from Social Security.
Non-FICA pension plans had higher rates of return on contributions. For single workers or two-earner households, the average public employee plan provided a much higher return on contributions than the expected return on Social Security contributions. Indeed, higher-income workers would have a negative return under Social Security.
The cost of funding the plans is higher than FICA taxes. On average, the plans were funded with a total contribution of 20.93 % - 7.98 % from the employee & 12.95 % from the employer. While this is significantly higher than the 12.40 % total for the retirement & old age security taxes we pay, the retirement benefits paid by the private plans were more than proportionately higher. Each dollar of contribution provided more dollars in benefits.
Bottom line? Private funding of retirement income is an idea that works. Most importantly, it will move US to create a real retirement system in which each worker creates an independent nest egg.
Unfortunately, neither the privatization plans favored by Republicans nor the "save" Social Security plans favored by Democrats solve the most fundamental problem of Social Security - the much higher taxes that will be imposed on our children to pay for currently promised benefits.
Want to learn more? You can read the entire study - 52 pages - by visiting the Third Millennium Web site at www.thirdmil.org/publications/fica.pdf.
You can also learn why we don't have enough of a federal surplus to cut taxes by downloading "Medicare, Social Security, & the Calm Before the Generational Storm" from the same site. For an introduction to Lawrence J. Kotlikoff & the idea of Generational Accounting, visit my earlier column on the subject at www.scottburns.com/980419du.htm.
Questions about personal finance & investments may be sent to: Scott Burns, The Dallas Morning News, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, 75265; faxed to 214-977-8776; or e-mailed to scott@scottburns.com. Check the Web site: www.scottburns.com. Questions of general interest will be answered in future columns.
All Common Law Rights are reserved explicitly without prejudice
UCC 1-103, 1-105, 1-207.
"NOTICE OF DISCLAIMER"
I am not a lawyer and I do not give legal advice! Let me make that perfectly plain, clear and mutually agreed, that, and I repeat, I am not a lawyer and I do not give legal advice! This is my private opinion; I am only sharing information! Notice to agent is notice to principle and notice to principle is notice to agent. For those who would violate my privacy by intercepting this private communication, I fully reserve all of my absolute (sovereign) natural (natural by law) "creator endowed" inherent Rights! I also choose to exercise my Right of remedy In the event that any party attempts to use this writing in any proceeding of any kind! I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information! I could be wrong about all of it! Hereinafter "disclaimer". From now on until further notice the "disclaimer" is presumed in any further private or personal or public or official communication from me to you. "Disclaimer"
This letter open to suggestions, improvements, and comments.
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