From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 03:03:56 +0800
To: cypherpunks@algebra.com
Subject: Re: How much you lose under Social Security -- socialsecurity.org
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970530110010.8489F-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <v03102801afb4ccdecef3@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:00 AM -0700 5/30/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>And it's fun to play with. Let's say I was born in 1970 and make $30,000 a
>year (BTW, I wasn't and don't). Assuming I retire at 67 and inflation is 3
>percent, Social Security would give me $1,293 a month after I retire. And
>that's if you assume Social Security won't go belly-up, a hard position to
>maintain since its own trustees say it's underfunded by 25 to 33 percent.

I paid into the SS fund from 1969 to 1986. And yet I knew from around 1975
or so that it was a Ponzi scheme, with current intake being used to pay
ouflow and with no "trust fund."

(The so-called "trust fund" is actually just a bunch of IOUs placed there
by the government...the inflow is sent back out to welfare mothers,
chiselers, and corporate welfare cases, and an IOU is placed back in the
jar. This is *NOT* calculated into the $5.3 trillion national debt. That
$5.3 trillion debt amounts to $53,000 owed on average by each of the 100
million or so taxpayers (the other 150 million being children, spouses,
nonfilers, welfare recipients, spouses, etc.). Most of these 100 million do
not have $53,000 in any form of assets, of course.)

>Compare that to a stock fund, which yields so much more: $8,635 a month.

I expect to receive essentially nothing from the SS fund when I become
eligible in 22 or more years (they are pushing out the eligibility age...it
may be 75 by the time I "retire").

I won't try to dig up numbers right now, but the combination of the
national debt, the unfunded liabilities (things the Feds have said they'll
pay for but don't have the money in an account for), the SS crisis, the
Medicare crisis, and the changing demographics (hint: the baby boomers
retire in absolutely massive numbers beginning about 15-20 years from
now)...well, the numbers don't look good. I've heard estimates that the tax
rate on those still working in 2020 may have to be 80%. That won't fly. So
some things are going to break, and break very badly.

And the Congressvermin are still attempting to impose an "exit tax" on
accumulated assets, so that if I tried to move my assets (remember, assets
= property = purchased things, not at all the same thing as "income") to
some other country.

(There are those I mention this to who don't seem to understand the point,
and who mutter about tax evasion. Well, the purpose of moving assets may
indeed be avoid confiscatory taxes. But the fact is that it says one's
property (jewels, furniture, stocks, etc.) are not one's own to move around
as one sees fit, to take with one to a foreign residence. This would make
the U.S. like the Soviet Union in this regard.)

As we all know, the SS system is just a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Like
gambling, the government runs operations it imprisons others for running.

I'm not even sure that 60 megatons of disinfectant would handle the cancer
that is Washington.

--Tim May


There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
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