Social Security
This first topic is one that most people will find minded-numbingly boring: Social Security. Yes, if you are bored with politics then you are most definitely bored with how Social Security works and how it affects you. That, is a mistake of the highest caliber because all of us with a job pay Social Security taxes. To see how much you pay in Social Security taxes take a look at your next paycheck. See that line that says "FICA withholding": multiply that number by the number of paychecks you get in a year and you have your yearly Social Security taxes or as they are commonly known; payroll taxes. Yep, that mysterious FICA person is actually the U.S. government taking money away from you, putting it into a "lockbox," and promising you Social Security checks when you retire. The retirement age for Social Security is 65. So when someone hits the age of 65 and decides to retire from work, the government will start sending checks to them. In theory the program would work if throughout the working lives of retirees the government had saved and invested their FICA payments over time. However, the U.S. government has never done that instead choosing to spend that money immediately on other government programs.
In addition, government has promised too many benefits to retirees. Since the government immediately uses the money they get out of your paycheck to pay the benefits of current retirees, they don't put that money away and save it to pay you when you retire. In less than 15 years, Social Security's retirement program will begin to spend more in benefits annually than it receives in taxes and therefore will be broke.
For a more articulate overview of the system see:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/wm143.cfm
So if the system is going to be broke in 15 years do you think that you will get any Social Security checks when you retire in 35-45+ years? No way. So what is the solution? It's easy, private accounts. Let younger workers, such as ourselves, invest part of our Social Security account in stock market, government bonds, or anything else that will provide at least some return on our money. Some of you might be asking yourself, what about those little old widows that live from Social Security check to Social Security check? Won't your plan leave them without a means to buy food and clothing? That will not happen. Only part of our FICA taxes would be put into a private account. The other part would be used to pay the benefits promised to current retirees. It's a win-win situation. No retirees have their benefits cut and younger workers like ourselves get to keep and save more of our hard earned money so that we can save for our own retirement instead of relying on the government for Social Security checks that will not be available when we retire.
Here a neat tool to put all of this into practice:
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/socialsecurity/
To see how dramatic your savings could be simply enter your age and gender to calculate what an American worker of your same age and gender could expect to receive from Social Security. By providing additional data, such as ZIP Code, earnings, and other information, you'll be able to generate more, detailed information. I put my New York zip code and my yearly earnings and came back with some amazing results. If the current system remains unchanged over my lifetime I will pay $631,099 into the system. Now that will supposedly come back to me when I retire in the form of monthly checks, but that assumes the system will not go bankrupt by the time I retire and I think I have already made a strong case that Social Security will be bankrupt some time before that. However, if my money had been in a personal retirement account, that account would be worth almost $2 million. The dramatic difference has to do with the rate of return of your money. Payroll taxes earn no interest, but a private social security account would be able to invest in the stock and bond markets and earn a significant rate of return.
As a conservative, I want private social security accounts to become a reality for several reasons. First, since I know that the Social Security system will be bankrupt by the time I reach retirement age, I want a way that I can save for myself at least some of the payroll taxes that will I pay over my lifetime instead of losing it all when the system becomes bankrupt. Second, I know that private social security accounts will allow many Americans to invest in the stock market and increase their wealth exponentially. Finally, the number 1 reason that I favor private social security accounts is that they will allow the average American to become more self-sufficient instead of dependent on the government in their old age. Liberals need people to be dependent on government in order to justify their worldview. Government is never efficient, but liberals need more and more government, and therefore more and more money (through, taxes like the payroll tax) to run all of their proposed programs. Private social security accounts will greatly lessen our dependence on the Social Security system and government and that is a very good thing.
For more information on the fascinating world of social security and plans to reform the system see these sites:
http://www.townhall.com/issues/Issue.aspx?id=8
http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/
Any comments or questions can be received at whyyouareaconservative@gmail.com
~ The Conservative Guy
In addition, government has promised too many benefits to retirees. Since the government immediately uses the money they get out of your paycheck to pay the benefits of current retirees, they don't put that money away and save it to pay you when you retire. In less than 15 years, Social Security's retirement program will begin to spend more in benefits annually than it receives in taxes and therefore will be broke.
For a more articulate overview of the system see:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/wm143.cfm
So if the system is going to be broke in 15 years do you think that you will get any Social Security checks when you retire in 35-45+ years? No way. So what is the solution? It's easy, private accounts. Let younger workers, such as ourselves, invest part of our Social Security account in stock market, government bonds, or anything else that will provide at least some return on our money. Some of you might be asking yourself, what about those little old widows that live from Social Security check to Social Security check? Won't your plan leave them without a means to buy food and clothing? That will not happen. Only part of our FICA taxes would be put into a private account. The other part would be used to pay the benefits promised to current retirees. It's a win-win situation. No retirees have their benefits cut and younger workers like ourselves get to keep and save more of our hard earned money so that we can save for our own retirement instead of relying on the government for Social Security checks that will not be available when we retire.
Here a neat tool to put all of this into practice:
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/socialsecurity/
To see how dramatic your savings could be simply enter your age and gender to calculate what an American worker of your same age and gender could expect to receive from Social Security. By providing additional data, such as ZIP Code, earnings, and other information, you'll be able to generate more, detailed information. I put my New York zip code and my yearly earnings and came back with some amazing results. If the current system remains unchanged over my lifetime I will pay $631,099 into the system. Now that will supposedly come back to me when I retire in the form of monthly checks, but that assumes the system will not go bankrupt by the time I retire and I think I have already made a strong case that Social Security will be bankrupt some time before that. However, if my money had been in a personal retirement account, that account would be worth almost $2 million. The dramatic difference has to do with the rate of return of your money. Payroll taxes earn no interest, but a private social security account would be able to invest in the stock and bond markets and earn a significant rate of return.
As a conservative, I want private social security accounts to become a reality for several reasons. First, since I know that the Social Security system will be bankrupt by the time I reach retirement age, I want a way that I can save for myself at least some of the payroll taxes that will I pay over my lifetime instead of losing it all when the system becomes bankrupt. Second, I know that private social security accounts will allow many Americans to invest in the stock market and increase their wealth exponentially. Finally, the number 1 reason that I favor private social security accounts is that they will allow the average American to become more self-sufficient instead of dependent on the government in their old age. Liberals need people to be dependent on government in order to justify their worldview. Government is never efficient, but liberals need more and more government, and therefore more and more money (through, taxes like the payroll tax) to run all of their proposed programs. Private social security accounts will greatly lessen our dependence on the Social Security system and government and that is a very good thing.
For more information on the fascinating world of social security and plans to reform the system see these sites:
http://www.townhall.com/issues/Issue.aspx?id=8
http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/
Any comments or questions can be received at whyyouareaconservative@gmail.com
~ The Conservative Guy
posted by The Conservative Guy at
10:21 PM
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