Buy me out. It is a simple idea. I want the government to buy me out. I am tired of the government and its foolish ideas.
What do I want to be bought out from?
Social Security.
Social Security is a joke. Every few years we hear the alarming news that it is going bankrupt. Of course it is. It is a government program so by definition it is very badly run.
Obama has made a bad situation worse. His temporary payroll tax cut of 2% is cutting into the revenues Social Security depends on for benefits. Obama knows this. He wants to hasten the date of Social Security’s demise so he can demand that the cap on payroll taxes be abolished and he can impose another massive tax hike.
I have a better idea.
I want out.
I’ve been working for 37 years and paying into the system. Assuming I do not retire until I am 70, to maximize the benefits, I would have four years before the system crashed and that is assuming things do not get worse.
Forget it. I’m done.
One hundred years ago, most people worked until they could work no more.
What is wrong with that?
Nothing, in my book. In fact, that is my plan. I want to work until I cannot work any longer. If you do not want to, that is your business and not mine. But this is what I want to do.
Which gets me back to the Ponzi scheme we call Social Security.
I want my money back. I want my money back with interest.
I’m happy to get out of the Social Security system. Give me my money back and I will forgo any rights to Social Security benefits.
What would happen if everyone decided they wanted to pull out?
For starters, we would all take more responsibility for our future.
What would I do with my money? I’d invest in a private retirement and disability account. Something that would protect me incase something unfortunate happened to me.
Then my retirement would be my work.
Some folks scream in anguish that is horrible!
Maybe it is to you but this is what I want.
Liberty means being allowed to make your own choices. Liberty means being able to take risks. Liberty means I want to work until I can no longer work and I seem to remember something about my inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A program to opt out of Social Security would be a real Hobson’s choice for Obama. He loves to spend money and would love to spend the money it would take to pay everyone who wants out. Unfortunately for him, it would deplete the ranks of those who would end up dependent on government.
The left wants everyone dependent. I want everyone to be free and I want liberty.
Liberty means I get to make these decisions.
Republicans, if you believe in liberty, pass a law that gives me and millions of others that choice.
As for me, I choose liberty!
Permalink Reply by Steve Wilson on I am with you on this Judson, but I will offer this: I want out and the feds can keep the money I have already contributed (They will anyway), just allow me to get out. That alone would be a nice chunk of extra change every month - especially considering the fact that I have not gotten a raise in three years...
I already know all that I have contributed is as good as gone. It even says so on my social security news letters and statements, which tells me straight up that when I am eligible to receive my social security benefits in 2037, the money will not be there. Isn't that great?!?!?!? So, that said, just allow me to get the hell out of it. That alone would be a huge step in my favor....
Permalink Reply by MUG on If you are employed, your paycheck should increase 10.4 percent, your share plus your employer's share. If you are self employed your taxes should decrease 10.4 percent of your eligible income. Imagine if you saved and invested an additional 10 percent for the rest of your working life. A young man could be quite wealthy when he hangs it up.
Permalink Reply by John P on I second (third?) Steve's motion. Let them keep the cash. All I want is the option to control my own destiny and not be robbed at gunpoint.
Permalink Reply by bill campbell on you forgot two things. Number one, the employer may not, probably will not, give their per centage to you. TWO: you forgot the tax on that 5% that increases you yearly income.
Permalink Reply by Richard Banko on we, as a group. need to start contacting the government and demand we be given an out- there is a solution to this mess and it's not as difficult as everyone would think - give the people the right to vote on which side they stand red or blue - the majority in each state wins - then we split the country in two along party lines - red and blue - any takers on which side survives and which side fails -
Permalink Reply by Michele McGuire on That makes two of us.
Permalink Reply by NWBill on Brilliant column and position, Judson! And if anyone can't wrap themselves around the idea of a life without Social Security, I offer this: the three Texas counties that have opted out of Social Security - and the results of that decision.
I see no reason why, if a COUNTY can make the decision to opt out of the program, a private citizen can't do the same.
I also see no reason why the Republican nominee for President can't use this idea as a major plank in his campaign, telling voters, "You've all read the news reports of SS insolvency - well, WE, the Republican Party, will give you a CHOICE, an ALTERNATIVE: the ability to MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS about your retirement benefits. Opt OUT of Social Security entirely, if that's your CHOICE ... but, beware: the Democrats won't allow you to - and will demagogue anyone who proposes it. Why? Because THEY want YOU to remain on the government teat; the same government who can't fund these benefits!"
Seems to me a great way to reap the benefits those three counties have seen nationwide - while also attracting those independents and disaffected voters who bought into "Hope and Change" back in 2008. Well, here's REAL CHANGE for them, which ties right into their wallets (but in a good way)!
Permalink Reply by Richard Curtis on Sorry, I disagree. I think they ought to collect premiums for Social Security for every dime I make. That would help make it more solvent. What would help MORE is for the Congress to keep their mitts off it after it is collected. And stop using Social Security as a tax break.
But, consider this.... If there were no Social Security, some would not save anything (they don't now), others are bad investors (so investments are NOT a replacement for Social Security for Everyone). The alternative is WELFARE for those that can't/won't save or are bad investors. Would you rather pay their SS or force them to pay it. I think the latter. We are already paying for those that don't want to buy insurance (remember Katrina?, and the Emergency Rooms that are going out of business?).
I support privatization of SS, as the private sector can do a better job, and hopefully won't write Congress any checks to pay for more dumb stuff.
I agree with Richard C. One hundred years ago people worked until they couldn't work anymore, then, unless they had a large family and a farm, they starved to death. I'm not saying that I like social security but it could be done a lot better. God help me I have a nephew who is useless and collects social security supposedly from his dads fund, who has passed. This kid, now in his 30s' hasn't worked a day in his life and he knows how to "work" the system. I'll bet everyone that reads this knows of a simular situation. There are children and adults that cannot do for themselves and that needs to be addressed, but not with social security.
Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on Ray, you are claiming that anyone without a large family and a farm starved to death. This would require the people of one hundred years ago to be absolutely heartless and cold in comparison to people now in order for this to have happened. We can always find individual hearbreak cases, but to imply that this was the predominant fate of the majority is absurd. It also ignores the fact that this happens to this day despite the presence of multiple "safety nets" that make nothing safe.
I remember the elimination of the program of receiving a dead parent's benefits in the early 1980's because I was one of them. Our family looked at it as something that needed to be done, and we would have to find another way. We did, and perhaps ending that program was a good thing. If they started that program up again since then, it is no wonder why your nephew is useless -- he can afford to be, as long as the government check keeps coming. He doesn't "deserve" it just because his dad paid into the system, but had there been no system, his dad could have saved it for his children to inherit. Unfortunately, most money that is inherited and not earned is usually gone before very long, and many rich kids end up with as many problems as the poor kids -- they just suffer or die from different things.
Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on Richard, if there were no SS and some made the free choice to not save anything, why should the alternative be for them to reap the rewards of welfare, which is government-forced confiscation of money taken from others that do work? Even one person losing their freedom to keep what's theirs should abhore all tea-party patriots. All funds should be voluntarily given -- this is the most generous society in the world, and those that insinuate we would let each other starve are full of something. You are making the same mistake that many make in assuming the government will actually help people, when we already know that government-run programs do not accomplish their goal, unless that goal is a meager subsistance to keep the votes coming to perpetuate the system.
If we are supposedly good enough in spirit to tolerate the funding of a government-run welfare program that fails, would we not be good enough to donate our own resources to alternatives that are more efficient and actually work? It is time to quit fooling ourselves thinking that things are taken care of by just turning the other cheek after allowing some money to be taken from us and thrown in that direction, and ignoring the fact that it doesn't work.
Currently, the elderly without savings, family, or other sources of help, usually end up in poorly-funded nursing homes that don't have enough money to provide basic care, and the residents usually end up dying prematurely from complications piling up in a short period of time. And the emergency rooms are losing money because of the government mandate of the 1980's that forces them to see anyone complaining of anything, rather than having the freedom to decide what's an emergency and what's not. Home insurance, medical insurance, retirement savings -- they're all different versions of the same thing: poor choices. Let them suffer the consequenses, just like businesses -- no bailouts. Otherwise, the behavior will never change. And for those of us who wish to help, we have the freedom to do so, so the liberal readers ready to scream "heartless" can get bent.
Permalink Reply by Caleb White on Just thought I'd share this great e-mail with everyone here that has been going around. I couldn't have said it better myself.
Give this teacher, a true American, a standing ovation.
This 4th grade teacher has said it all, and she was brave enough to attach her
name to it.
The White House
600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington , DC 20500
Mr. Obama:
I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct
on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an
adequate representative of the United States of America collectively
or of me personally.
You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world
that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the
United States of America . You are responsible to the citizens of the
United States . You are
not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.
I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the
United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care
about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First
World War and the Second World War were all about if not the
consideration of the peoples of Europe ?
Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all
about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?
Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States
does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the
Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States ?
This country was
founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this
country, at least until you came along, come directly from this
heritage. Do you not understand this?
Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all
Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the
king of Saudi Arabia . You didn't show Great Britain, our best and one
of our oldest allies, the respect
they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia .. How dare you, sir!
How dare you!
You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation
because you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a
mosque in Turkey . You offended our dead and every veteran when
you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German
people from themselves. What's the matter with you? I am convinced
that you and the members of your administration have the historical
and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamedof
yourselves, all of you.
You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the
American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real
thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie
Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do
you intend to do about them?
Anything? I seriously doubt it.
What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses
to their staff members on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay
raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House
aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my
employer. You haven't said anything about that. Who authorized that?
I surely didn't!
Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210
million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million
more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives
have already been awarded $51
million not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you
expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for
the economic mess we have right now?
I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not
caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing
and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you.
I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything
you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I
promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a
chance to spend two terms
destroying my beautiful country.
Sincerely,
Every real American
P.S. I rarely ask that emails be 'passed around'.................PLEASE SEND
THIS TO YOUR EMAIL LIST......it's past time for all Americans to wake up!
Ms Kathleen Lyday
Fourth Grade Teacher
Grandview Elementary School
11470 Hwy . C
Hillsboro , MO 63050
(636) 944-3291 Phone
(636) 944-3870 Fax
This woman may lose her job for this letter. I believe we owe it to her for
expressing the outrage that we feel but fail to address. Please pass this on.
© 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
