[Rhodes22-list] Political - for Brad's Eyes - not relatedtosailing!

[Hank]

Actually Brad, the federal retirement depends on when you started your
employment.  Prior to 1 Jan 87, employees are in the Civil Service
Retirement System (CSRS).  These employees do not pay social security
and get a larger pension.  They may contribute to the Thrift Savings
Plan (TSP, lika a 401K) but there is no gov't matching.

After 1 jan 87 employees are in the Federal Employees Retirement
System, or FERS.  In this they pay SS like everyone else, recieve a
much smaller pension, and can contribute to TSP with gov't matching
(Basically, up to 5%)

Hank


On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 07:38:56 -0800 (PST), brad haslett
<flybrad at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Stan,
> 
> Be careful what you wish for.  You're right, the
> original intent was for SS to be an insurance program,
> not a substitute for responsible planning.  I'd gladly
> drop out today and forgo all future benefits but that
> won't happen.  All the polls show that the current
> recepients want "the rich" to pay the way and I fully
> expect the current $90,000 limit to be raised.  Albert
> Einstein said the eighth wonder of the world was
> compound interest.  I'd like to see my kids take
> advantage of that by putting a percentage of their
> earnings into a controlled investing program.  That is
> precisely the retirement program available to Federal
> Government workers and I don't see a rush on their
> part to give it up for the SS program.  I think if the
> BHL's would look past their hatred of W they might see
> he's hardly the fiscal conservative those of us to the
> right of Attila the Hun would like.  Like my friend
> always says, in many ways, Bill Clinton was the best
> conservative President we had in a long time. W is way
> to friendly with the pocket-book on programs like
> Medicare for me.  As to the cuts in agriculture, he's
> right on target. Sometimes things are not what they
> appear.  I do think Bush is right to take on SS now
> and not let the problem fester for future generations.
> The devil is in the details.  We won't hear the end
> of this for a long time.
> 
> Brad
> 
> --- stan <stan at rhodes22.com> wrote:
> 
> > Brad,
> >
> > I do not even remember his name yet but the senate
> > minority leader sounded
> > good to me, so far (another Truman type?)
> >
> > Re SS. from a selfish point of view Rose and I are
> > getting ours so why worry
> > (but you know I need diversionary entertainment).
> > So I'll ad that we have
> > thought that everyone was looking at this program
> > myopically.  It really
> > either was meant to be, or should have been meant to
> > be, a Social Security
> > Insurance program where everyone pays into it and
> > only those who need it
> > when the time comes take the benefits..  My
> > father-in-law was modestly
> > wealthy and kept getting his SS checks which amazed
> > us kids because he
> > simply didn't need it and so would put it into the
> > stock market - he was
> > ahead of Bush's time.... .
> >
> > My guess is that while the president is out there
> > pushing his investing in
> > the market idea, the market is going to be crashing
> > and kill the vote.
> >
> > stan/ec
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com>
> > To: "stan" <stan at rhodes22.com>; "The Rhodes 22 mail
> > list"
> > <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 9:35 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - for Brad's
> > Eyes - not
> > relatedtosailing!
> >
> >
> > > Stan,
> > >
> > > One of the names that keeps coming up for the Dems
> > in
> > > 2008 is Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.  Evan
> > Bayh
> > > shot himself in the foot with a lot of moderates
> > over
> > > the Condi vote.  Bredesen was Mayor of Nashville,
> > a
> > > self-made multi-millionare from the health care
> > > industry, from the Northeast originally, and I
> > voted
> > > for him as Governor and probably could as
> > President.
> > > Anyway, Bredesen just last month made massive cuts
> > in
> > > Tennessee's universal health-care program,
> > Tenn-Care,
> > > because it wasn't sustainable and was bankrupting
> > the
> > > state.  I think nearly everyone with a heart wants
> > > universal access to health care but these huge
> > social
> > > programs have so far proven difficult to
> > administer.
> > > Ever been to a hospital in China?  Change in our
> > > current system is certainly needed but massive
> > > government take-over of health care hasn't worked
> > all
> > > that well in the communist/socialist countries and
> > I
> > > don't see it working well here either.
> > >
> > > Now as to SS.  Did you read what Greenspan had to
> > say?
> > > Certainly everyone that has bought into the myth
> > of
> > > SS, like my parents, need to be protected.  But
> > for my
> > > kids, they need to be told the truth.  When the
> > > program started the ratio was 40 workers for every
> > > recipient.  Now its 3 to one.  When I start
> > drawing
> > > benefits (I'm not holding my breath on that and am
> > > planning otherwise) the ratio will be 2 to 1.
> > This is
> > > a no-brainer Stan.  The numbers don't add up.
> > When
> > > you politize the math and scare the shit out of
> > old
> > > people its irresponsible.  I can't honestly look
> > my
> > > kids in the eye and tell them that SS is a good
> > deal
> > > for them.  The handwriting is on the wall.  This
> > is
> > > not a Republican or a Democrat problem, this is
> > simple
> > > demographics.  Go to the latest McKinsey
> > newsletter
> > > and you'll see China is facing the same problem.
> > Its
> > > simple math!
> > >
> > > Brad
> > >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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> >
> 
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