The Social Security Act was signed into law in 1935 by the president, FDR. Even at the time of signing FDR acknowledged that the system was inherently flawed and a transfer from a paying group to a non-paying group of recipients. He also realized the political capital to be gained from such a transfer and he was a politician, after all.
At the time not as many people lived to be 65 years old as they do today so the program wouldn’t have too many problems for a while. It was a pyramid scam though, plain and simple. The original intentions were that it would not be a retirement program but rather an assistance.
Now we’ve reached the point where the problems become obvious. Politically it is unsolvable. Every few years it becomes necessary to raise the rates on the payers, which works until the current crop of politicians get out of office. Then we hear the expression “Kicking the can down the road.” Just postpone the inevitable, the insolvency that catches up to every pyramid scheme, when the pay outs are greater than the pay in.
Somewhere along the line politicians also realized that points could be made with sub-groups of citizens by adding more benefits onto Social Security. Medicare, both outpatient and hospital stays, were added but now there would be an added charge, like an insurance plan. Make the monthly premiums mandatory but relatively low. Then another president decided to add prescription drug coverage onto SS and have the users pay a co-pay.
In addition, a decision was taken to allow low income people, regardless of age, into a program called Medicaid. While not exactly like Medicare there are some similarities, I’m sure. Then President Reagan decided that no one would be turned down for medical care, regardless of circumstances and required clinics and hospitals to conspicuously post that information near the door.
I’ll try to explain how these things have affected my wife and me. We are geezers, way past the age of eligibility for SS and Medicare. We both started getting our SS at 62 but not Medicare until 65 (the law). My early years in the army had no SS withholding, plus the pay was rather low. When it came for me to qualify at 62, the SS rep and I sat down and he computed what I would have paid in, based on a ouija board (or something like it). We had quit working at 55, so we had a blank space at the end as well. Using some sort of formula he arrived at the figure I would be eligible to receive. He also did the same for my wife, only her work experience was limited because she had only worked in the US a fairly short time, about 20 years or so. Anyway it was all worked out mysteriously and her check would be about ½ of mine.
I’m speculating but to the best of my memory it was decided that I had paid in about 60K, probably my employer about the same. Must have been about ½ that much for my wife.
So, working off the figures we were using (60K plus my employer’s forced contribution of 60K) I’d be eligible for about the average recipient’s monthly of about $1400 at today’s rate or about 17K a year. I can’t do the math but I’m guessing if that had been invested from Day 1 and compounded at about 8 % my nest egg would have been considerably more than 120K. Now the beauty of the pyramid is that I will get my 120K back in about 7 years. The downside is I see no interest accumulation. Moreover if I had died before I started collecting my cash would be lost to my heirs.
You may have heard the standard disclaimer, “Well, some people wouldn’t have saved any, they need the SS.” You also know the answer to that.
A friend told me, “My mother wouldn’t have made it without SS.” I heard, “My family would not have helped Mom or taken her in or done anything.” He was actually saying he was happy to not help and wait for his inheritance.
I’m guessing most parents’ pride keeps them from asking for help unless they are really desperate, but sometimes it may be necessary or some families are there to help their loved ones if they can.
Medicare is another add on. My wife and I pay about $300 a month for Part B or whatever it is. Anyway it’s pretty cheap insurance, a routine trip to the clinic will be over 1K and we are encouraged to see a Dr at least annually for a check up and prescription renewal. Any additional visits or work and we’ve gone way over our premium costs. An example: a few years ago I had a ‘sticky trigger,’ a finger that gets stuck down and won’t release. The surgery is about 5-10 minutes and the cost was 7K; a year later, another repair on the other hand was 11K. If I had to pay out of pocket I’d have lived with the problem. It was annoying, slightly painful, but livable.
Eye doctors love doing cataract surgery, my wife and I have had that, again something we probably would have skipped if we were paying out of pocket. We are still both fairly healthy, avoid seeing doctors if possible, pretty much like old people did 50 years ago. Many SS recipients have far more health issues than we have had and require lots of expensive treatment.
The trillion dollar deficit is about what the over costs of SS/Medicare are. It’s very difficult to find any dollar figures online, other than pie charts that show how little of Medicare is actually paid by the premiums. In addition there is a humongous bureaucracy to oversee the implementation.
The irony is that a trip to the local casino will find lots and lots of geezers lined up at the slots, a ciggie going or an oxygen bottle strapped on. Old people like the slots ’cause they’re easy to understand and now the new machines don’t require putting coins in, just a card.
Promise more SS stuff and a lot of votes have been bought. I don’t know the answers but some things are going to have to change and it won’t be for the better. My best guess is that there will be some sort of SS adjustment made based on income or net worth. Inflation doesn’t help because of the present law.
Bernie Sanders keeps on making promises that repeal the Laws of Economics, his Republican counterparts do nothing to attack the present problems. That ol’ can is getting ‘mighty battered from all the kickin’.
I’m hitting Medicare this May and SS next July. I haven’t worked out whether I would have done better by investing the taxes paid, but suspect so. The generation after me is not planning on having SS; they are wise not too.
And First!!!!
OK, Boomer.
Older people are easily amused.
I… as a 28 year old, am pretty damn sure i’ll never see a cent. I just count it as an additional Income Tax, and the single biggest chunk of money taken out of my paycheck each month.
My retirement strategy is to have as many different potential means of supporting my dotage, aiming to make each one as viable as any other, and assume none can be counted on.
I don’t even count Social Security in those calculations, since there’s no way there will be any money for me, despite the amounts paid in.
I have a spreadsheet with a bunch of different options. With and without SS. I am close enough that it might exist for me after all. I thought the same as leon when I was 28.
I suspect we’ll eventually see the age moved out further than it is now. The full benefit age is currently 66 and 2 months and will be 67 when I reach the window. If they shift the benefits window out even slightly, it increases the viability of the ponzi scheme significantly.
Yes, they moved it out 2 months per year for those born between 1954 and 1960, if they would have just continued the trend, it would do wonders. Mine would be 68 and 6 months instead of 67.
68 for those born in 1966
69 for 1972
70 for 1978
71 for 1984
72 for 1990
73 for 1996
74 for 2002
75 for 2008
76 for 2014
77 for 2020.
“My retirement strategy is to have as many different potential means of supporting my dotage, aiming to make each one as viable as any other, and assume none can be counted on.”
Well written in my opinion, UnCivil.
And the part your employer pays is coming out of your paycheck as well. We tend not to think of that. It is almost a certainty you would have done better investing by yourself, and compounding plus the freedom to make more and different decisions.
But that tax doesn’t go into an account, it gets sent out to you and your cohort.
Exactly
I realize that was in the original article.
I just have an aversion to referring to social security as if there are individual accounts and not just a big-assed shell game.
If only we’d had Prez Al and a lock box
Everything will be fine, and we’ll just print more money.
Zeros are cheap to print and add on
We don’t need to print anything. It’s all digital.
That which can’t go on forever, won’t.
BTW, I just applied for a credit card as Ernest Fourscore and got a $10,000 limit.
With Direct Deposit you’ll need a bank account, I’ll send you one
The trillion dollar deficit is about what the over costs of SS/Medicare are.
And neither is in the legitimate, constitutional purview of the federal government. Whatever shall we do about this problem?
Pay it off with a trillion dollar coin?
It’s a penaltax
/geriatric justice
Wow, that’s — like — more than I make in a year.
Does Chief Justice Roberts know about this?
Water the tree?
Unless the math has changed, if you wait to collect until 70 vs. 67 you don’t break even and start earning more until age 85. Hell, if you take it early at 62 the breakeven is 80ish vs 67 or 70. Yes, you lock in a return of 8% or so by waiting, but it makes more sense to me to take it as early as possible.
My thinking as well. With the uncertainty of old age it made sense to retire and enjoy the time too.
My wife retired when she could under her employer’s defined benefit plan and started SS when she qualified. It’s worked out for her, and us, and she’s been able to do just that. Although there’s been some heartaches along the way but such is life. Regretting not waiting to start drawing isn’t one of them.
I’ve saved a fair amount toward retirement on my own but have always assumed it isn’t enough. Thus I’ve long thought in terms of working as long as possible. Now, though, I think I’ll knock off as soon as I get on Medicare (if it doesn’t go bust within the next several years) just to avoid the what-do-I-do-for-med-insurance dilemma.
I tried to tell my brother this and he wouldn’t listen to me. Then he died a month after he retired. So in a way he was right when he was 28 and said “I’ll never see any of that money.”
As an aside, I did an NPV calculation guessing at a reasonable discount rate and living to 85. The NPV was the same value irrespective of the SS starting year.
Based on the Bird in the Hand theory of life, I started early. There are lots of cute tricks suggested by financial planners but, being dumb, I took the money when it became available.
Naught, naught, naught, naught, naught, naught,naught, naught, 2. Damn Roosevelt.
you naught to know better than this.
I could start drawing SS in three years (I’ll be 59 this fall) but will probably wait until 65. I actually kind of enjoy my work, at least most of the time, and as time goes on I’m doing more and more by telecommute, making our Alaska plans even easier. That’s all subject to change, of course. I may drop to half-time work in the next few years.
But Mrs. Animal and I have planned for nothing from SS. If we get something, that’s a bonus. And I expect the whole system to come crashing down in the next decade or so, in accordance with Stein’s Law.
I too liked my job but I found that I liked not having a job even more. The uncertainty of the future makes long range plans tougher.
Once you’re not working you’ll have a lot of of other opportunities. Consulting, etc.
Granted, I am only in my early 30’s but I really don’t understand the idea that even once you have reached some level of financial independence you need to keep working or else you rot away.
I don’t think it’s so much *working* as doing *something*. People who retire and don’t have a hobby, or volunteering, or family interactions to keep them motivated have a suspiciously high rate of dropping off.
That makes sense, but are people so broken by then that they have no interests outside of their work?
No, but drinking and masturbating all day causes health issues
My job is consulting. I’ll probably drop back to not doing it full-time, but as long as I’m physically capable I’ll probably be open to short-term things, like audits, gap assessments and so on.
My fear is if SS falls, 401k raiding will be the next logical step. Why should millionaires have so much when everyone else has so little?
You sort of beat me to it with your comment.
Oh, shoot. I thought that in 2008 when Cyprus’s accounts got raided. We’ve had our 401(k) leveraged ever since. They can’t take away what we’ve already spent.
Never mind we actually needed the money. However, they put a cap on that. So there’s a whole lot of money there just waiting to be seized.
My fear is if SS falls, 401k raiding will be the next logical step.
The 401k raids will happen after a big market crash, regardless of how SocSec is doing. They will come wrapped up in “ensuring that 401ks are invested safely”, and will be incremental increases in a requirement that your 401k have X% invested in “safe” investments (a euphemism for “Treasuries”, maybe also state and municipal bonds). This was floated after the Big Dump of ’08. Its a proggy wet dream, and it will come back, as their wet dreams always do, over and over until it becomes law. When – who knows? Whether – count on it.
I cannot imagine retiring owing anything on my mortgage. The game with retirement is cash flow, and you want to get that big drain off your cash flow. You also don’t want your home to be at risk if something foes south on your retirement income. The idea of having a mortgage in retirement just strikes me as bonkers.
I cannot imagine retiring owing anything on my mortgage.
I took a conventional 30-year mortgage at age 48. So payments would continue until I was 78.
I refinanced to a fifteen year mortgage after being in the house 10 years. That gets it down to 73.
So now, I can choose to make bigger payments and pay the loan off earlier, or continue collecting a paycheck longer, or some combination of both.
That contributes to the retire at 67 or 70 decision.
I’m old enough to remember a time when S&L’s wouldn’t even give you a mortgage at a prime rate if the term ended past age 55. “You’re 30, so you can have this 25-year mortgage at 6%, or you can have this 30-year mortgage at 7%.”
I cannot imagine retiring owing anything on my mortgage.
I’ve absolutely come to the same conclusion, and I think Fourscore has made the same point. Not just due to future uncertainty, though that’s huge, but because of what I’ve seen happen to various people hitting retirement age. The ones who owned their homes outright had a much easier time of it, even if it accounted for most of their assets.
Yep. RC, I remember you and I both saying this at TOS. I was afraid Trump was going to propose this two years ago.
In any event, they can just fuck people over with the tax code and claiming 401k “income” as something that gets a special higher tax rate over a certain amount.
The possibilities are endless really.
I’m grey-sky thinking here, but in the event of a President Bernie, would you expect some fairly severe penalties/taxation on any savings, assets, investment portfolios, etc that you might have, leaving anyone that has made contingencies for SS going belly-up to have their contingencies plundered for redistribution? He’d have a pen and a phone to do this, of course.
My thoughts you steal them.
That explains why I’ve been so preoccupied with thoughts of ‘gator wrasslin’ and pitchin’ woo to your cousin.
“Pitching Woo? Isnt he that Korean baseball player?”
-M*A*S*H
Ha! Speaking of Korean ballplayers I’m pretty sure Shin-Soo Choo is going to make this his last season. He will be missed.
Which one? I’ve called dibs on half.
Top or bottom?
The bottoms of all of them, so technically 1/2 of all.
Her in the daisy dukes with size 10s and the large hands. I think her name is Clovis.
I spend a lot of time thinking about whether to bail out at 67 or stick around until 70 before I retire. Social security payments have little to do with the decision. I am quite terrified of the thought of leaving a big paycheck on the table and walking away from it.
59.5 is my target. I’ll get on welfare if the money runs out. Zardoz knows I’ve paid more than my fair share in taxes, so I’ll consider it a partial refund.
Hard to put a price on 3 years of doing what you want/like, if the possibilities are there. That’s why I rattle on about having the house paid for, before retirement.
I generally enjoy my job. They pay me a lot of money. My house is paid off about the time I turn 72. I ain’t moving away to Florida, so why not collect the paycheck.
On the other hand, there are days I wonder why I bothered to come into the office.
When I turned 57, I wrote “520” on my white board. I’ve been decrementing it by one each week since then. I was a joke when I started it, but now that it is just over 200 it is far more serious. Running out of time to make decisions.
SS isn’t just a Ponzi scheme, it’s direct redistribution. The top quintile barely extracts the paid benefits and the bottom quintile makes out like a bandit particularly for earlier birth cohorts. Both maximum taxable base and rates (SS and Medicare) have significantly increased over time. Expected lifetime value of Medicare benefits for a single-earner couple (average income) is over $498K.
I understand why Millenials and Gen Z are angry (even those with “shitty degrees”).
Yes.
We GenXers knew by the time we were 20 that SS would not be there for us and if we didn’t, we weren’t paying attention. But GenXers just sucked it up and went to work and tried to improve our lot.
One of my problems was that I grew up knowing I would die when I was 50 and so I didn’t bother to plan. That…seems to have been a mistake.
knowing I would die when I was 50-
Psychic powers? Are you a wizard?
Family medical history. Heart disease. I was 20-something before I found out a heart attack was not always fatal. I went to a lot of funerals when I was a kid, and got it into my head and it never shook and then my dad died when he was 51.
And now I’m looking at the WOMEN in my family instead of the men and going, “Ooops. Probably shouldn’t have done that.” 70, 80, 90, still going. The women, that is. Even on my dad’s side, the women are 70s and 80s (although my dad’s sister had 2x CABG when she was 48 and 1x again when she was 52) (and my dad’s cousin has had type 2 diabetes since she was 35, but she’s going on 80). I go to a cardiologist every year. My ticker is right and tight. My recent labs came back completely normal. Everything, even cholesterol, A1c, and apparently I’m not longer anemic. Everything about me is totally fine and yet I live with the question, “How soon am I going to die?” I can’t shake it.
All indications are that I will live another 50 years. So now I have to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Cheers to your health! I recommend 1 woman band ala Dick VanDyke as a career.
LOL
You made me smile.
?
Sounds like “Widow” is the family trade.
Yep, mandatory participation in a Ponzi scheme that is already creaking under the strain is a valid reason to be pissed off. I don’t blame them for this, I sympathize entirely and get really annoyed when I hear “Hands off muh Social Security and Medicare” from the Boomers. No you did not actually pay for it, the way i can tell is that it is not in fact paid for.
I work with some guys in their 20s and overheard them talking about how there is no chance in hell they get SS.
I’m in my 40’s, and me and my friends were saying the same thing 20 years ago.
Mike Pence Orders All Women To Wear New Coronavirus-Resistant Uniforms.
FTA: “I just knew this was going to happen,” said one CNN correspondent as she donned her red robe at gunpoint. “Either Pence was going to turn the country into The Handmaid’s Tale or Trump was going to take over like Voldemort. Those are my only two literary frames of reference, and I’ve only really watched the show and movie. Though I have the books on my shelf as a conversation piece.”
Zing!
https://babylonbee.com/news/white-blood-cells-offering-free-health-care
This is what makes the Bee good. Even the digs against libertarians are right on target.
Spot on.
That writer absolutely must lurk.
Those are my only two literary frames of reference, and I’ve only really watched the show and movie.
^^Ding! Ding! Ding!
Barr seems astute.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/26/william-barr-monolithic-press/
Comparing the liberal democracy envisioned by America’s founders to the “totalitarian democracy” influenced by Rousseau and the French Revolution, Barr contended that the latter’s “path to perfection is to tear down these artifices and restore human society to its natural condition.”
Yeah, but like… did Rousseau own slaves?
FTA:
The tyranny of the majority that they created in the first place.
And the MSM going apeshit over this in total lockstep will prove him wrong in 3… 2… 1….
Not only does it become easier for the press to mobilize a majority, but the mobilized majority becomes more powerful and overweening with the press as its ally.
And? ///leftists
Being a pundit on Fox News would be a better fit for Barr. Unfortunately, he’s the attorney general who still hasn’t indicted anyone from the swamp and is pushing for a clean FISA re-authorization. But his speeches are really good.
My father got retirement pension for all of 2 years after paying all his life. My mom did not get anything from that at all, because she had her own pension. If she did not work all her life then she would get a pension on account of my fathers contribution. Some wave this shit away as a sort of insurance you make it you get it you don’t those are the breaks. I find these justifications immoral.
Now I pay a fabulous 24% of my salary for a pension which I don’t expect to account to much… And if I have an accident at 64 I get shit. From a fuckin lifetime of 24%.
But if I say anything against the pension system everyone around me shouts and calls me stupid or evil.
I mean I honestly don’t have much to say on the US SS thing
This is such a huge point. The pension schemes by governments are not comparable to a private retrirement because you get to at least will the money out if you die before you take it. Also if you are 59 and find out that you are terminal, you can at least pull out your money from retirement and use it before you die.
But no, the solution is to take 12% of everyone’s income in order to give it to the richest segment of society.
12% – lucky you
“if I say anything against [insert government entitlement program here] everyone around me shouts and calls me stupid or evil”
FIFY.
Just postpone the inevitable, the insolvency that catches up to every pyramid scheme, when the pay outs are greater than the pay in.
I believe we reached that point years ago.
Then President Reagan decided that no one would be turned down for medical care, regardless of circumstances and required clinics and hospitals to conspicuously post that information near the door.
That’s only hospitals, kind of. And through the miracle of the administrative state, a statutory requirement that reads “comes to the emergency department” now means “sets foot on hospital property, including parking lots, etc.”. There are also regulatory requirements for any facility owned by the hospital, including physician offices. How you get from “comes to the emergency room” to “shows up in a primary care office 10 miles away”, well, the magic of the regulatory state.
This is one reason why hospital groups are relentlessly buying up physician practices. Once the practice is owned by a hospital, the office becomes an outpatient facility. This allows the hospital group to charge a ‘facility fee’ for every doctor visit. In my case, the co-pay on the facility fee is roughly double the co-pay for the Dr.
Once the practice is owned by a hospital, the office becomes an outpatient facility. This allows the hospital group to charge a ‘facility fee’ for every doctor visit.
That particular scam came to an end a few years ago, unless the practice is within 250 yards of a hospital or is owned by a rural “critical access” hospital. OF course, all the “outpatient facilities” in place when the rule changed were grandfathered.
So am I understanding correctly — if my Dr’s practice had been purchased last year instead of 7 years ago, there would be no facility fee, but since the purchase was 7 years ago, they got grandfathered in so they still get to charge me?
I’m extraordinarily happy with my primary care physician. I was extremely pleased at my care when I was in one of the purchasing hospital group’s hospitals. But I loathe the hospital group. If they are improperly charging me (and Medicare) this fee, I will take action.
if my Dr’s practice had been purchased last year instead of 7 years ago, there would be no facility fee, but since the purchase was 7 years ago, they got grandfathered in so they still get to charge me
That is my understanding.
I didn’t look at the rule change with physician practices in mind, since we don’t use the “hospital-based” rules for our physician practices, but generally speaking CMS said that it would allow no new “off-campus” “hospital-based departments” starting a couple years ago. Maybe physician offices aren’t included in the ban on new off-campus HOPDs.
Thanks! Annoying, but hardly surprising.
I have long assumed the system that the system would crash before I was old enough to tap it. I’m 52 and still believe that.
No idea how long I’ll work. I dig what I do, but I’m thinking about trying something different before I hang it up.
Thanks, Fourscore. Were some of those folks at HH? A few look familiar to me.
The administration sends me my annual statement saying what I can expect to get from the system if I retire at the scheduled age of 66 1/2. They tell me the system is “fully funded” through the mid-2030s, then payments may be cut to 2/3rds of schedule benefits.
So, I supposedly will get “full” payments into my middle 70s. You younger dudes will be coming online just at the well goes dry.
All old people look alike.
Yeah, Tundra, and you’ll see some of the same ones again in 6 months
Particularly galling when you pay both sides of the payroll taxes.
That requirement to provide healthcare to all comers really fucked us. It’s why Fourscore’s minor surgery costs $ thousands. You are paying for all the freeloaders.
two things that grind my gears about SS, beyond the usual:
1. Discriminates based on sex due to life expectancy differences
2. Discriminates based on race for the same reason.
men and blacks should get their payments like 5 years before women and whites/asians.
Oh no, just no. “Disparate impact” modifications are a terrible idea, and need to stop. If we are going to have rules they should be the same rules for everyone, and yes, it is inevitable that different groups will be differently affected, but that is just the nature of reality. Trying to rebalance just leads deeper and deeper down the control rabbit hole.
But we do have disparate impact rules. . .
they just never end up helping me.
So what you are saying is, they have a disparate impact on you?
*narrows gaze*
Hold on, I’m working on an argument that the disparate impact rules violate themselves, and so they should be voided. Kinda like how the precautionary principle is self-refuting when applied.
I think we can all get behind that.
Why can’t Swiss open his EYES to your logic?
in Romania women retire 3 years earlier and live 5 years longer…
Patriarchy!!
I think it was Bob Murphy who pointed out that if we set up a scheme where individuals could opt out of paying SS in exchange for No benefits (no matter how much paid in) would still be popular for a majority of Americans, as actually investing the money they would gain from not paying would quickly make up the money that they had paid in. Not paying SS would be a $600 increase in income every month for the Average American.
And it would work great until someone blew their paycheck on other things and has zero left for retirement.
Well we can’t have grandpa on the street after making a series of bad decisions now can we?
The same logic applies to forgiving my student loans after being unable to find a job with a degree in gender studies.
Sell or rent your organs. Problem solved, geezer.
FDR and LBJ. The gifts that keep on giving. W looked trying to scale SS back and give yutes at least a partial private investment option but then shit happened. No one is even talking about it anymore.
“No one is even talking about it anymore”
That’s the whole of the debt and unfunded liabilities. Neither major party is even paying lip service to dealing with it anymore; not that they were ever serious anyway. In a way, it’s refreshingly honest for the pols to just admit “we plan on spending like sailors on shore leave until it collapses” rather than empty platitudes about fiscal responsibility.
“empty platitudes about fiscal responsibility”
Everyone stopped believing the GOP on that a long time ago.
Bush’s idea was very much a trojan horse for fascism. It would inevitably have the government managing indirectly a significant chunk – if not the majority – of the various securities markets.
Basically, the way it would play out is as follows:
1) The govt set up rules as to which investment vehicles are eligible for the forced ‘investments’ under the private option.
2) Given their better returns that the statutory ones for SS, these investment vehicles rapidly become the top destinations for investments in the stock market on an annual investment basis.
3) Given enough time where the majority of retirement dollars invested in the securities markets are going into these vehicles, they become the dominant vehicles.
4) At this point 2 things happen:
…..a) New economic developments that threaten the book values of these vehicles will trigger a voter backlash, and the government will have great pressure to meddle in the economy to protect the vehicles’ solvency and book values
…..b) When the government is on a tear to transform the economy (eg eliminate fossil fuels), they will – through control of what these funds are allowed to invest in to maintain their eligibility as destinations for the private portion of forced retirement investments – set up irresistible incentives for those funds to – through their power as among the top 5 shareholders in the stock market – to dictate what ventures private companies invest their capital in, and how they administer their operations.
Our kids dodged a bullet when that went down in flames.
Why would the rules be any different than for a 401K, IRA, etc? That’s where people would be putting their money anyways.
A get a statement from fro broker. I invested x dollars in my 401K. Goes in a box on my 1040. If I didn’t invest enough or took more money out than allowed, I owe the difference to my SS account. Seems pretty straight forward. Not ideal but better than losing interest to the government.
The rules would be different because the government would be saying that this is still in part their money, and that in order to make sure the program is effective, they should have oversight on how you get to use it. the How means that you would only be able to invest it in certain “approved” stocks/equities/bonds/instruments.
Exactly. Although with the amount of stock CalPers and CalsTers already owns, government is already exerting too much force over how companies are operated.
The risk for those investments is entirely borne by the investor, and the people selling those funds are required to ensure that the money going into them is money the investor can afford to lose.
By definition, the reason for the forced investments is that people cannot afford to lose that money. It’s supposed to provide their safety net.
The rules are going to have to be more stringent. Additionally, there are huge opportunities for graft from the extra regulation.
It’s inevitable.
Finally, the SS deficit solved.
https://babylonbee.com/news/joe-biden-claims-he-is-only-human-left-not-killed-by-gun-violence
Since I will likely never seeing a dime of my SS money. I plan on adopting a 7′ high school basketball player who is being heavily recruited by power conference schools. If that fails I’ll just hope I have enough in my 401k.
Have you considered the Powerball?
That’s why I have no worries about investing in the Spawn. I tell them that they are my 401S.
Oh, I love drawing network diagrams for people who don’t know how to read them.
sounds like a retirement plan to me
In order to get new servers, we have to put together all the documentation on everything it will be expected to talk to on the network.
Only to have them ignore it and us have to go and tell the network teams ourselves.
well intermediaries need jobs too
I am conducting a last minute “save the deal’ negotiation by email, in which I cannot directly participate, because the other side is supposedly represented, and their counsel is copied, but said counsel has not responded to any communications at all (I suspect they have not in fact been retained). So all I can do is give my client suggestions for his emails. It is frustrating, because the other side is being terse and belligerent and fighting about a repair escrow of $6k out of $285k even though they acknowledge the repairs are not made, and are their responsibility. If their counsel was actually communicating I think we could get to agreement, but as it is I am doubtful.
Lawyers are actually useful when client emotional reactions are the main issue.
I know why everything I’ve been doing today is needed for the people who’ll be creating the VM, I’ve just been oddly irritable all day.
It’s just about the simplest new server build in the world, but the hoops don’t change.
And I forgot to include the user networks.
Good luck with your client.
Dang! I can’t believe the other side had the misfortune of hiring my ex-wife’s lawyer!
I think I’ve got this darn thing drawn. I’ll probably realize something I forgot on the drive home.
Damn, still 45 minutes until then.
PS – I hate Visio.
I decided to get blood work tomorrow and so no alcohol – haven’t’ had a drop all week – and now I really crave a drink. Funny thing was, if i was not decided not to have any I would not crave it so much. I think I am like a kid with something banned…
Why did you stop drinking for blood work?
Well I want to not drink 3 days a week anyway, and I read on the lab website it is better not to drink 72 hours before blood-work , so I usually have a drink Thursday, but this Thursday I decided not to.
There are three strategies for delaying the collapse of SSI: 1) delay benefits, 2) reduce benefits, and 3) increase taxes.
1) the retirement age is already being increased
2.a) The “cost of living index” is actively being fucked with to reduce future increases
2.b) Means testing is already being considered for future benefits
3) All your 401k belong to us.
Just make a 10 trillion dollar coin or something
Sure…but who gets the single coin?
It goes in a vault as collateral.
Alternate joke – everyone gets one, they’re worth less than a 1999 Penny.
“This coin is for display purposes only. Not legal tender.”
See above, #1 stops for those after 1960, they need to continue the trend. It would make a huge difference.
Why continue the trend? So people pay longer and have even less return (more for the Boomers!).
Return is zero percent.
It is two separate programs, one is a tax, the other is an old age welfare program.
The first thing to fixing it is to realize their is no connection. Oh sure, they pretend there is, with the formula and all, but it isnt connected.
The reason to continue the trend is that when started, the benefit age was greater than life expectancy. That is a better idea for an old age safety net. Also, cranking it up makes it clear to people that if they want to retire, they have to do it with their own money, not with SS.
It also gets in 1 step closer to going away. If life expectancy increases at slower than 2 months per birth year, then SS would eventually go away. Incrementalism can work in two directions, if allowed.
Until 60 minutes runs nonstop weekly coverage of the poor dying seniors, laying in the streets. You want President AOC?
I can’t imagine that flying until they disarm the country.
Who are you going to shoot? They will have the vanguard or whoever transfer the money straight from your account. All it will do is crater savings, like the government wants. SPEND SPEND SPEND!!!
“Who are you going to shoot?”
If I’m pissed enough, why would that matter?
It is a contributing factor to me dumping firearms at the bottom of random lakes.
I really need to get a better canoe.
I don’t think 401k’s will be first. I think Roth IRA’s will be. Lots of people have 401ks through work, but nothing else. So only the “rich” have Roth IRA’s (I know this is untrue, but I think this is how they will sell it). It’ll start out as a small amount, but we all know where it will go from there.
Also, 401k and regular IRA get taxed as income when you take it out. But Roth money is “untaxed” growth, so that will be the primary target.
My forced conversion to Treasuries/stealth confiscation idea could well start with Roths and IRAs, but I think it will be under “safe investments make safe retirements” or somesuch, which applies to all privately managed retirement funds. So I suspect they will come after all of them at once.
Precious metals, baby.
And by “precious metals,” I mean blued steel, brass and lead. I’ve lost money in investments, but I’ve never lost money on a gun.
You can get a premium for stainless steel.
Depends on the buyer.
That will be the tipping point and it will be ugly as hell.
Tundra, you have to think like a politician.
Just start with X% of contributions to a retirement account after such and such date for account holders under age 35. Fucks over the young and keeps enough geezers at home on election day. Then slowly increase the numbers a la frog in warm water.
They will lower the threshold on the Alternative Minimum Tax first, and include your retirement funds.
Just not adjust it for inflation and let it effectively lower itself every year. Just like structuring. $10K in 1970 is a whole lot different than $10K in 2020.
Yep. With enough inflation progressive tax brackets become a flat tax.
I guess they can still jack up the wage base in the meantime. At some point I expect it would go to being uncapped.
Definitely. I get a bump in pay at the end of the year when I max out SS. I’m sure that won’t last forever.
That would be the big move I expect.
I think the top end (137.7K) isn’t reached by too many at this point but removing it would make some difference
Four Score endorses raising taxes! You read it here.
I’ve been hurt each time it goes up.
My rough guess is 8 percent of workers pay the max SS tax.
By design. They keep raising the ceiling so that only about 8% or so ever reach it.
You forgot
4.) Unleash acute respiratory virus that targets the elderly.
I would expect the Chinese would try that first.
Oh, wait…
Now this is a plan I can get behind!
Me, upon joining the wayback machine club: “The rules say I cant go back and kill Hitler, right? Why would I do that anyway?
I have one better. I am gonna go pay FDR a little visit in his crib.”
why not wilson or something? maybe change earlier
Gavrilo Princip?
Maybe the polio was a failed attempt from the future?
Wasn’t there a meme about this, A kind of Time Machine wikipedia, where moderators would have to go back and fix problems made by time travelers.
It is a short story.
Starring Jean Claude Van Damme.
I heard he plumbed his house with coconut water.
He was dead long before they admitted it, acting President Eleanor would pass it.
Thanks for the article, 4×20. Only here could I get a sane take on SS.
OT: Using a charity for political purposes? Pshaw. Where have we seen that before, hmm?
But we definitely need to GET THE (republican) MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!!1! Citizens United!1!!1!11 Herpty-de-Derp!
Citizens United is another good one that i like to “educate” people about when the bring it up. Because almost no one who rallies against it knows what it actually was about. They just say “Corporations aren’t people, they shouldn’t have first amendment rights”. They have know clue that the case was about A group of people wanting to show a film, but that they did it at the wrong time, because McCain is a fuckface.
“So you think the government should be allowed to ban books on political topics relevant to an election?”
Usually they gape like fish while I explain that when the lawyer representing the U.S. government was asked that very question by a supreme court justice, she said, “yes”.
Yeah, it’s Trump who is a threat to the freedom of the press. 🙄
Geeze. what a dumb bint. Did she get fired?
No.
As I recall, she had no choice. Basically, she had admitted that most publishing of movies and books was done by people who had set up corporations for that purpose. She had claimed that under McCain Feingold, it was utterly proper that there be rules against a corporation publishing a movie savaging a candidate running for office.
Then some justice asked about books. And there being no difference in the eyes of the law between publishing a book or a movie, she had no choice but to answer yes. If she said no, that would have been tantamount to admitting that the attempt to suppress the anti-Hillary Clinton movie was unconstitutional.
So she had to pretend that freedom of the press allowed the government to suppress all publications that might change who people vote for in an election.
She basically chose the least bad option to get out of the trap set for her. She did a best she could do fighting for evil.
Before Citizens United, unions could spend a ton of money, but corporations couldn’t. To the left, and to the quisling Republicans like McCain, this is Democracy In Action. I’m sympathetic to the dangers of big money in politics, I really am. But you can either allow it, or you can have a harsh ban on all big money donations, with draconian penalties for big money being routed through individuals, the way the IRS goes after tax structuring, or the ATF goes after straw purchasers. You can’t tell me with a straight face that the UAW’s giant pot of donations is Democracy in Action but the NRA’s giant pot of donations is Evil Special Interest Groups Buying Our Democracy.
You can’t tell me with a straight face that the UAW’s giant pot of donations is Democracy in Action but the NRA’s giant pot of donations is Evil Special Interest Groups Buying Our Democracy.
I can’t, but there are a lot of people who can.
ATF goes after straw purchasers.
I was at some weapons familiarization class. when it came to the part about the Laws regarding gifting weapons, one of the participants asked “So wait, my Bro-In-Law is from California, so he came out here, gave me the money, i bought the gun and then gave it to him”. The instructor just said “Yeah, i didn’t hear that, and don’t ever do that again”. He protested that it was a while back, so it probably wasn’t illegal, and the instructor said “that’s been illegal since the 80’s i think, so yeah. Don’t tell anyone about that again”.
Good lord.
the dangers of big money in politics
It’s the other way around. As long as politics is a prize to be won with spoils for the winners, it will attract money which is really people trying to use resources to acquire power. Shrink the amount of power and the money used to try and wrestle control of it shrinks as well.
I mean, even if you slashed the government to 5% of its current size, there’s still an enormous amount of power to be had by buying politicians. Even a minarchist state would have people willing to buy favors from it. I do think it is a problem, but like almost all problems, the Left’s solution to the problem is actually a way for them to extend their power and control.
I’d rather they ban all big money donations then allow only one side to donate big money.
Once a society hires it’s first sheriff it’s all down hill from there.
One of my problems was that I grew up knowing I would die when I was 50 and so I didn’t bother to plan. That…seems to have been a mistake.
“If I had known I was going to live this long, I might have taken better care of myself.”
I never had a cigarette I didn’t want and no one forced to drink the last of the bottle.
I have a 403(b) and an IRA through Fidelity, and their site has a little retirement health evaluation tool, presumably just looking at the amount saved and in what, looking at the number of years before retirement, and applying some interest rate to see how much money you’d have and whether it would be enough based on whatever criteria. There’s a checkbox for whether or not you want them to factor in SS. That always kind of pisses me off, frankly, because it’s that kind of thinking that expands the welfare state and has done for decades. Social Security should be a safety net, not a retirement fund.
Social Security
should be a safety net, not a retirement fund.shouldn’t exist.FTFY
*Rips piece of foil and constructs hat*
Social security and other similarly designed government programs are the reason we do not teach personal finance in high school. We don’t want the population doing the math on how much they are getting fucked.
https://www.tiaainstitute.org/sites/default/files/presentations/2020-02/TIAA%20Institute_Millennials%20and%20Money_T%26I_Lusardi_02%2020.pdf
FTA,
Millennials more commonly engage in expensive money management behaviors than do older working-age adults. They also demonstrate lower basic financial literacy levels while at the same time being more likely to overestimate their own financial knowledge
Sixteen percent of Millennials qualify as financially literate by correctly answering three basic questions assessing fundamental financial concepts, and only 19% of those who perceived themselves as having high financial literacy are financially literate.
BTW, here are questions used for testing financial literacy:
Suppose you had $100 in a savings account, and the interest rate was 2% per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would
have in the account if you left the money to grow? Answers: a) More than $102; b) Exactly $102; c) Less than $102; d) Do not know; e) Refuse to
answer.
Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1% per year and inflation was 2% per year. After 1 year, how much would you
be able to buy with the money in this account? Answers: a) More than today; b) Exactly the same; c) Less than today; d) Do not know; e) Refuse to
answer.
Is statement is true or false. “Buying a single company’s stock usually provides a safer return than a stock
mutual fund.” Answers: a) True; b) False; c) Do not know; d) Refuse to answer.
We are doomed.
I think we should be able to steal their money rather easily.
The sum total knowledge I received from my parents on money is you should put anything extra in a savings account. I had to self educate myself in my late 20s early 30s on investing and retirement. Luckily I didn’t wait until my 60s to start thinking about retirement.
Take the tinfoil off man, that is straight up truth.
Another for not teaching personal finance. No understanding of debt and how it forces you to keep working (i.e. paying taxes).
I guess they need them to go to college too.
Stockton, Calif., Mayor Michael Tubbs endorsed Bloomberg after he donated $500,000 to an education organization in his town, the watchdog group said. Washington, D.C. Mayor Murial Bowser endorsed Bloomberg after he poured $4 million into the district’s public schools. The report cites several other elected officials whose constituents were on the receiving end of some of Bloomberg’s vast fortune that then endorsed him.
On the federal side, Everytown for Gun Safety – which is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies – dropped over $4 million to support Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., in 2018. She later endorsed Bloomberg.
T a rube like me, that sounds like some sort of money laundering scam.
Only because it is.
Hell, there’s not even much real laundering going on, he’s just straight up buying politicians, like he basically admitted during the last debate.
“That was a slip of the tongue. When I spend millions to support a politician or the crony-riddled money laundering front organization for his pet cause, there is no quid pro quo. Honest. Trust me.”
Social security and other similarly designed government programs are the reason we do not teach personal finance in high school. We don’t want the population doing the math on how much they are getting fucked.
You’re one of those crazy people who think two plus two can only ever equal four, aren’t you?
“How many fingers, Winston?”
“Now use the other hand!” — Winston’s Mom
Ba-ZINGA!
OT: this is so much fun watching from the sidelines
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8047051/Meghan-says-Harry-picked-restrictions-payback.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK
Good luck Meghan with fighting
city hallthe palace. Look where it got Dianer.I suspect she’ll have a less dignified end than fleeing paparazzi.
Is there much less dignified end than going out in a car crash with a mans jizz all over your dress?
Oh sure there is.
What a Princess.
DailyMail.com first revealed that Meghan had complained to her friends about the move, telling them there was nothing ‘legally stopping’ her and Harry from using the name.
Their Friday statement struck a hostile tone in some sections and said neither the government nor the Queen herself owned the word ‘royal’ internationally – but they would nonetheless stop using the title.
The whole meaning of “sovereign” seems to be lost on poor Meghan. I would laugh my ass off if the Queen asserted a bit of residual power that she no longer has and had Miss “you can’t do that legally” hauled into the Tower.
If you want to be independent, then just leave. What are they gonna do, extradite you?
She wants the perks but not the responsibilities and the rules.
That girl is insufferable.
Must have a magic cunte.
the arse
I could see Harry acquiring a, err, taste for anal. Those British boarding schools have quite the reputation, after all.
That there was no boinking at Hogwarts was the least believable part of that mythos.
I am pretty sure Harry boned Ginny in the Room of Requirement.
Snapper.
I wonder when she will start “rising above the pettiness”.
Never, she’s a product of Hollywood.
independent
Aren’t they trying to keep that royal cash flowing?
Finally cracked down and Watched Hang ’em High last night. Pretty good movie. My wife liked it better than any of the “Man with No Name” trilogy,
The Clint spaghetti westerns never disappoint.
Oddly, I found “Hang ’em High” to be a bit disappointing.
Did you think it meant He’s Hung and High?
No, it felt like the story was poorly paced and then ended before it should have. Segments of the film, if extracted and viewed independantly work well, but as a whole, not so much.
I would have thought your strangling gloves would have been appropriate for a viewing.
To be pedantic, “Hang ’em High” was a US made film, so not a Spaghetti Western.
Its been awhile. I guess I throw all the early Clint westerns into the spaghetti bowl. There’s one exception (name escapes me) – an Elmore Leonard story that has a Hollywood gloss on it – everything is very . . . clean.
*adds HeH to watchlist*
It’s free on Prime.
Joe Kidd.
Yup, Joe Kidd is the one I was thinking of.
I’m with you on that, actually. I just watched it again the other day. I like it, but you’re absolutely right about the pacing. It’s a very uneven film, I think, with a lot of good ideas but missing some coherence.
Speaking of retirement funds, I’m glad to see stocks prices becoming more reasonable.
Yeah, I don’t mind a little air getting let out of this market. I’d rather see a manageable correction than a 50% or more dump like ’08. I’d prefer to keep the baby if I’m changing out the bathwater.
Yeah, I don’t see it dropping a whole lot more. Otherwise we’d be heading into bear territory and there’s no real reason for it that I can see.
“Real reason”. Like the
marketsalgos are rational. You’re funny.Aren’t algorithms rational by default? I guess they could put a random number generator in them for some reason, but even then it would only be psuedo-irrational.
Aren’t algorithms rational by default? I guess they could put a random number generator in them for some reason, but even then it would only be psuedo-irrational.
Pi(e) haz a sad.
Mr Splosives is going to start collecting this summer at 62.5.
My teachers told me back in the mid 80s they SS would likely not exist when we retired.
Wasn’t that back when “Balancing the Budget” was still passed around as if congress would actually do it?
We’re debating when to start cashing in. Still several years off. Prolly be a last minute decision. I should be retired already for a few years by then, which should inform the decision.
I’m planning on retiring around that same age. Still a little ways off. Not sure if I’ll start collecting SS then or not?
But, muh lock box!!
“He was actually saying he was happy to not help and wait for his inheritance.”
My mom keeps telling me “When I’m ready to go just pull the plug.”
And I tell her (because she’s kind of a pain in the ass): “Mom, as long as you can draw breath you can draw your social security check and that is the only way I’m getting my SS money back. So tough shit, you’re being kept alive and suffering as long as ear plugs work.”
I know. It’s off-topic and too local. But I felt it bears mentioning, just for the outrage.
“Dr. Greg Ramey, a well-known child psychologist and a former long-time Dayton Children’s Hospital employee, is charged with 145 criminal counts related to child pornography, according to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, whose office is special prosecutor on the case. “
My friend had a mini-joke rant about male teachers that went something to the effect of: “Aren’t you suspicious of all male preschool teachers? Seriously. Do you know any clearly, undeniably, heterosexual male who loves to spend his time around young kids? Are you fucking kidding me?? ‘Oh, I can’t believe all of those boy scout troop leaders were molesting kids!! Oh, I can’t believe all of those priests were diddling young boys!!’ (In mock indignation voice). Uh huh. Completely shocked, I am.”
I look at that guy’s picture – and I know this is wrong but I have to admit it – it isn’t hard to imagine he’s a pedophile.
Right? A dude that just looks like he’s into kids is a Child Psychologist. And a Ph.d at that.
So not only is he a creepy pederast, likely an insufferable prick, too.
To me, the saddest thing about that common assumption is that Mr. GT – the second oldest of nine kids and no pedo – really gets a kick out of interacting with little kids. It brings out the clown in him, and if he could volunteer with little kids in his retirement, he’d be a natch. However, he doesn’t dare for fear of unjust accusations.
I’ve got an uncle-in-law who everyone calls “the baby whisperer” because he’s so good with young kids and genuinely enjoys spending time with them. His three children, two of whom are in their 20s, are exactly the same. It’s insane, I’ve never seen a 20-something so good with children. And these are normal, well-adjusted people.
Yeah, same here. I love kids because I am one, but no way in hell, I’d put myself in that situation. When my daughter’s wanted to have friends over, either Mrs Almighty was home or it didn’t happen.
Well, predators are going to be found wherever the prey is. But that assumption probably keeps a lot of normal men from volunteering to work with kids, helping to clear the field for the abusers.
I agree – and I meant no offense because I was certain someone here or once removed would “fit the profile.” I love goofing around with kids, as well. They (and dogs and cats) always flock to me at gatherings. So much so that one of my friends in the squadron nicknamed me “Pa Ingalls.” Maybe that’s why I laughed so hard at my friend’s rant: I’m well aware of that common trope. It certainly doesn’t help that there do seem to be a number of “those cases” that confirm the stereotype. In fact, my suspicion about stereotypes is that it’s nothing more than a human mathematical pattern recognition device, a kind of innate numerical sense that “this seems to happen with more than X standard deviations of regularity than I would expect in this population…hmmmm…” Of course, this leads to “biases” in which we make errors because our sample size is an outlier, or we can’t make the connection or proper categorical distinction.
I suspect that confirmation bias is more often than not also a factor.
I was once told I look like Timothy McVeigh. So as labels go, I’ve got other things to worry about. Specially in my interactions with law enforcement.
just wear a hood + sunglasses everywhere you go. problem solved.
or not..
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Unabomber-sketch.png
The Una-Tres !
Juan Doe Numero Tres?
One of my friends in college said my college ID photo looked like Bentley from The Jeffersons. 😮
I suppose the only real decision I have to make is whether to take the higher payout “retiree only” option or the “retiree + spouse”
I figure that mathematically, I’m going to outlive my spouse but we might as well take the “him only” option and use it for car payments or something.
Rule number 1, always look out for number 1.
OT more lies from the press.
MILWAUKEE – The man who opened fire at the Molson Coors plant Wednesday, killing five co-workers and himself, had been involved in a long-running dispute with a co-worker that boiled over before he started shooting, according to a law enforcement source who spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and brewery sources.
Anthony N. Ferrill, 51, had worked as an electrician for more than 20 years, about 17 of them at Molson Coors, according to multiple sources and online employment records.
A co-worker who asked not to be identified for fear of being disciplined said Ferrill believed he was being discriminated against because he was African American, and that he frequently argued with at least one of the victims, a fellow electrician.
The co-worker said Ferrill frequently watched movies on his phone during the day, which the other electrician took issue with, and that the two accused each other of going into each others’ offices and stealing tools or tampering with computer equipment.
We all know that only white nazis shoot up places of employee.
The amount of people i’ve seen who just straight up watch TV at work has surprised me.
Why would you watch TV? there’s nothing on.
“Watching TV” is a euphemism?
Netflix and Prime don’t change what is available at different times of day.
Like I said, there’s nothing on.
There’s all kinds of shit on. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of shit.
Okay, I will grant that there is a lot of video which will play if summoned.
I just spend more time trying to find anything worth expending the time watching than watching it. It then becomes a rounding error where there’s nothing worth watching in the available source.
About the only thing we will be sitting down to watch (as opposed to background noise) for awhile is the new season of Better Call Saul.
There is all sorts of entertaining stuff on. Including the better network shows (if delayed).
Mr Robot.
The Umbrella Academy
Dark
The Boys
Breaking Bad
Sons of Anarchy
Jean Claude Van Johnson
Archer
The Expanse
etc, etc.
Another case where dueling is the proper solution. No need for others to get involved/harmed.
I like the way you think!
family man, gainfully employed, social with neighbors. some signs of paranoia. then *snap* shooting spree.
Once again, the flat fee for water and sewerage connections is higher than my actual usage. $30 of fee, $15 of metered water usage.
Might as well up your weekly shower to two showers per week. You’re already paying for the water.
It may come as a surprise to an Arizonan, but water is cheap in New York. Millons of gallons just flow on past every day. The unit of measure on the metered usage is hundreds of gallons, as each gallon is a fraction of a penny to pay for the treatment plants.
Took me awhile to get used to my water bills here. Can’t complain, living in a desert and all, but damn.
I work remote, so i always joke with the guys back east that i think the Mississippi is a myth. Rivers cant possibly get that big.
Here in WI I get a volume discount on water, the more I use the cheaper it gets.
I picture UCS as more of a bath man.
I’m pretty sure he’s not a billionaire, and his mother is still alive.
He’s definitely using Irish Spring though.
Also so that VEEP is on amazon Prime now. I know some say it is a good watch. Is it worth it?
The irony is that a trip to the local casino will find lots and lots of geezers lined up at the slots, a ciggie going or an oxygen bottle strapped on.
Or? Your casinos must get a classier clientele than the ones around here.
Cool links, bro!
link’s*
Is it Brett’s day?
Bret is on his meth finding mission, I think he is out for the week.
Robbie! Robbie! Robbie!