This Post Cost Me At Least $65K

Yes. To many folks I am still out of my mind. It is now well more than 2 years since I turned 66. I haven't bothered to find out how much more my monthly draw would be because I've not filed a claim for social security. Simply based on the base amount available at 66, the total is now in excess of $65,000.

A couple of too clever fellows have winked at me "not taking it now means you'll get more when you do take it." The fact is I'd have to live to be more than 100 to make up that difference. That's not a good bet even without real inflation considerations. Some people just can't accept that though I'm obviously intelligent that I'd actually do such a thing. Or even worse from their standpoint: that there might be many more people like me. Afterall, such people serve to make our trough-swilling pols and their beneficiaries look even worse than they currently are.

I'm sure they much rather think that I'm either dishonest or nuts. Sorry fellows. It's not about what you think or feel at all.

I continue to thank the Lord that I have not needed to file. That's good enough for me.

This Post Cost Me Over $11K

I am posting this just for those who are so cynical they believe my silence proves that I must have  come to my "senses."  No. I have still refused to file for Social Security. And no, I am not independently wealthy. What with Obama urging all sorts of people to steal from your posterity even when they never put a penny into the coffers as I have, I can only say "Thank God You have made it possible for me to take a stand for the truth."

The estimating software at the Social Security Administration site told me I had something in the neighborhood of $22xx.00 per month coming beginning on my 66th Birthday last September. I still haven't gone in to the more detailed software to find out exactly how much I am choosing not to claim. I think it is better that I don't really know.

For those who are new here and don't know my reasons for taking this stand, please click on the label below.

Political Cowardice and Social Security

Last edited 11:50 AM Nov 8, 2012

The point of this, part 5 of my exposure of the evils of our Social Security system, is to answer some questions raised in comments. One was "how would you feel about only withdrawing the amount you've been taxed plus interest?" The answer is, "still uncomfortable for me."

I was hoping to explain why this is by providing one example of how Leftists used agitprop and political correctness to prevent meaningful discussion of reforms needed to keep the financing of Social Security in balance. Although we were tricked into abandoning our efforts, probably all across the country in a manner similar to the example at the second inset below, I and the others are still culpable for not finding ways to fight such obstructions so we could pursue reforms.

But first, before letting those tactics succeed again in distracting us from our main job, why the need for reform?

As shown in part 3, Social Security's funding and obligations have long been known to be out of balance. It cannot function that way for long because it is subject to Natural Law. That means it is analogous to why we cannot eat our cake and have it too.  In order for Natural Laws to function favorably, the need for balance is never eliminated. Financial balance is not achieved by bookkeeping tricks as the opponents of reform have relentlessly peddled, but only by real ledger balance.  We take responsibility for our expenditures or we leave a bigger burden to those who follow us. Rationalize all you wish, but there is only one responsible course of action, and that is especially true when you momentarily realize how you have failed as you grasp at new rationalizations. You have a range of options. On the responsible side, trying to take up some slack and relieve some of the burdens and chains from your posterity. On the irresponsible side, fall in with the easiest course of actions (typically go along with the crowd) and let your posterity deal with the consequences of your sins.

Simply because some clever scoundrels convinced our society as a whole to put off the reckoning, their success does not eliminate from our souls the burden of the responsibility for what pain may ensue.

Over a period of almost 80 years, a whole lot of morally guided people were derailed from pursuing reforms to Social Security by the combined activities of money-grubbing politicians and Leftist radicals. It may or may not be true that both scheming camps knew the consequences of their actions would steer our society down a road to destruction, but such an ultimately destructive goal to our way of life is now in sight. The moral concerns of earlier reformers may have been derailed, but the moral reckoning beckons to us now. Are we as a once morally guided society so far gone that we will permit every-man-for-himself to rule us? And does that alleviate the burdens on you if you think of yourself as a moral individual?

From what I have witnessed so far, this question is one few seem willing to face. I personally have decided that I cannot ignore the consequence any more. The Ten Commandments say “Thou shalt not steal.” It is not any different if the government steals in my name because they say my claim is legally on the books. I and my generation stood by while they collected FICA taxes and then spent them to pay for other programs for which our politicians did not want to risk their reelection by openly raising taxes to explicitly pay for them.Instead they chose to raid the Social Security fund and leave IOUs behind to be paid back, with interest, by future taxpayers. That is, future politicians had to risk raising taxes while in office or risk letting the system collapse. AND. WE. LET. THEM. SET. US. UP.

We should have hung those scoundrels from lampposts, but we didn’t.

So now we are faced with the burden of not having done our jobs as watchdogs to keep those damnable foxes out of the hen-house. A penny here a penny there, pretty soon you are facing 16 trillion dollar deficits and maybe a quintillion dollars of unsecured debt buried in doubled bookings.

As I promised the commenters in part 2 and part 4, I will recount a single embarrassing incident that helps explain one way in which those who were financially aware were derailed from pursuing the reform of Social Security. The younger generations need to know of the forces that worked against me and my generation to prevent us leaving them with a huge debt. If this recollection of agitprop is recounted multiple times and in multiple voices by those who, upon reading it, recognize that it happened to them too, we will have a societal lesson that won’t soon be forgotten.  It may help them fight off the continuing war on them by the Leftist radicals and the Statists hiding amongst those on the Right.

In the summer of 1994 I attended a public “meet the candidates” forum. It was held in an austere concrete block building on Eagle Rock Boulevard in the L.A. neighborhood known as Atwater. This community center mostly serves the more affluent neighborhood of Glassel Park in the hills immediately above it, but was placed where the land is cheaper.  One of the candidates I knew was from GP, and I also discovered that many of the participants were from the even tonier community of Mt Washington (with better vistas) that is on the Eastern slopes of the same hill cluster as GP.  Many of L.A.’s elite then lived there behind gates; some still do. (Google terrain will give you a good feel of the layout if you care.) 

Inside was a small proscenium stage, empty but for a podium center front. The audience area was filled with neatly arranged folding chairs. The whole arena was fairly well lit, much like a high school gym rather than an auditorium, and even exuded the same sort of mustiness. There was a small open area between the stage and the front row of chairs as one would expect. But it contained a wired microphone in a stand. It looked like it was there to allow participants to ask questions. As events unfolded it turned out that this area was reserved as a forestage.

From the stage the moderator – of whose personage I have no recollection – introduced each of the candidates running in the primaries for elective office and had them come up to speak.

We had candidates for a variety of local seats for the state assembly and senate as well as two democratic candidates for Congress. Well, actually the sitting freshman congressman, Xavier Becerra, was in DC, so he was only represented by his local campaign spokesman. There was a Venezuelan doctor by the name of Oscar Valdez looking to give voters of that Congressional seat a more conservative choice in the primary.

I do not recall exactly how the incident began. So I will fill it in with an educated guess.

When Dr, Valdez was speaking, he spoke of the need to take a more realistic approach in Washington. That the current wave of spending and efforts at bringing us Hillary Care was way outside what was good for the democratic majority. So you can see this guy was definitely playing into what brought about the Gingrich revolution of 1994, and was attempting to moderate the Democratic Party in an effort to reduce the coming loss of Democratic control of Congress. In retrospect, this was quite far-sighted for a Democrat, right?

At some point Dr. Valdez must have said that even Social Security was on a collision course with reality – or some such fact centered on the need to eventually pay the piper argument.

Well, almost immediately members of the audience started to interrupt him. “What are you, some kind of Republican?”  “Yeah. Only Republicans attack Social Security.” Things like that. If the term “talking points” were around then, I’m sure they would have accused him of using Republican ones.

The next thing I see, out of nowhere a little old lady appears in the forestage area and starts whining and it’s not too clear what she is saying. The moderator on stage points to someone on the floor and that person gives the lady the microphone from off the stand. And then we hear how she can barely make ends meet now on the little Social Security income she has. That is would be awful to cut her back anymore. Etc., etc, etc.

Several people in the crowd apparently agree with Oscar and tried to say that nobody was looking to cut off current recipients, merely to alter the way Social Security operated and who could expect some portion of it. (And that is still the GOP position even today, same as with Medicare.) I don’t know if anyone used the phrase means testing (I don’t think that phrase either was then current), but it didn’t matter. Any reasonable argument was drowned out by the hooting and howls by the biggest Lefties in the crowd plus the old lady with the microphone who had gone on to sobbing openly in terror.

Well, after a while the moderator called a halt to what I have since become convinced was staged agitprop, and allowed Dr. Valdez to end his moment on stage. (Amazingly enough he got about 25% of the vote in the primary.)

What I witnessed was completely under the control of the stage moderator. As cool under such pressure as anybody you’ve ever seen. And the discussion of the reform of social security, even in that banner year of 1994, was over! Political -correctness, -cowering, -cowardice – whatever you accept as the fact of the matter – had won the day. Who could be so heartless as to terrorize a frail, 75 year old actress lady?
“But we aren’t threatening her.”
“Shhhhh, Not another word, you hear!”

I was witness to this. I knew the fact of the case about the need to reform SS. And I went along with the silence – as has nearly every conservative I’ve met over the years.

How many of you have been through this? The Glassel Park community center can’t have been the only place this has happened.

You could ask me how I am so certain. Well, also at this meeting was the young Anthony Villaraigosa. He was running for his first time election to the California assembly – unopposed. I only met him as I was leaving.  He was wearing a tan suit with pastel yellow shirt and a muted tapestry tie, and couldn’t have been a nicer looking young man. Except he was smiling to beat the band, and that did not yet mean much to me. He would eventually move on to California Assembly Speaker, and (soon to be former) Cheshire Cat Mayor of the City of Los Angeles. He was there only to make an appearance in front of some very powerful people.

Very powerful people Pascal?  Yes. You see this area of Los Angeles is home to the Northeast Democratic Club. Nobody who is anybody in Democratic circles in California moves on before being blessed by them.

Recall that the community center was on Eagle Rock Boulevard. About two miles to the NE of there is the campus of a private college where a certain president attended for a few years and who has only been vetted by the most radical political members of this country. It’s the site of a major lefty power base.

I suspect that what I witnessed that night in that community center was a command performance of the kind of street theater for which ADA and SDS are notorious. And they performed it in their own backyard for their biggest up and comers to marvel at.

You dear readers can tell me if you also witnessed such stunts.  Did you, unlike me, see through the bovine excrement and organize your own group to drown out the PC enforcement squads and Lefty actors? 

If not – and I surely would have heard of you if you had –  you too share some guilt with letting the Left and the SKUNCs continue spending all the FICA taxes for other programs while borrowing to pay off current retirees. You too are contributing to the chains of your posterity if you accept your full SS retirement “entitlements.” 

I’ve come under some heat for taking my current position. Some friends have ceased talking to me out of disagreements that arose as a consequence of my first announcement. It is not easy trying to steer an ethical course when there are so many others who kinda, sorta, feel as I do, but are not ready to admit: “We have seen the enemy, and he is us.”

The enemies of and threat to the survival of this republic are all who will steadfastly refuse to cry out “ENOUGH ALREADY.” Yes, the money I’m “entitled to” could be put “to such good use.” There are always people who love money more than principles. That has rarely been me, and I am determined to stick this out. Next month will it will have cost me $6600. And you would like a piece of that would you? However, I’d be using the government to take it from working citizens – perhaps you – to give to me (plus interest on the debt and salaries for the gun-bearers) so I could give a portion back to you. The only ones who win are those out to destroy America! Got it yet?

Next argument.
Yes the money was taken from me under false pretenses. But I knew it. And so did a whole nation-full of you too. I did not get off my butt and gather a lot of like minded folks around me and fight back against the thieves. My penalty – or maybe more accurately my penance – is not allow myself to file for moneys for which I allegedly legally have claim. I understand how the system operates as a form of thievery, leaving a deficit so large that it must destroy our financial foundations; and with it, turn our unique liberties into servitude once again.

Help me fight this. Advertise this idea. Help me advance the understanding of how it was permitted to get so bad and by whom. Help me help the next generation fight the pigs at the top and the as yet unaware takers in my generation.

The point of all the above is that we of the retiring generation have some obligation to those who follow us to help alleviate their burdens. Means testing is not that hard, but full financial collapse is. The radicals on the Left have engineered this in order to destroy our hugely successful society. Review the Cloward-Piven strategy and you know I’m right on that. Force the schemers into the light can come about if just a few of you try to shame the leadership by pointing to my example. Why can’t politicians forego their huge pensions and huge healthcare plans in retirement if a little retired engineer like me is willing to forego his relatively piddling $2200 per month?

President Obama keeps pointing to those making over $250,000 a year as targets for his tax increases. But that is chicken feed compared to what many in Congress and in pseudo-governmental entities like Fannie and Freddie took home and have retained even after the failures of those organizations. Pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others? C’mon folks shame them to the rafters. Make their own people turn on them.

I am sorry I did not write this before the election. Not that this is a big blog with a big following, but I sense it carries some useful information that many on the Right can finally use to derail the Left for a change.

So now Bummer has won reelection and he and the other piggies will try to destroy us for good. It is not too late. Help me spread this shame. Make it stick to them like they deserve.

This Post Cost Me $4400

This is the second month since I turned 66. Another month where I have not filed for accepting a payout from the Ponzi scheme disguised as a legitimate entitlement known as Social Security.

This is part 4 of my series that began here.

I predicted that I would be the target of hatred once my efforts became known. The news has not gotten out much, so I've so far been spared that. But I have been subject to a variety of charges that attempt to dismiss any notion that there is some virtue in my efforts. The most troubling thing to arise from that has been some shunning.

I think one of many reasons for this can be found in an explanation penned by David Mamet.



I am not demanding that others follow my lead, but Mamet suggests that doesn't even matter. Since I'm not master of others' feelings, there is little I can do except make it clear that this effort is my penance for not having done more in the past to at least ameliorate this theft by our government.

In subsequent segments I've some rotten leftist stage-craft to tell you about that I'm reasonably sure has played out all across this country every time anyone tried to fix Social Security.

Social Security and Family Lore

My late father related to me countless years ago the following story about his younger brother John (the same uncle I quoted in a post this last Sunday).

As a sophomore in a NYC high school civics class in 1935, uncle John noted that taxes taken for Social Security were not put into a special fund. It was put into the general fund. It will be spent and then you won't have it when you need it. The upshot was that his teacher kicked him out of class and sent him to the principal's office.

My Dad related what transpired when my grandmother had to come to school. "I know my son. When he says something it is usually true. Was he wrong?" The answer came back in a fashion that implied "No; but that's not the issue." Grandma said "Then it is not my son who should have been sent here. Your teacher should be in here begging to keep his job." .
For this post I asked Uncle John for more information.

He filled in the gist of what he said in class. He says he received two hours of detention. He couldn't attest to what my Dad told me because he doesn't recall it. He admits his mother was forced to come to grade school many times, but never when he was in high school. However he also says my Dad was not known to embellish stories.

It's possible nobody ever told John about what his Mother had said so as not to further encourage him. But they told Dad because, John being much smaller and less intimidating than Dad in every way, everybody in the family was proud of John's courage and feistiness. My Dad saw a lot of Uncle John in me. And I did become an engineer like John, and I do notice flaws that others miss or choose to ignore.

I always thought my Dad thought I was enough of a PITA, so I can hardly imagine why he'd encourage me more in that direction by telling me of this event.

For Part 1: This Post Cost Me $2200
For Part 2: Part of the Reason for Shunning Social Security

Part of the Reason for Shunning Social Security

To be fair to my readers, when I posted "This Post Cost Me $2200" I did not expand on all the reasons for doing it.

I started several years ago thinking about where the money would come from to pay me that $26K+ per year (although I didn't know it was that much, I figured it was close to that). The payments come either from borrowed money that has to be paid back with interest, or from printing it, which devalues every dollar that is already in print. And that is because from day one (1935) all money taken allegedly to fund Social Security went immediately into the general tax coffers. (There is family history related to this.)

Such a cache would surely tempt decent moral men. But lawyers and politicians? C'mon. I once posed it as something like the following.

Social security has provided politicians the tax money they wanted for their favorite programs when they were certain the people wouldn't like paying for it. Of course they were too cowardly to face the music at the ballot box by imposing taxes for other programs, with a good portion of that money going into the pockets of cronies. So they pretended that by putting the payments off into the future it wasn't really a problem. But today it is very serious problem (as it had to become eventually) — but half the damn politicians still won't admit it. So ultimately FICA payroll extractions became taxes for other things, thus levied under false pretext. And the house of cards gets shakier every day.

Bottom line is the whole total of the SS "trust" fund (what Al Gore infamously said was in a lock-box) has been borrowed to pay for other things in addition to past retirees. Now every penny paid out must be borrowed again, with interest. ("Backed by the full-faith and credit of the United States Government" that was recently reduced a second notch to AA)

My small contribution won't stop the hemorrhaging or the enslavement of the coming generations. But at least I'm one man who says ENOUGH already, and am putting my money where my mouth is each month I continue this campaign. Tell me: how many career politicians are willing to match me even dollar for dollar, let alone the portion of my total worth? The good news is I'm not holding my breath waiting to hear of them.

Social security was a tax for other purposes not stated, and apparently always was a tax for other purposes. We as a nation -- several generations -- allowed our political hacks to lie to us and keep on being reelected rather than tarred and feathered. So we are all to blame and ought to take some responsibility for it when we can.

What really troubles me.
The idea that I would be further helping to forge the chains of our posterity troubles me greatly. Especially because I failed to learn how to effectively fight this cancer when I was younger.  This is my small measure of penance. I was too busy make a living at what came easily to me so I could raise my family. I never thought I was suited to engage more fully in politics. If I had, maybe things would be different at least a little. I tried, but did not try hard enough. [One really abysmal story of my ill-preparedness is here.] This is my self assessed penalty for that failure. I pray I can afford to keep my resolve.
 
Yes, there is more. As the need arises again in me, I will post more.

This Post Cost Me $2200

Not only that, this post could cost me considerably more. That is because some members of the human race are so perverse that they will hate me for making this announcement, and would seek to find some way to eliminate the circumstances that permit me to offer this sacrifice.

So let me make this clear: I will make this offering as long as I am able. My wife has passed away, and my kids are successfully (for now, praise God) on their own. The burden of this sacrifice falls only on me.

Last month I turned 66 years old. I am now eligible to draw my full social security benefits.The SS administration estimates that I would have over $2200 coming to me last month, and each subsequent month.

I have chosen not to file.

That's $26000 in annual income that the Social Security Administration says I have coming to me. It is more than my total income last year, including what I've withdrawn from my IRAs. Furthermore, last year when I turned 65 I did not file for Medicare either. That was despite the warning that should I choose to later join Medicare, my contributions to parts B and D would be more expensive.

But the big ticket is the $2200 per month. The $26000 per year. The $80-90K total I did not claim between age 62 and now.

I think I have heard all the arguments as to why I have a right to the money, and what I could do with it, and all the thoughts that I am a nutcase for having even considered this course. Feel free to try to convince me against this course of action in comments, but you have your work cut out for you.

See, I have an important motive. I am hoping I am not the only one who is able to do this. I may be the first though to risk telling the world about it. And let me make this clear. I'm doing this because those at the top of our political ladder have gotten far too shameless in how sticky their fingers have gotten and how much they lust to rule us. In order to hide their thievery (and the shackles on our posterity) they are outright encouraging more and more people to demand "what we have stolen taxed from others in your name" -- all so that they can enslave you all.

The Statists and their Leftist avante-garde are making one great final effort to "bring it all down baby."  They seek to bring the whole financial house of cards down on your heads as the Cloward-Piven schemers had planned.

This is my one small effort to make a shout out that they have to be stopped. Someone has to say ENOUGH ALREADY, and really mean it. So I am putting my money where my mouth is.

I love the idea of what America has stood for, and why it enabled me and my parents and grandparents to achieve what we could. Indeed, it has made it possible that I may do this one thing that runs contrary to the Leftist idea that only money matters. It is a lie. Principles like the sacredness of human life and the beauty of INDIVIDUAL freedom matter far more in my individualist creed.

This idea to spurn the entitlements when one is able to do so ought to spread. But I fear I may be the only man to do it. I've seen it in the eyes of too many I've discussed this with. Far too many will fear being ridiculed for doing the same thing. And they too would risk the ire of those who are so cynical they cannot stand the fact that others are not also cynical and take whatever is not nailed down while there is still something to take. Those corrupt individuals will seek a resolution that will satisfy their madness just so long as all hold-outs are eliminated by the example my ordeal would set.

If I am the only one to take on this risk, well so be it. I pray that is not the case.

Part 2: Part of the Reason for Shunning Social Security

Part 3: Social Security and Family Lore

Part 4: This Post Cost Me $4400

Part 5: Political Cowardice and Social Security

Part 6: This Post Cost Me Over $11K

Part 7: This Post Cost Me At Least $65K