Bernanke is INSANE

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,634
396
126
He wants to cut back on Medicare and social security while Wall Street keeps raping us? He can do this if he pays me back for thirty fucking years I have paid in for these entitlement programs.
The fact is, your contributions to Medicare and Social Security don't come close to covering what you'll probably take from it (on average). These programs were supposed to pay for themselves (i.e. only those who contribute earn a benefit) but they don't.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
I will gladly cut back on my SS payments. Let me out of that insane system!
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
I'd like to have all I paid in back in one lump sum so I could invest it.
 

Ausm

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,213
14
81
I will gladly cut back on my SS payments. Let me out of that insane system!

Bet you won't say that when you hit retirement age because from your naive posts you must be pretty young. I don't know of anyone who is of retirement age turning down their SS payments....maybe you could be the first?
 
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heyheybooboo

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2007
6,278
0
0
The fact is, your contributions to Medicare and Social Security don't come close to covering what you'll probably take from it (on average). These programs were supposed to pay for themselves (i.e. only those who contribute earn a benefit) but they don't.

Actually ....

On average I think (today) it takes 11-12 years on the SS 'dole' to recoup the 'actual' (without interest) money an individual pays into the system if they retire at 65.

And I think the 'average' will (maybe in the next 5 years or so) be rising to 13-14 years to get 'your' money back.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
That's one Republican that knows his shit and Bernanke's response makes me want to puke.
Yep, and the 100% at par is, as Dodd reiterated, ridiculous. I'm sure they could have found leverage. When you are paying somebody billions of dollars you have leverage regardless of what anybody says.
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,329
126
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/03/bernanke-channels-willie_n_378963.html

He wants to cut back on Medicare and social security while Wall Street keeps raping us? He can do this if he pays me back for thirty fucking years I have paid in for these entitlement programs.

Lol. He actually gets something right and NOW your panties are in a wad?

BTW, I hate to be the one to break it to ya but you didn't pay into shit. They took it from you and give it to someone else and the money that WAS yours (before they took it and it became THEIRS) has already been spent.

No matter how hard you try you can't beat the math. I find it rather amusing that people are just now figuring this out and are actually pissed. We need a fucking war on exponents now!!
 
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First

Lifer
Jun 3, 2002
10,518
271
136
Bernanke didn't say that at all, really. HuffPost is actually quoting a self-avowed socialist in Bernie Sanders as an appeal to authority about entitlement spending. Let's be real here, they're going to be ultra-sensitive to anything that threatens liberal establishment programs. It's kind of sad since nowhere that I can see did Bernanke say let's cut off Medicare and SS to grandma. He talked about costs and unless Bernanke used a poor choice of words, that's simply not the same as reducing benefits as HuffPost claims.
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
36
91
Those government cheese checks need to stop completely.

People need to count on only themselves to retire.
 

Ausm

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,213
14
81
Lol. He actually gets something right and NOW your panties are in a wad?

BTW, I hate to be the one to break it to ya but you didn't pay into shit. They took it from you and give it to someone else and the money that WAS yours (before they took it and it became THEIRS) has already been spent.

No matter how hard you try you can't beat the math. I find it rather amusing that people are just now figuring this out and are actually pissed. We need a fucking war on exponents now!!

He got something right?...hardly.
 

Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,329
126
He got something right?...hardly.

Ok. Please explain to me how the math works out on our current system of entitlements...

Evidently the math is completely wrong and you are right, so please oh please explain your new system of math that invalidates our current system.

I am sure you will think I am a fool and that the math is wrong but it doesn't change the fact that you are not going to get a pittance of what you think you are owed. You have been conned my friend, along with the rest of us. The sooner you figure that out the better off we will all be.
 

dahunan

Lifer
Jan 10, 2002
18,191
3
0
This is because PNAC/Neocons/Bush borrowed BILLIONS from SS to be repaid 20yrs from now when it is dead and we don't have the money to repay it
 

Double Trouble

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
9,270
103
106
Seems pretty reasonable. I'd gladly get out of the stupid social security system if there was a way to opt out. I can invest my own money and make 4 times the return on my money, as opposed to the government idiots who waste the money and replace it with IOU's.
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
Bernanke et al were wrong about Brooksley Born in particular and regulation in general. But nobody wants to talk about these things when everybody's making money...
 

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
2
76
ostif.org
In Bernakes defense, he did not have the authority to negotiate discounts on bailed out assets. The one firm that did offer a discount rate did so under the stipulation that all other bailed out banks would accept the same discount. (2%)

The way this bailout was engineered, some banks recieved funds that actually didn't need them (there was a good reason for that, that i wont get into) and therefore, would not accept a discount.

The ones that were in trouble were threatening to just go bankrupt rather than accept a discount which would result in large losses.

The Feds hands were tied in this situation. Bernake could not have done this much differently.

However, he has done a piss poor job on regulation. Abysmally bad considering the results of failed policy being very evident... and still nothing is being done.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,681
136
The fact is, your contributions to Medicare and Social Security don't come close to covering what you'll probably take from it (on average). These programs were supposed to pay for themselves (i.e. only those who contribute earn a benefit) but they don't.

Mere assertion is not fact. You need to substantiate that. Good luck doing so.

Administrative costs? Shee-it, Sherlock, SS has extremely low admin costs, typically far less than mutual funds or similar types of investment.

Bernanke's remarks are typical of the rightwing, of the monied elite. Take it out on the little guy, don't mess with my pile... SS obligations aren't the problem- all of the other debt racked up by the Heroes of the Right- RR, GHWB & GWB are the real problem, and anybody with enough sense to pour piss out of a boot knows it. The only fiscally responsible Admin of the last 30 years was Clinton's.

Make more money investing? Heh. How lame. Check the market, and the state of bonds in general to figure that one out. The only bonds anybody wants are govt bonds, or those having an explicit govt guarantee... Pension funds have taken a huge hit, as well.

To Bernanke's credit, he has practically begged congress to reform the crippled and ineffective regulatory model currently in existence, and, uhh, they're working on it, kinda-sorta, maybe.

And he's done what he could to avoid a debt/deflation spiral, even though the guys who legally stole much of the money would like nothing better. If you're rich, then having your money gain in value stuffed into your mattress is the best risk-free investment imaginable... Real investment, risk, becomes pretty pointless.
 

fallout man

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2007
1,787
0
0
I'd like to have all I paid in back in one lump sum so I could invest it.

Seriously.

It may not seem like that much paycheck-to-paycheck, but if I were given the lump sum of my contribution to SS (the contribution I'll never have the opportunity to benefit from due to the "lock-box raid,") I could easily gamble that spare income (money I would have never seen again anyway) on the stock market. I'm fine with contributing to medicare.