Famous Physicist Richard Feynman: “Nobody understands quantum physics”
Car Talk Forum: “Nobody understands Social Security” … lol …
When it was time for me to sign up I picked up a book on how to game Social Security. Lots of possibilities provided by SS provisions. The problem was, by the time I arrived at the gate politicians had also read this book and removed most of those provisions.
At the time the 1st choice for standard plates was blue on white w/red lettering for “California”, no yellow. Maybe the sun version was available as a higher priced option, don’t recall. I notice the rear yellow-on-blue plate in your photos has what would currently be an illegal placed registration sticker. Maybe legal in 1971/72 though.
Call it ocd or whatever but I always tell the secretary when I buy a car, I’ll put the stickers on. Just so I get them on straight. This year I got a new plate and Danged if the clerk at dmv didn’t put both the year and month stickers on. I was horrified but she got them on straight and I complemented her. Maybe that could be construed as sexual harassment but I didn’t say anything about her long hair, just did a nice job on the stickers. I also scrape the old stickers off before I put the new ones on. I marvel at the people that have, blue, red, yellow, white stickers all on top of each other. I wonder how they can live with such sloppiness.
My niece (age 70) had been married twice, the first time for about 15-years and the second time, about 20-years. When she and her second husband started collecting SS, her lifetime earnings were greater than her second husband’s earning. As it worked out, she collected on her SS and her husband collected on his.
When he died, her discussions with the SS people was that she would continue to collect on her own earnings as the payout was greater. They asked why she did not want to collect on her deceased, first husband’s SS as she had been married over 10-years. Her first husband’s lifetime earnings were significantly higher and her spousal SS would be higher and she could have been collecting on his SS all along…
Somethings you never get told about… She is now collecting on her first husband’s SS. And remember, you’ve heard it here…
So, back to an “Automotive theme…” So what do you thing is now “Driving” this thread?
I cannot precisely describe what drives me to layer, upon layer, the yearly registration stickers on top of each other. Maybe it’s like the Mountain Climber who say, they climb because it’s there… or the Deep Sea Diver who swims to great depths defying death…
I once heard a joke about an extreme version of this and the car owner said that when it gets thick enough, it will work better than the 5-MPH Bumpers… L 
L…
I also remember the episode of “Seinfeld” when Crammer took a new car out for a test drive and the salesman kept saying there is not much gas in the tank, but they keep driving and driving, all day and into the night until the car finally runs out of gas…
On advantage of that method, if you have a need for an old one, you know where to find it.
This wasn’t my experience, and I’ve signed up for everything. These sound like the questions I have to answer to get the free credit checks at the credit bureaux.
The SSTF cannot, by law, issue debt to pay benefits. All benefits must come out of SS taxes collected. If Congress does nothing benefits will drop to about 77% when the SSTF zeroes out. There was a big compromise in '86 that delayed this happening then.
Johnson changed the way the government reports its total debt to include SS, but that didn’t make it a borrowable-upon program.
Benefits go up 8% every year until age 70, a good return for most people. My parents lived into their 90s so I waited until 70.
In 1935 65 was the only retirement age and the average longevity. Recipients were widows, most of whom had no savings or pension. Pensions for old people were already popular, made so by Francis Townsend, a physician, who proposed the Townsend Plan in 1933. SS was in response to this.
They aren’t issuing debt to pay benefits, they are borrowing from the fund and providing a worthless iou. Maybe not worthless, we will see, but the government currently spends more than it takes.in requiring putting the rest on credit with an increasing interest rate.
They aren’t borrowing from the fund: they’re spending it. There are no IOUs. The money they’re spending is there.
That’s separate from SS.
Back to accounting class or do you think they should be arrested. They cannot just have a check issued by ss to Lockheed or someone. The money is transferred first to the general fund where it can be spent. Ss gets the note for it to be redeemed at some point or not.
I think you are saying that every SS Tax dollar collected is sitting in a bank vault somewhere waiting to be distributed to eligible recipients … “Uncle Scrooge,” there is not… That surplus is being used (or has been used…)…
As you know, the number of workers contributing into the fund is insufficient to keep up with the moneys outgoing to the recipients.
Yes, decades ago, the fund was rising with the Boomers out numbering the recipients and the future looked bright, but as the number of workers decreased and the number of recipients increased and the government was not collecting enough money to keep up with the payouts…
And the Social Security Benefits are now a “Line Item Expense” in the National Budget… Remember, when congress was threatening to default, they warned that Social Security recipients would not get paid. And why is that, there is no money actually in the fund, it’s all “IOU” Bonds and other “paper…”
From the National Accounting Office:…
In 2010, Social Security began running cash deficits (excluding interest). Without reforms, the trustees project that those cash-flow deficits will grow rapidly. Annual cash deficits are expected to total $3.3 trillion dollars between 2023 and 2034. As Social Security runs those cash deficits, the trust funds will “redeem” their Treasury securities and the Treasury will have to borrow funds from the public to cover the shortfalls.
Social Security has been receiving more $$ in payroll taxes than paying out to beneficiaries for many years. They purchase Treasury Bonds with the surplus, and have run up a big investment total. The beneficiaries (US retirees) of course expect the federal gov’t to redeem those bonds in full on demand, same as the foreign governments and corporations who purchase Treasury Bonds b/c they are considered the world’s safest investment. Some say if/when the gov’t redeems those bonds, those purchased by Social Security, foreign gov’ts, corporations, it will take away money from US Treasury needed for other uses. Same as your neighbor could complain if you take money from your checking account to buy a car, that hurts them, b/c it takes money from their bank. Notice how I make it car related? lol
Well the bank usually doesn’t have to borrow money again to cover paying out someone’s cd.
Every time money gets deposited in your bank accounts, the bank is actually borrowing your money. And it is lending it to other people. It pays you some interest when it borrows your money, and it charges other people more interest when it lends it. The profit comes from the difference in the interest rates.
Social Security receives income from payroll withholding and has a trust fund to pay benefits. What would you suggest it do with the money in the trust funds? Beside invest it in the safest investments that exist, called Treasury bonds?
We all pay into Social Security, and that includes members of Congress, judges and politicians. Do you think the elected members of Congress are going to cut your benefits? Really?
And what the hell does all this have to do with license plates?
George tells us that on the radio show the brothers discuss cars for two minutes, then migrate to death and taxes for 58 minutes.
If it wasn’t for diversions once in a while the clicks would be quite a bit smaller and limited in scope. But to be car related, if you haven’t noticed you will need every penny you can muster to buy your next car.
I will tie the Seinfeld comments to the license plate comments. Remember the episode where the proctologist had the license plate ASSMAN?
Actually, I didn’t notice it.
I’m in the boat of people who stop paying into SSN by Late October. Without the cap over the past 30+ years, some analysts say SSN would be solvent.
Must be the credit card rebates that make the difference. Or early to bed early to rise makes a man or non man healthy wealthy and wise.
