A basic rant

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31

I get 72% of my paycheck every two weeks.

The other 28% disappears, an offering to the overlords and demigods that oversee things. I live in America, so I assume someone is getting a new golden toilet seat or some other trinket. And please no one leave a comment saying “well at least you get a paycheck.” If we let all the “buts” and “at least” statements keep us from a good rant there would be nothing to talk about.

Whenever I take the time to login to workday and actually look at the details of my pay it makes me mad. 72% and somehow the government doesn’t have enough money is what I always hear. Somehow my kids and possibly me won’t get social security even though it’s a basic fund for our citizenship that you can only withdraw from at a certain age, yet all tax paying brackets contribute to. So how does a well we should all be dropping water in and controlling who takes it out go dry? That’s basic math, it shouldn’t happen.

In a land of justice, you can still have a world of corruption and any country with a government will have that.

I imagine when you sit all day at your government job and see big digit figures that aren’t yours you become callous at some point. It’s the very reason bankers and investors get caught for fraud all the time. And in a corporation so big it is called the Federal Government, why not take a dime here or a quarter here or there when you know for a fact it’s impossible to track. Those dimes and quarters were so easy to take, why not a dollar now? Or a million… one time.

I get 72% of my paycheck and don’t see the benefit of the 28% because I’m feeding someone else’s greed. And it’s bullshit.

That’s my basic rant for the day.

-OM

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31 thoughts on “A basic rant”

  4. Good rant. I feel for you. I am glad my husband and I can take our social security before it is all taken by the government. I feel and pray for you and all the younger generation. It is going to get even crazier as the future approaches. Take care, you and your family.

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  7. Social Security wasn’t meant to be a “pension,” or a “retirement fund,” but rather a social safety net when those didn’t cut it. As my dad used to explain, his SS $$ were helping to support his parents; mine would help to support him; and the next generation’s would help to support me. What I tell my kids – Boomers outnumber them. Unless they want Mom and Dad moving in when we’re 80-something, they’d best not vote against their own self-interest to do away with Social Security.

    Let’s begrudge the government all their war toys, before we start in on all the things we and our families might actually need and use.

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  8. I’ve never figured out where my taxes go. Certainly, I’ve never seen any benefit from them. And since few people in government believe that Old Lives Matter Too, I don’t expect I’ll ever see any benefit. Meanwhile, I do my best to hang onto the 72% that I’m allowed to keep, and that gets harder and harder every year.

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    • You’ve just got a mean government!

      Now that I’m over 65, I get NZ Superannuation. I get this regardless of what other sources of income I have. The wife also gets NZ Superannuation. While it’s not lavish, it’s enough for the two of us to live comfortably on, including several overseas trips and cruises. We’re supposed to be on a 7-week tour in Japan right now, but COVID-19 put a stop to that.

      On top of that, most health services are universal and free and although prescription aren’t free, the maximum charge is $5, even if it’s for a year’s supply. That only applies to the first 20 prescriptions per household per year. After that they’re free.

      And then there’s our universal no faults accident compensation scheme that covers all aspects of personal injury including loss of income and modification of the home, car workplace etc if required, even job training if you can no longer work as you did before the accident.

      The government covered the full cost of my education, although these days tertiary education is no longer fully funded. However most of the income that universities and polytechnics receive comes from the government, with only a small proportion being paid by students,

      Just to rub it in, When I was working full time, my income put me in the top tax bracket where I paid 28% tax. On my current income, I pay 17%. No, I don’t begrudge the taxes I pay.

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      • Maybe it’s time for me and hubby to move to NZ. We pay through the teeth for all of that. Fortunately, I’ve got our household budget down far enough that we could, in fact, live on Social Security once we both retire – and manage to keep our house. I probably would have to give up my Remicade treatments, however, because those are outrageously expensive without private insurance. Just in case, I have my GI doctor research less expensive alternatives.

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  9. There are two reason, okay, three, that SS is in the mess it’s in.

    Democrats created it. They’re very good at spending money without planning on how to fund it, that’s whay the CBC has to look out so far to determine if a budget item is feasible, the further out you go the more they plan on dumping into it, knowing that it will never happen. Look at how they budgeted for BOcare (yeah, BO stinks), they weren’t planning on acutally spending anything until after BO was out of office, then they underestimated how much it would cost so that everything would balance out.
    SS was implented with the idea that the population would always increase by a logarithmic progression. That’s the only way it could continue to pay for itself, since the amount of money going into it, per person, is not (never was) enough to sustain its future. The only time they want to raise taxes is to pay for something new, not to sustain existing programs.
    The population is on a steady decline, working population that is. We need more people coming into the US to get jobs. We also need to get Congress (and other fed employees) out of their cushy pensions and totally reliant on SS for their retirement income (no cushy private sector jobs afterwards, no massive 401K programs). That is the only way they will actually care about fixing the SS system. Remember, people in Congress make more money in one year than the average worker does in a lifetime, because of all the outside money they allow themselves to rake in.

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  10. Good rant! I’m totally with ya. I try not to look at my pay stubs because they just make me angry. Also the potholes here are terrible and our city just poured 3 million into an abyss, a real estate exploit, but no biggee, they plan to just raise taxes to cover the loss.

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