Rhode Island cuts pensions, gets backing from federal court

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

Welp, I guess it's official, us gen xers get ZERO SS......federal court ruling sets precedence.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/an-obscure-court-decision-against-a-rhode-island-towns-police-officers-and-firefighters-could-be-a-warning-sign-for-social-security/ar-BBIQf5o?li=BBnb7Kz

[Au165]

Finance classes should be a requirement from early years of school. Explaining to kids the importance of retirement early on will help with the eventual issues down the line as SS slowly reduces benefits over the coming years. I also would like to see legislation passed that when SS eventually fails to pay out those who paid into it, withdrawals from their 401ks become tax free up to whatever they contributed into SS.

[*michaelsean*]

I don't see how you get to just say, "We aren't paying what we promised, and oh you have to pay some of it back."

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(02-08-2018, 02:19 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I don't see how you get to just say, "We aren't paying what we promised, and oh you have to pay some of it back."

That's what struck me the most about the situation.  Pay it back?  What a mess.


I DO like Au's suggestion about the 401k.

[BengalHawk62]

They say SS has 16 years left before it "runs out".  I'm forty now.....probably another 20 years left to work. (fingers crossed)  Great, work all my life, having my hard earned funds put into SS, without my say so, and can't get any of it back. 

Do I get to sue the gov't for basically stealing my money from me?  No, not a chance.  Good lord, what do you do?

[treee]

Can you file a class-action lawsuit against the government?

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

What I find odd, is that not many news sources want to discuss this, little if any politicians want to talk about it, and not many on "one side or the other" like it either.  BOTH sides are to blame, so naturally no one likes the negative spotlight.  This is why we can't have nice things.....we won't discuss this, but we'll damn sure talk about who can piss where, guns, or what have you, at length.

[ballsofsteel]

(02-08-2018, 04:07 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: They say SS has 16 years left before it "runs out".  I'm forty now.....probably another 20 years left to work. (fingers crossed)  Great, work all my life, having my hard earned funds put into SS, without my say so, and can't get any of it back. 

Do I get to sue the gov't for basically stealing my money from me?  No, not a chance.  Good lord, what do you do?

Don't worry, Drumph and the Repubs will take care of you.

[Benton]

Sure, we may have to work longer and harder before we can retire thanks to both sides gross incompetence and deficit spending while cutting taxes on high earners, but look on the bright side. Eric trump can now retire!

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(02-08-2018, 05:52 PM)Benton Wrote: Sure, we may have to work longer and harder before we can retire thanks to both sides gross incompetence and deficit spending while cutting taxes on high earners, but look on the bright side. Eric trump can now retire!

You said it......

[Benton]

(02-08-2018, 05:56 PM)Wyche Wrote: You said it......

And that's not to fault Trump directly. It's the whole mindset of that group of people who either A- are in charge or B- pay the people in charge. They have no concept of what it's like for common people. 

[BengalHawk62]

(02-08-2018, 05:52 PM)Benton Wrote: Sure, we may have to work longer and harder before we can retire thanks to both sides gross incompetence and deficit spending while cutting taxes on high earners, but look on the bright side. Eric trump can now retire!

I agree with this.  Its not one side or the other.  Its both sides. 

Would term limits have helped solve this issue? 

[BmorePat87]

(02-08-2018, 01:46 PM)Au165 Wrote: Finance classes should be a requirement from early years of school. Explaining to kids the importance of retirement early on will help with the eventual issues down the line as SS slowly reduces benefits over the coming years. I also would like to see legislation passed that when SS eventually fails to pay out those who paid into it, withdrawals from their 401ks become tax free up to whatever they contributed into SS.

We mandated it in Maryland and my county added it to my class (Government). We teach financial literacy as the last unit. We used to have a financial lit math class but they got rid of it. 

[Benton]

(02-08-2018, 06:41 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: I agree with this.  Its not one side or the other.  Its both sides. 

Would term limits have helped solve this issue? 

Unfortunately, probably not at this point. It just means more people getting bribed, or running to do their damage to the system. A good chunk of the people who provide insight and advice are the same regardless of party. That's what tends to happen to the few non-corrupt people that get elected. They eventually fall into the same voting pattern as the ones openly fondling big donor fuzzy parts because they get the same information. 

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(02-08-2018, 06:35 PM)Benton Wrote: And that's not to fault Trump directly. It's the whole mindset of that group of people who either A- are in charge or B- pay the people in charge. They have no concept of what it's like for common people. 

(02-08-2018, 06:41 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: I agree with this.  Its not one side or the other.  Its both sides. 

Would term limits have helped solve this issue? 

Amen.

[Yojimbo]

(02-08-2018, 04:07 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: They say SS has 16 years left before it "runs out".  I'm forty now.....probably another 20 years left to work. (fingers crossed)  Great, work all my life, having my hard earned funds put into SS, without my say so, and can't get any of it back. 

Do I get to sue the gov't for basically stealing my money from me?  No, not a chance.  Good lord, what do you do?

It can pay out 100% of benefits until 2037. After that it drops to 80% of pay outs for another 20-30 years.  It's not going to be completely out of money, just not enough to pay out what was promised for 3 big reasons:

1) Congress has been stealing borrowing from the SS fun for a couple of decades now. They need to stop and put back all the money that has been taken.

2) Congress needs to lift the cap on wages taxed from $118k to at least $250k, but preferably no cap and you pay taxes on all your income, like the rest of us peasants do.

3) The Baby Boomer generation is retiring and there will be more of them retired than people working to pay into SS.

The first two can be fixed, the third one can’t. But, fixing the first two would probably alleviate the problem of the third one.

[StLucieBengal]

(02-08-2018, 01:46 PM)Au165 Wrote: Finance classes should be a requirement from early years of school. Explaining to kids the importance of retirement early on will help with the eventual issues down the line as SS slowly reduces benefits over the coming years. I also would like to see legislation passed that when SS eventually fails to pay out those who paid into it, withdrawals from their 401ks become tax free up to whatever they contributed into SS.

401k’s should all be tax free. And we should all have the option to opt out of SS.

[*michaelsean*]

(02-09-2018, 11:09 AM)Yojimbo Wrote: It can pay out 100% of benefits until 2037. After that it drops to 80% of pay outs for another 20-30 years.  It's not going to be completely out of money, just not enough to pay out what was promised for 3 big reasons:

1) Congress has been stealing borrowing from the SS fun for a couple of decades now. They need to stop and put back all the money that has been taken.

2) Congress needs to lift the cap on wages taxed from $118k to at least $250k, but preferably no cap and you pay taxes on all your income, like the rest of us peasants do.

3) The Baby Boomer generation is retiring and there will be more of them retired than people working to pay into SS.

The first two can be fixed, the third one can’t. But, fixing the first two would probably alleviate the problem of the third one.

Doesn't congress pay it back with interest?  

It's fine to lift the wage cap, but then you have to pay them more so I don't know how much of a gain that will be.

[Belsnickel]

(02-09-2018, 02:28 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Doesn't congress pay it back with interest?  

It's fine to lift the wage cap, but then you have to pay them more so I don't know how much of a gain that will be.

Congress is supposed to, but keep in mind this is just robbing Peter to pay Peter. I know I said Peter twice, and it's because where is that money and interest coming from? It's taken out of the general budget as a mandatory expenditure and takes away from other budget items and/or we incur further debt from it.

As far as raising/lifting the wage cap, not necessarily. Many people that go beyond that cap will see little to no benefit from SS, and some may even be ineligible or taxed to an extent where all of it goes back to the government. The accounting for SS is crazy.

[*michaelsean*]

(02-09-2018, 02:47 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Congress is supposed to, but keep in mind this is just robbing Peter to pay Peter. I know I said Peter twice, and it's because where is that money and interest coming from? It's taken out of the general budget as a mandatory expenditure and takes away from other budget items and/or we incur further debt from it.

As far as raising/lifting the wage cap, not necessarily. Many people that go beyond that cap will see little to no benefit from SS, and some may even be ineligible or taxed to an extent where all of it goes back to the government. The accounting for SS is crazy.

I guess paying interest to yourself is better than paying it to some investor. Or maybe they have to borrow to pay it back so it doesn't matter that they are paying interest to themselves because eventually they will be paying it to some outside person or entity.

 If they don't get a return on their higher pay, then we are moving towards a welfare program.