I'm watching the Elon/Vivek are going to kick Grandma to the curb meltdowns on social media lately and the only thing that comes to mind as being close to protected are the schools.
While I am all against stupid, meaningless degrees and don't think college is for everyone and believe in giving our youngsters good, useful educations I'd just bet that almost every school district in the country has some waste in the budget. I'd also bet we're paying incompetent teachers and useless administrators. There's likely a lot of unused or useless stuff in the school systems. Then there's the teacher's union and tenure which I don't have to talk about.
It's a lead pipe cinch that the Social Security has a lot of inefficiency and waste in it, too. Although it's not a big ticket item I bet there's truckload after truckload of stuff that should be carted off to GSA to be surplussed and sold to the public. As an example I wonder just how many unused still in the box laptops they have laying around.
I say this because shortly after I started this blog I started using surplus GoBooks for my laptop because they were physically tough and I got them inexpensively. Of the three I went through (the updated technology outdated them) all three were unused. The refurbished simply swapped out the hard drives and installed an operating system. I paid maybe $125 apiece. They cost the government about $4500 a pop.
Enter either of these two organizations and even suggest cleaning it up and the screeching is immediate and ear shattering. If someone even suggests repainting a social security office people will accuse the SS people for wanting to make seniors starve by cutting benefits.
I suppose the opposite holds true for schools. If the school system decides to paint the classrooms twice a year parents are good with that because it's good for the children. If the school has been replacing desks every two years and decides to replace them annually nothing will be said. It's 'do it for the children' even though it won't make a damned bit of difference if they keep the desks for 15 or 20 years. A desk is a desk. It should last a while.
I'm all for teaching the kids the latest and greatest technology and realize it isn't cheap but give it a rest. Upgrading laptops annually (or whatever) really isn't going to make a damned bit of difference.
I would imagine this attitude is strongest in the suburbs.
As far as SS goes, suggesting cutting out dead wood and waste you can expect a hue and cry because they're going to accuse the SS people (and now DOGE) of trying to cut benefits. Grandma will starve and get thrown to the wolves if they do anything to it at all.
If DOGE is smart they will announce that any savings would go toward increasing benefits for seniors and even if they only increase benefit checks by a buck they'll get away with it. Still, there will be a LOT of dubious people watching this very carefully.
As I write this I am probably going to become the Benedict Arnold of seniors because I know a little bit of history.
Social Security was never meant to be a retirement in itself. It was a depression era program to give seniors a little something to supplement the savings income that an awful lot of people were not able to make because of the depression. Americans prior to SS were expected to figure out how to retire on their own. It was strictly a supplemental program that has been leveraged into what it is today.
Needless to say, the reason it was leveraged was plainly and simply for votes. Seniors could vote, of course. However back in the day a lot of seniors moved in with their children. (My mother moved in with my brother for a while) Now the senior's children realized a raise in SS meant more money for the household. Guess which way they voted? As usual, the people were being bribed for votes with their own money.
Now it's a total retirement program for a large percentage of the people and in many ways discourages thrift because in a lot of cases (mine included) it's enough for a person to retire on easily unless they expect a Lamborghini lifestyle. (That's on you.)
Still, as a working stiff that worked until he was 71 and by law started collecting at 70 it's more than enough for a reasonable lifestyle. I'm retired rather comfortably on it and still have some left over. At 73 I have not had to dip into my savings. I can even afford my hobbies which are not expensive.
I'm a shooter, a ham radio operator and own an old sports car. Of course I paid all of the expenses for these hobbies while I was working. I bought my firearms, my radios and the Miata (the Miata cost me $1200 and I did all the needed work myself) All I need is a little electricity, a few gallons of gas and ammo components for my hobbies and Lord knows, I'm stocked up on ammo components.
Coupled with the fact that my house is paid off and I know how to cook and take care of myself which certainly keeps expenses down. You're retired. You have time to cook decent meals for yourself. One other thing is that I don't live in an expensive part of the country.
I have heard complaints about SS not being enough to 'live on'. Maybe in NYC it isn't but it's your choice to live there. Besides, you should be expected to have planned ahead and not relied on it.
Some of the complainers are the people that retired early. You can start drawing payments at 62 but when you do the reduced rate stays with you for life. As of now, personally, I think what I pull in is probably more than should be paid out to some extent.
Actually the people that scammed the system and drew disability to stop working early draw a reduced rate and it doesn't go up when you reach legal retirement age. If you were still capable of working you screwed yourself. Not my problem. You did it to yourself by being lazy and not planning ahead.
I'm not stupid and I'm not going to turn my surplus in but I have to admit it was a lot more than I expected years ago.
Can you still afford to sit at the bar all day swilling down expensive drinks like you did when you were working a union job with 10+ hours a week overtime? No. Can you afford to idle your golden years spending huge sums of hookers and blow? No. You're not supposed to be able to. The program was originally designed to supplement your savings and let you live out your final years with a little dignity.
One thing, though. I do believe the lifestyle I enjoy now totally off of SS is going to eventually come to an end as inflation rises. COLAs really don't keep up with inflation.
Incidentally I am not alone with a good lifestyle on SS. A shipmate that retired about a year after I did reports similar results. He's living well off of SS.
Many people thing the program should be abolished and TS. Not so. It should be made voluntary and those on it should be taken care of. It's been proven time and again that a person can do better than SS if they have any financial sense.
The government took the money from us every payday and promised to make good on it upon retirement and it would be simply unfair to cut off a large segment of the population that is to old and beat up to be able to go back to work. It's just patently unfair for government to break a promise.
Actually the program really was self supporting for quite a while. There was a pile of money that really was set aside to keep the program afloat until Congress saw an unused pile of money sitting there like it was supposed to and decided to plunder it from time to time. Recently Biden signed a bill that will make SS insolvent six months earlier than currently figured.
Actually as I was writing this it has occurred to me that maybe I should be putting my savings aside as COLAs don't really keep up with honest inflation.
Someone that retired 10 years ahead of me has less buying power than I do because he entered retirement at a lower rate and as we used to say commercial fishing where we were paid a percentage of the catch, 10% of nothing is nothing.
If someone retired 10 years earlier than me he got (for example) $1000/month. With a 10% COLA he now makes $1100.
If someone retired 10 years later and pulled $1500/mo to start the same 10% COLA would get him $1650.
The older you get the less you get in real dollars. I'm on the right path tucking any extra monies I get aside.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
