You know what, this “spread the wealth” crap is really starting to get on my gorramed nerves:
House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers transfer their dough into government-created “guaranteed retirement accounts” for every worker. The government would deposit $600 (inflation indexed) every year into the GRAs. Each worker would also have to save 5 percent of pay into the accounts, to which the government would pay a measly 3 percent return. Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, said that since “the savings rate isn’t going up for the investment of $80 billion [in 401(k) tax breaks], we have to start to think about whether or not we want to continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that’s not generating what we now say it should.”
I barely even have a 401K (needless to say, the military does not have those newfangled thingies), and the only thought bouncing through my head at the moment is, “Frak that gosse.”
I already pay into a “government-created ‘guaranteed retirement account’”, otherwise known as “Social Security“. You know, the thing that I am never going to see a dime out of due to its inherently Ponzi-scheme-ish nature? Yeah, that. And considering the government’s craptacular performance at managing Social Security, why on God’s Green Earth would I ever want them to manage even more of my income?
Oh. Right. I would not.
Yes, the market is going through some rough times. Yes, a lot of retirement accounts are tanking (401Ks included). Yes, it is affecting just about everyone (hell, I have watched over six thousand dollars just… evaporate… out of a single mutual fund alone). Yes, if you did not plan accordingly, your retirement future could be in serious jeopardy.
But, you know what? That is not my problem, and it sure as hell is not the government’s.
Our futures are ours to decide, ours to govern, and ours to be accountable and responsible for. If you plan well, save better, and come out at a reasonable retirement age with enough money to keep you happy and well-fed for the rest of your life, more power to you. If you fail to do so… well… them’s the breaks. In some cases, maybe you should have planned better. In some cases, maybe you should have saved more. But, regardless, the shit hath hitteth the fan-eth, and life sucks right about now if you have any money at all in the stock market.
Deal with it already. Everything is cyclical, and so long as the government does not do something completely idiotic (see “President Roosevelt and his New Deal extended the Great Depression“), the stock market will recover. Granted, if Senator Barack Hussein Obama succeeds with his socialistic goals, it may not matter what the market does, but I am still holding out a little hope.
Despite what the Democratic Party thinks, the American government is not here to feed us. The American government is not here to ensure we have jobs. The American government is not here to provide us “free” health care. The American government is not here to pay us not to work (otherwise known as “Welfare“). The American government is not here to ensure we have a retirement plan/account. If you wanted all of that, you should have moved to Soviet Russia about forty years ago. Of course, we all know how that ended up, do we not? It is our own responsibility to plan for our own futures, and if shit happens… well, I am sorry, but shit happens. Plan accordingly, and then plan for that plan going to hell.
Why does it seem as though Teresa Ghilarducci’s plan is nothing more than another step in Senator Barack Hussein Obama’s socialism… and why do I get this eerie feeling that the American populace will buy it hook, line, sinker, and rod?
Oh, right, because no one in their right mind would vote in a way that would result in them receiving smaller government hand-outs, right? Even though those same “hand-outs” are not being paid for by the government… but by the American people. It is just that the people who receive the government goodies are not the same people who pay for those goodies… and guess which group outnumbers the other?
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