rjr44
Well-Known Member
Laughing icon for the pic…same furor over the amount of waste and outright misuse of lots of $$$ not getting a mention.
Dammit!
Tariffs...what to make of them.
- Thread starter Dave Taylor
- Start date
Dammit!
Convoluted math 😁. Just read through the link and I am not clear on how the math works with taking money out from 401k/ira.this is one of those things they don't tell you.
If you earn any significant money while collecting SS before Full Retirement Age, they decrease your benefit significantly during that year.
Benefits Planner: Retirement | Receiving Benefits While Working | SSA
You can receive Social Security retirement or survivors benefits and work at the same time. However, if you are younger than full retirement age and earn more than certain amounts, your benefits will be reduced.www.ssa.gov
This is all actuarial science - and since I just picked up my YT PHD in this as I will be collecting next year, it is good to know.
also:
if people keep living longer, they need to do something (COVID actually helped SS)
if salaries don't grow with inflation they need to do something
if the population contracts instead of expands they need to do something
your employer matches your SS deduction, and your employer doesn't stop contributing when the worker hits the SS limit.
everyone pays - even if they won't be eligible. (F1 practical training visas are exempt - as are H2A)
higher earners have to start paying in again at a certain income level. (this expired a few years ago - they are talking $400k as the new restart level)
this gets back to my finance thread post on getting to $1M saved - which could safely throw off $4,000+/month in retirement -
most people can't do it. they just can't. unseen payroll deductions are the way. what if 1 out of 10 opt-outs fail?
are you going to say TFB? they'll just steal your food to eat, and your money to pay their cell phone.
all the gvt needs to do to make it work is tweak numbers. Actuarial science. go figure.
I should move this question the finance thread and start my YT PHD because it’s going to take me a long time to master it 🤣
I agree with this - the president should be out, being one of the people for a couple hours a week.
the incremental cost of flying AF1 (or marine 1) is small compared to having it.
I saw the president today means a lot.
I don't care which president, if I voted for him or not.
I get a president boner when I see GWs desk, or signed letters, or walk one of the historic properties in the greater Boston area.
it is history. some things worked, some didn't. A little different with DJT cause he sold his name as his income - so maybe standing outside Trump tower,
or riding through the golf course doesn't mean as much - still would be cool to see him in this role. Not for the talking points, just hey, there he is.
(same with our past, living presidents) - I did get to see Raymond Donovan occasionally. Closest i'll get more than likely.
We are trying to judge this as it happens - the results won't be known for years.
Everything that is financed by the gvt was negotiated at some point. I get this for my state, you get that for yours, we both vote yes.
Bloat never goes away until someone slashes it.
Remember Christie coming in and blowing-up everything in NJ - Teachers and Police were hit very hard - well they had to make a hard decision.
Once everything was cut back, with a critical eye, necessary programs/services were reinstated or reestablished with a modern purpose.
I'm socially liberal, monetarily conservative, but will always look to give someone a helping hand to stand on their own.
This thread is still open because it has been mostly civil. A couple posts seemed to go the personal attack route, but were answered without responding in-kind.
Johnny, you asked for some leeway for this type of discussion. Seems to be working out?
Johnny Utah
Well-Known Member
Yessir - I think this has been good and educational, at least for me it is!
All love with everyone on here - I harbor no hard feelings and welcome the open dialogue.
I hope the country can mend and start to find what they agree on rather than disagree with. My guess that means turning in on the politicians (on both idles) rather than each other.
BTW - if I met Biden I would still be star struck and would shake his hand proudly (if he let me).
Earlier this year I got to ride through DC and all the monuments - the Jefferson Memorial always chokes me up!
MMuller
Well-Known Member
Kicking the can much?
Anyone notice tariffs aren't in the news much now. They've moved on to the next points of chaos, firings and abandoning Ukraine. Along with a blip of Gaza takeover. Wonder what this week will bring?
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He's a founding father not a made up syrup mascot.....that said, im happy that his history isnt being white washed anymore.
I can't stand all the money we waste....however, THIS method I have tfour major problems with
1. As you mentioned....negative outcomes....I have seen how these random layoffs work in the real world....They rarely layoff the correct people...Usually many of the good people get swept up....on top of the fact that when DOGE are sending everyone THIS letter:
If my company sent that letter to people? wow....you know NOTHING about what X person does here and you assume that they are a piece of shit....BOY...I can't wait to work hard for this cock sucker. Any good employee will say....fuck this asshole, I can just go make more money in the private sector. This not the only way to do this....Bill Clinton did reduce the number of federal workers by 280,000....He did it in conjunction with Congress...there was order to it...They had reasons for laying off who they laid off. Also see what happened when these two shit heads laid off 300 people at the National Nuclear Security Administration...they realized oh fuck, we do actually need them. They have no clue who they are firing...and its going to be awesome for morale
2. We have NO IDEA what Elon is actually cutting....All he is saying is that he is stopping funding for XYZ....there is no records of anything...DOGE has an X page....there is no information past: "DOGE announced the termination of another 89 DOE contracts totaling $881 million" Ok...what does that mean? What contracts did you cancel? Who decided that whatever this was....its bad. This is really simple shit and the fact that they are not making any of it public makes me highly suspect.
3. Because they are simply just stopping payments....well alot of these things are contracts....there will be court cases...as we are seeing, so much of this stuff is being tied up by judges....as in, your doing it wrong.
4. While im sure most govt. departments could function with less people....unlike twitter...at some level...they MUST function. The FAA must do FAA stuff....and I don't care how many people it takes, I don't want my air travel any less safe. So cut all the people you want, but shit better still work....if people stop getting checks, shit will hit the fan....everyone hates the government until they need the government.
Johnny Utah
Well-Known Member
Agreed that I am happy we are not white washing history. I was inferring more about re-naming military bases and taking down statues of historic figures because of their ties to things our society no longer agrees with. I found it funny how certain figures, such as GW received an exception.
SmooveP
Well-Known Member
This. And the fact they are doing it with obvious glee and demonizing every low-level govt employee who is just doing their job. The richest man in the world fires you and then jokes about it on social media. I worked as a govt contractor for 25 years, including almost 20 on location at Ft. Monmouth and traveled to probably 40 military installations in the US and abroad. Met lots of fine people. Frankly, I saw more sleaze and corruption on the contractor side of things.
The chainsaw method will not improve the quality of the workforce. People with marketable skills will take the buyout and bolt to the private sector. People who are left behind will wonder if they're next. As an additional morale-booster, POTUS is publicly disparaging your agency's entire mission.
The people cheering this on scare me.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
underrated reply that got me extremely pissed that everyone missed great job DT
Johnny Utah
Well-Known Member
I shrug my shoulders a bit - we did this to the energy sector four years ago when Biden got in. Coal, oil field workers, etc. Then to anyone that did not want the COVID shot.
Government is too damn fat right now. Those jobs come with pensions that cost the tax payers for an eternity.
I am sympathetic - but my job representing many private businesses they all keep telling me finding qualified people to work is one of their hardest problems to solve. Many of my colleagues in my industry as well as related went to work from home Gov. jobs over the last five years - I even thought about it.
We obviously aren’t going to agree, but the last administration hired 80,000 employees to audit the tax payer - I am a bigger fan of Elon auditing government. If ten percent of what we are being told of wasteful spending is true - then I am for it.
My taxes sure as hell have not gone down over the last four years, my salary has stayed the same but was raped by inflation and everything around me skyrocketed while I was told it was Trumps fault🤷♂️
Well why is this happening?....our population moves around. Many people who live in the north east move to southern states and wait wait wait....there nearly 800 confederate monuments in this country???? Can you tell me another country that has had a major civil war and the loser has monuments erected all over?
On top of the fact that most of these monuments were not erected bc our family fought in the civil war and we want this monument to remember our fathers service..or honor fallen soldiers ..They were almost all put up during the late 1800 to 1920s around the time of the Jim Crow laws...This was done to further promote white supremacy during segregation....On top of the fact that our current presidents are not issuing decrees saying the Robert E Lee statue in New Orleans need to come down....the city council voted and decided. If trump had any balls, he would call Lee the loser that he was, then run over his statue with a bulldozer.
Johnny Utah
Well-Known Member
“I hear you Utah”
BTW - if he called Lee a Loser and ran it over in the name of Build Back Better that would be fantastic.
TommyF
Well-Known Member
^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ 100000000000000000000000000 %%%
rjr44
Well-Known Member
All valid concerns, and yet, I still haven't seen a single thought along the lines of, holy crap, I'm SOOO glad they put an end to that spending, what a farce that was. Or, it's about time they addressed the wasteful X (pun intended) expenditure and cut the horrible usage of Y.
Instead, it's all negative negative negative.
To be frank, I don't have a team in this fight, other than team USA. No matter who gets elected, I want every President to be the best ever cuz that means we keep improving. Now has that happened? Hell no! But I still want what's best for the country no matter which team they play for.
No president ever has been or ever will be perfect. But I wanna hear about the WINS as well as the losses, for if we don't criticize then we allow tyranny and corruption to run amok. And if we don’t celebrate wins then it’s just a death spiral of hate and misery.
So pls, for santiy sake, can we talk about some wins? If you (the royal you, not you specifically @UtahJoe ) say there are none then all that signals is you live in your own little info bubble and only consume info that confirms your biases as beliefs.
DANGIT!
Iv been staying out of this, but you hit on some good points so ill chime in,
This is exactly what a lot of people are talking about doing (at least the ones you would want to work with) which is unfortunately the OPPOSITE of what is really wanted (and supposedly they want to GROW the DOD side of things???!?!?, how are they going to do that treating the current employeees like this?)
p.s. there is also a guidance that hiring shall not exceed ONE new hire for every FOUR people who have left, So far I dont know anyone who has been actually laid off or fired.
This is likely the best way to do it, but still has its own problems (if you saw the age gap currently in the federal workforce that was created by this era its kinda of mind blowing), but at least you dont alienate the people who decide to stick it out through this BS.
yea its going end up costing MORE to break alot of these contracts than is allegedly being saved.
I'm sure SOME depts can function with fewer people, but there are some that are already functioning with a pretty limited manpower, and this treatment is NOT going to motivate ANYONE to actually work harder, and hell how many people under the age of 40 (maybe 45??) are even going to be interested in govt work if there is no option to work remotely/telework (hell i dont even think that pension is enough compensation for the wasted time in the car)
This is exactly what a lot of people are talking about doing (at least the ones you would want to work with) which is unfortunately the OPPOSITE of what is really wanted (and supposedly they want to GROW the DOD side of things???!?!?, how are they going to do that treating the current employeees like this?)
p.s. there is also a guidance that hiring shall not exceed ONE new hire for every FOUR people who have left, So far I dont know anyone who has been actually laid off or fired.
This is likely the best way to do it, but still has its own problems (if you saw the age gap currently in the federal workforce that was created by this era its kinda of mind blowing), but at least you dont alienate the people who decide to stick it out through this BS.
yea its going end up costing MORE to break alot of these contracts than is allegedly being saved.
I'm sure SOME depts can function with fewer people, but there are some that are already functioning with a pretty limited manpower, and this treatment is NOT going to motivate ANYONE to actually work harder, and hell how many people under the age of 40 (maybe 45??) are even going to be interested in govt work if there is no option to work remotely/telework (hell i dont even think that pension is enough compensation for the wasted time in the car)
SmooveP
Well-Known Member
OK, you go first on the big wins and how much money each one will save.
rjr44
Well-Known Member
Nope, I asked first, nice deflective non answer. Like I said, there’s tons of negativity in this thread, and I pleaded for some positivity. I get it, you think the current admin is 100% awful and everything they do is the complete opposite of what you’d do. I however don’t believe in absolutes. The last admin wasn’t perfectly good or perfectly bad, nor is this one.
This why I don’t get into political conversations cuz they’re anything but, instead it’s one side talking AT the other side. My last sentence basically foreshadowed the answers like this that would come in. You only comprehended what you wanted and ignored the rest.
I’m going back to basking in the glow of an epic hockey weekend and doing some sort of anti rain dance to hopefully get these dang trails back to primo riding conditions!
I think that taking down civil war era plaques and statues of the losing side was long overdue and should have never been put up in the first place. You wouldn't see Hitler statues in Germany after WW2, why would we be ok with statues of traitors to the US? I don't really know about the military bases, I'm clueless on that.
I agree 100%, that we simply can't whitewash history, Washington had slaves, so be it. It happened, no reason to try to hide it. Times change, i'd like to think that I would have been an abolitionist, but really, who the fuck knows? It's really difficult for me to judge people of different era's.
Also, I don't agree with changing derogatory language in books written in the past. It serves no purpose. The vernacular at the time belongs in books and archives.
SmooveP
Well-Known Member
You're the one stating that there are big wins but not offering any examples. I'm clearly on the other side of this debate. I could come up with negative examples, but you said you didn't want any more of those.