My great aunt ran some welfare agency -- perhaps unemployment -- based in N.Y.C. either for the city or the state. She knew these people and worked on some occupational job-satisfaction task force that created some test in which over eighty per cent of American workers did not like their jobs. No surprise.
The problem is my family's mythology. While my details may be in parts apocryphal, with me contributing, Aunt Lolly was pretty amazing: Ann Arbor under-graduate and Sorbonne Masters. Sadly she died when I was three. I would have liked to have known her; might have gotten me into triple-digit I.Q. territory. 😥😉
Another problem,. Ned, is the use of the word "welfare" frequently interpreted as an unearned gift from the government to an individual. Neither Social Security nor Unemployment benefits are. Both programs are paid for by the working individual. An example of welfare is the 'oil depletion allowance' an unearned gift to the fossil fuels industry which has done NOTHING to earn it.
The fossil fuel industry employs thousands of lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and thousands elsewhere to wine, dine, bribe, suck up to, and generally corrupt the corruptible in Congress.
Just think what this country would be like if political campaigns were publicly financed and lasted weeks instead of months. And politicians could not be bought.
But could that country be this one -- when we all know perfectly well that this one has its K-12 all totally dehumanized, strangled by the profiteers of standardized testing? -- when we all know that this one has its college students massively strangled by the ghoul gargantuan dominance of group identity silos, by biz ed, and by banks and their capture of the most historic debt load ever in U.S. history?
Having worked at an executive level at one of the largest banks in the country, I can tell you that people who actually run the banks concern themselves with profitability, credit quality, soundness, sales, safety and security, growth, the current economy, and whatever glimpse of the coming environment their execs and specialists can provide. There is never any discussion of the confusing gobbledy-gook word salad you mention, something that I’m sure sounded fine when you made it up.
As I suppose the rest of your list originated as personal fever dreams.
I have an acquaintance who promotes standardized testing and has done so for years, sincerely believing, as many do, that it has benefits. He may be wrong, I don’t know.
But the silly, badly motivated conspiratorial spin you try to put on everything is misleading (because it’s made up), distracting, and useless.
Congratulations on your success in banking, Tom. I also had a career in banking. While the capital markets had many innovations in products and trading during my time in them, my concern was that such innovations rarely, if ever, produced something.
The overwhelming pressures for profits; shifting and, at times, skewed micro-incentive structures; corruption of market practices; as well as, the demise of the what remained of the Glass-Steagall Act led to the melt-down of 2007-08.
By then I was with the State Department in Iraq. After the dust settled from the dot-bomb correction in 2000, I sensed that something larger was coming; that the cap-marts would blow. That dislocation was later, deeper, and broader than I could have imagined.
So, Phil is not spewing a conspiracy theory as the revolving door between N.Y.C. and D.C. has locked in a financial and harmful symbiosis between bankers and politicians. The draw-back is that, like all of us, bankers are subject to tunnel-vision foreclosing creative fix-its.
I didn’t mean to imply that banks always do the right thing. Banks regularly try stupid things that are meant to make money while either oblivious to or ignoring larger social damage.
Make no mistake, the investment bankers instigated the Real Estate Recession, with the venal acquiescence of rating agencies, commercial bankers, real estate brokers and millions of (gullible and greedy) customers.
Bankers stumble into things, often because they consider themselves the smartest people in the room (they never are). But they don’t plot secret control of all debt or control of all levers of power. That’s more the stuff of fantastic—and sometimes anti-semitic—bad novels.
On the other hand, the bank I worked for once dropped its Sales Finance operation rather than give in to rate subvention with large, multi-location mega auto dealers as we understood that such a practice is always to the customers’ financial detriment.
Agreed 100%. When, as a risk nerd, I could not reconcile M.B.I.A.'s nary-a-loss claim with events, that was the first clue. When ratings agency and bond insurance fees were commoditized, requiring multiples of volume to make the same money, that was the second clue.
When credit derivatives were booked with long-term confirms only -- often unexplainable to me (meaning future contract disputes being likely), --that was the third clue. When gain-on-sale accounting applied to booking credit derivatives, creating thirty basis points today on fifteen year trades for 100% non-cash income, that was the fourth clue. The killer was that, when a colleague actually used a credit derivative as insurance and claimed under it, he was vilified as 'unethical'.
It took a while for me to understand the role of repealing Glass-Stegall; I had opposed it mainly because it had worked. I did not make the moral hazard connection with deposit insurance contemporaneously. Basically, investment bankers saw a lot of dormant capital in the commercial banks and smacked their lips. That made sense, for liquidity was value back then and Glass-Steagall was viewed as retarding U.S. banks, threatening N.Y.C.'s supremacy as a global financial center.
The mistake with repealing Glass-Steagall was that commercial banks were more like public utilities and traditionally built up redundant capital as a precaution. The real estate M.B.O.s and C.D.O.s were getting big when I left in 2002. So, there were several BIGgamundo dots I was not connecting. If you endured this tome, Tom, you are a better man than I.
On the bankers thinking they are the smartest people in the room, I found that to be the case, too. Some, of course, were truly brilliant. But most, like me, were seduced by being quick with numbers. Kudos to your bank. Sounds like Wells Fargo or (if I remember correctly) U.S. Bank or Morgan Gty or P.N.C.
And yet, with American energy 85% petro sourced, not to mention plastics, we are all dependent on products from fossil fuels. Oil executives are hardly the only wealthy folks around. And people who work for the industry or supply the industry are not just the very rich. Our dependency mind you has produced much pollution, and thanks to scale, an emerging climate crisis.
Communism I tell you. Pure unAmerican communism. Now we must without further delay, bring back our true dear leader who will lead us from this mire of madness. Who will terminate and release the shackles upon which the Great captains of American Industry have been imprisoned and lead us into prosperity and freedom.
I present to you Our Dear Leader, Orange Fatso Blubber Baby to continue his wise leadership for the next 20 years. May his sons and grandsons follow in his wisen paw steps for the next 100 years.
Before my mother died 40+ years ago, repubs were doing the “modify SS again by calling it entitlement” blather. She was livid, having worked all her life in a hosiery mill and raising eight children. So had my dad. She said I earned it, it’s not a handout. Sadly, she died within a year, so the government was off the hook. Dad followed the next year. Yep, they were the welfare kings and queens that repubs like to denigrate. There should be a memorial somewhere to the victims of the “shirtwaist fire.” Those women and girls were martyrs to the cause of the working poor everywhere. The working poor, and what’s left of the middle class are the backbones of our society. The corporate rich, the trust fund rich, those who manipulate the system while denigrating the labor force, are just pigs slurping at the trough. Teddy R was the last rugged individualist, Ronald R was just all hat, no cattle. The poorest excuse for presidential bona fides, until chump reared his orange, ugly head. Republicans have forgotten what it is to act in good faith, democrats have not.
So very true. Both of my parents died before collecting ONE cent of their EARNED SS benefits. That situation led me to retire early and take my SS right away. I was not leaving money in the government's bank! BTW, when my Dad died (a WW2 vet who served in the jungles of New Guinea) he received a paltry $250 death benefit, and insulting sum for a veteran!
Hope your Dad got GI benefits or some recognition. But your Dad was definitely not a sucker or loser. That is the ultimate insult for veterans. BTW, I was supposed to get benefits on what my husband paid into SS. I got a letter saying that I would get $631 dollars if they could give me anything. But sadly, they could not. I had paid into Tex teacher retirement from which I get a paltry sum. Seems that they invested in Enron back in the day, which kept retired educators from reaching millionaire status.
My Dad got zilch! While in New Guinea he contracted malaria and sought compensation but the VA denied his claim. Of course my Dad never talked about it or complained...that is how the greatest generation was, unselfish, patriotic and HARDLY suckers or losers! 45 must be soundly defeated!
Unfortunately it seemed most had to try at least three times to get approved. I retired (after 20 years) in 1984, but it took until 2020 to get some compensation for hearing loss related having been hanging on to an Air Raid siren when it went off. It seems it produced 175 dBa at 100 ft, so who knows how much when you are 1 ft away. It was so loud I jumped off the tower (about 20 ft above the ground), and was badly shaken for several minutes. Service members that work in especially noisy environments (Jet engines, etc) must wear approved ear protection to avoid having problems claiming hearing damage, but most people like Artillery do get compensated even wearing all the ear protection available.
My dad was a WWII Veteran that taught me to always buy the National Service Life Insurance like he did, and keep it active for as long as possible. He told me about a recruiter who had 100% of his recruits signing up for it by hinting that policy holders would be less likely to be sent into combat so the service wouldn't have to pay out so much insurance. I'm sure this was just his sales pitch with little connection to reality, but it got him good reviews from the higher ups.
We knew too many Korean War widows who's lives were helped or hurt by their husband's choice to have or not have the insurance policy.
"...The National Service Life Insurance (NSLI) program was created on October 8, 1940, to manage the insurance needs of World War II service personnel. Over 22 million NSLI policies were issued from 1940 until the program was closed to new issues on April 25, 1951. Policies were issued under a variety of permanent plans and as renewable term insurance.
Today there are just over 67,880 policies still in force . Annual dividends are paid on these policies. The maximum face amount of a policy is $10,000..."
The Greatest Generation was great for more than their service. They didn't complain about being entitled to what the greedy bastards claim to be entitled to these days. Just duty and get on with your life. No bitching. Why it is so galling to hear the privileged complain about not having it all. Crap on chump, Bezos, Musk and the whole crew
I agree. The Great Depression made that generation a good generation for enduring that deprivation. Fighting and winning World War II made that generation a great generation for its valor. What made that generation the greatest generation, however, is what the men and women did after World War II in social policies and the safety net. A privileged kid out of a private college may have served next to the son of a plumber. The former may well have thought, "Why should that plumber NOT get the chance for a college education."
De-segregation started with that generation. Obviously, older people like Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower helped enormously. Yet, I believe, that each followed the tacit mandate of mass participation in an existential depression and war.
Yes, exactly, and Japan united a country that was divided, sort of like now. See Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939. Shocked me to my core when I first saw the pics.
I got a letter from SS saying they owed me 48k. Then I got a letter they changed their policy. It is all BS. I tried to fight it. They wore me down and won.
It was a trip. The “smartest people in the room” are sometimes just the greediest bastards. Certainly true in Texas now. Of course, I question that smart part here.
My dad died when I was age 19 and in college. Until I graduated I received a monthly support payment. I believe it was from social security but might have been a benefit to WW2 vets.
There is a memorial to those workers, those girls and women, finally: it was dedicated in 2023. https://rememberthetrianglefire.org/memorial/. It's on the site of the factory in lower Manhattan.
Lordy, just kids. And now in Arkansas, they can work in meat packing. I was afraid that chump would choose Huckabee Sanders as VP. Bet the "powers" would have loved that.
She and Stefanik are a pair - I get a newsletter from a retired newsman - and the people who are unfortunate enough to live in her district seem very unhappy - sadly she keeps getting re-elected!
Well, she and daddy think they have god on their side. Some idiots believe that. Funny how god always agrees with the gullible “believers.” Marx was right when he said that religion is the opiate of the people (oppressed people). Also the gullible and the ignorant if they see any righteousness in any Repub these days.
Teddy R was not a rugged individualist, being the son of a very wealthy family. But like his cousin, he knew he was lucky, while others, through no fault of their own, were not.
Good faith service, more or less. Rose should have taught Elon and chump’s parents a thing or two. Guess it is the stage you are born on. The play is already written, cast, and afoot. Rewrites at that point take guts or tragedy.
Well said JD! I, too, abhor the word entitlement applied to Social Security. My husband & I worked long hard hours to pay those taxes. We were probably lower to middle class. We both had college degrees. My husband had a master’s from
Penn. I was a nurse, he a social worker. We didn’t have huge salaries. My entire check for 4 years went to pay our daughter’s college without any student loans. He died right after applying for SS, and I am grateful for the benefits I receive. Add to that, Medicare, or I might be living in my car…
Sounds like my family. Counselor, nurse, contract specialist, worked to pay college also. Thanks to husbands choices, I have most of his retirement, and health ins. So grateful. Worried about my two grands though.
Fay you make a great point about welfare. Tax dollars to the undeserving? The rich get all sorts of tax breaks, but help the poor/needed oh no that makes people dependent on the government. But the poor spend every dollar they get which does in fact stimulate the economy. When the wealthy save a dollar in taxes those dollars do not get spent, hence do not stimulate the economy.
SSI, as opposed to SSA, are welfare payments. SSI benefits recipients, landlords, medical suppliers, grocers, ad infinitim.
As president, Trump tried and failed to cut all benefits drastically. SSI, Supplemental Security Income, is not the same as retirement benefits and neither are disability benefits based on FICA contributions. But some Republicans wanted to replace the entire system. GWB tried to privatize it.
“The Trump proposal would cut SSI by more than $8 billion over the next decade, shrinking benefits for roughly a quarter of a million children with disabilities by between 38 and 66 percent. It would also increase SSI’s administrative costs and improper payments”.
The Republican study group wanted to "sunset" all benefits. It "scored" an attempt to cut a children's SSI benefits. . CBO Eliminate Supplemental Security Income Benefits for Disabled Children. https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/54742 (2018)
Background
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides cash assistance to people who are disabled, aged, or both and who have low income and few assets. In 2018, 15 percent of SSI recipients, or 1.2 million people, are projected to be disabled children under age 18, receiving an average monthly benefit of $686. To receive benefits, those children must have marked, severe functional limitations and usually must live in a household with low income and few assets.
Option
This option would eliminate SSI benefits for disabled children.
When I was an Eligibility Worker Daniel, back in the late 90's early 2000's drug addicts were able to get SSI, on the grounds their addiction was a mental health disease (which it was) therefor these poor souls (mostly men and many veterans from Vietnam and Desert Storm) were able to get a minimum (I think it was around $619 back then. We usually got a conservator to handle the money and see it went for housing and food. The problem at that time was Social Security who ran the program although it didn't fund it, denied all disability on the first application. Since these men were incapable4 of representing themselves we had some attorneys who for a small flat rate taken from the lump sum would get the necessary paperwork and file the appeal for them, The client would get the check before the conservator could get it from them and many of them overdosed and killed themselves. We still treat the mentally ill in the same poor fashion today.
Welfare was not a dirty word when I was little. It was a policy aimed at the welfare of all the people. I doubt the distinction between welfare and paid-in benefits was a big deal. I never took entitlement programs as a pejorative term; simply benefits to which people were entitled for paying into them.
They do get spent, one way or another, whether directly, or through investments / savings. I won't argue about the wealth inequality issue on this one. There is huge imbalance here.
One more reason to vote for Harris/Walz. In 2022, one of the first bills Tim Walz signed into law was our 100% renewable energy standard which means by 2040, we Minnesotans will have (mostly) carbon free electricity. And farmers and other land owners will be able to garner income from turbines or solar arrays sited on their property including roof tops. And turbine technicians- who can attend a community college to earn their certificate in MN free of charge if their family’s income is below $80K, can earn a six figure salary maintaining the system. Yeah, you read that right. A six figure salary.
If Harris/Walz can make the case nationally of the incredible economic benefits of renewables, we might yet stop climate collapse. And gut the power of the oil lobby bent of destroying the planet for a buck.
Ned, my husband ran the UI unit at the Oregon Employment Agency, so I heard about the ins and outs of this program. For awhile it was well run and now it is a mess, thanks in part to incompetent agency heads (picked by the governor) and an antiquated computer system, now finally updated, but still not working that well. One of the things that really irked him were people who criticized the agency, but were first in line when they needed it.
As a card-carrying hypocrite myself, I must confess to not being above doing that. One thing to which you sensitize me, Michele, is the humanity of the much maligned bureaucrats; they often catch the flak that should be aimed higher. Thank you for showing me the way.
But, that is the Republican stategy to denigrate every program that benefits individuals. Imagine the financial boost of eliminating the employer contribution portion of social security. While SS designers probably saw this employer contribution as a form of earned compensation to the employee, I think most employers feel it is unearned compensation.
regardless, every cent ends up fueling the demand side of the economy, in turn wages and profits of the businesses which provide goods and services at all levels.
This is an excellent point - in some ways the most relevant point in a discussion of the various government support programs. "Every cent" puts a floor under demand.
As all individual support systems (SS, AFDC..welfare in the form of food stamps, WIC, housing payments, Medicaid) do....they all fuel the economy, either through dollars that supplement living expenses, pay for health care that keeps rural hospitals open or work programs, or childcare programs, etc. etc. The unearned corporate welfare just enriches their bottom line allowing stock buy backs and larger CEO compensation. Nothing for the economy here. Nothing for the nation here.
in any case, SS contributions are countered with price increases, something a wage earner cannot. Their personal demand is deferred until "pension payout" time. The economy is fundamentally circular, and behaves much like a biological ecosystem.
Well, we Social Security recipients have not actually paid for our benefits. We have paid into Social Security, but most of us will collect much more than we paid in (that’s one reason the fund has to be topped up every once in a while). And the old depletion allowance has a theoretical justification, although given what we know of global warming, it can’t be justified.
It was, as one who administered IQ tests for years, I imagine you reached three digits before the teens. Hard to get a floor at an early age, but ceilings can keep climbing. I would also say you also have admirable priorities, just as important. My off-the-cuff assessment and a definite compliment.
Bless Frances Perkins, and all the Democrats who work to keep and improve Social Security. We must elect Harris/Walz!
My great aunt ran some welfare agency -- perhaps unemployment -- based in N.Y.C. either for the city or the state. She knew these people and worked on some occupational job-satisfaction task force that created some test in which over eighty per cent of American workers did not like their jobs. No surprise.
The problem is my family's mythology. While my details may be in parts apocryphal, with me contributing, Aunt Lolly was pretty amazing: Ann Arbor under-graduate and Sorbonne Masters. Sadly she died when I was three. I would have liked to have known her; might have gotten me into triple-digit I.Q. territory. 😥😉
Another problem,. Ned, is the use of the word "welfare" frequently interpreted as an unearned gift from the government to an individual. Neither Social Security nor Unemployment benefits are. Both programs are paid for by the working individual. An example of welfare is the 'oil depletion allowance' an unearned gift to the fossil fuels industry which has done NOTHING to earn it.
Can't really say NOTHING, Fay.
The fossil fuel industry employs thousands of lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and thousands elsewhere to wine, dine, bribe, suck up to, and generally corrupt the corruptible in Congress.
Just think what this country would be like if political campaigns were publicly financed and lasted weeks instead of months. And politicians could not be bought.
I can imagine such a country, Harvey.
But could that country be this one -- when we all know perfectly well that this one has its K-12 all totally dehumanized, strangled by the profiteers of standardized testing? -- when we all know that this one has its college students massively strangled by the ghoul gargantuan dominance of group identity silos, by biz ed, and by banks and their capture of the most historic debt load ever in U.S. history?
Having worked at an executive level at one of the largest banks in the country, I can tell you that people who actually run the banks concern themselves with profitability, credit quality, soundness, sales, safety and security, growth, the current economy, and whatever glimpse of the coming environment their execs and specialists can provide. There is never any discussion of the confusing gobbledy-gook word salad you mention, something that I’m sure sounded fine when you made it up.
As I suppose the rest of your list originated as personal fever dreams.
I have an acquaintance who promotes standardized testing and has done so for years, sincerely believing, as many do, that it has benefits. He may be wrong, I don’t know.
But the silly, badly motivated conspiratorial spin you try to put on everything is misleading (because it’s made up), distracting, and useless.
Why not spend some time learning a few facts?
Congratulations on your success in banking, Tom. I also had a career in banking. While the capital markets had many innovations in products and trading during my time in them, my concern was that such innovations rarely, if ever, produced something.
The overwhelming pressures for profits; shifting and, at times, skewed micro-incentive structures; corruption of market practices; as well as, the demise of the what remained of the Glass-Steagall Act led to the melt-down of 2007-08.
By then I was with the State Department in Iraq. After the dust settled from the dot-bomb correction in 2000, I sensed that something larger was coming; that the cap-marts would blow. That dislocation was later, deeper, and broader than I could have imagined.
So, Phil is not spewing a conspiracy theory as the revolving door between N.Y.C. and D.C. has locked in a financial and harmful symbiosis between bankers and politicians. The draw-back is that, like all of us, bankers are subject to tunnel-vision foreclosing creative fix-its.
I didn’t mean to imply that banks always do the right thing. Banks regularly try stupid things that are meant to make money while either oblivious to or ignoring larger social damage.
Make no mistake, the investment bankers instigated the Real Estate Recession, with the venal acquiescence of rating agencies, commercial bankers, real estate brokers and millions of (gullible and greedy) customers.
Bankers stumble into things, often because they consider themselves the smartest people in the room (they never are). But they don’t plot secret control of all debt or control of all levers of power. That’s more the stuff of fantastic—and sometimes anti-semitic—bad novels.
On the other hand, the bank I worked for once dropped its Sales Finance operation rather than give in to rate subvention with large, multi-location mega auto dealers as we understood that such a practice is always to the customers’ financial detriment.
Agreed 100%. When, as a risk nerd, I could not reconcile M.B.I.A.'s nary-a-loss claim with events, that was the first clue. When ratings agency and bond insurance fees were commoditized, requiring multiples of volume to make the same money, that was the second clue.
When credit derivatives were booked with long-term confirms only -- often unexplainable to me (meaning future contract disputes being likely), --that was the third clue. When gain-on-sale accounting applied to booking credit derivatives, creating thirty basis points today on fifteen year trades for 100% non-cash income, that was the fourth clue. The killer was that, when a colleague actually used a credit derivative as insurance and claimed under it, he was vilified as 'unethical'.
It took a while for me to understand the role of repealing Glass-Stegall; I had opposed it mainly because it had worked. I did not make the moral hazard connection with deposit insurance contemporaneously. Basically, investment bankers saw a lot of dormant capital in the commercial banks and smacked their lips. That made sense, for liquidity was value back then and Glass-Steagall was viewed as retarding U.S. banks, threatening N.Y.C.'s supremacy as a global financial center.
The mistake with repealing Glass-Steagall was that commercial banks were more like public utilities and traditionally built up redundant capital as a precaution. The real estate M.B.O.s and C.D.O.s were getting big when I left in 2002. So, there were several BIGgamundo dots I was not connecting. If you endured this tome, Tom, you are a better man than I.
Were you in Investment Banking or Commercial Banking?
On the bankers thinking they are the smartest people in the room, I found that to be the case, too. Some, of course, were truly brilliant. But most, like me, were seduced by being quick with numbers. Kudos to your bank. Sounds like Wells Fargo or (if I remember correctly) U.S. Bank or Morgan Gty or P.N.C.
Commercial banking in risk management. Neither great nor bad; I was an investment banking wannabe.
Hey, the Brits do it. But we like corporate sponsored reality television.
Yes, PLEASE!
Agreed, Phil, I should have said nothing beneficial (:-)
In fact Fay, we could even say, something harmful. A welfare that supports something harmful.
And yet, with American energy 85% petro sourced, not to mention plastics, we are all dependent on products from fossil fuels. Oil executives are hardly the only wealthy folks around. And people who work for the industry or supply the industry are not just the very rich. Our dependency mind you has produced much pollution, and thanks to scale, an emerging climate crisis.
"I have one word to say to you, Benjamin... Plastics. "
Probably my favorite line from The Graduate lol.
Communism I tell you. Pure unAmerican communism. Now we must without further delay, bring back our true dear leader who will lead us from this mire of madness. Who will terminate and release the shackles upon which the Great captains of American Industry have been imprisoned and lead us into prosperity and freedom.
I present to you Our Dear Leader, Orange Fatso Blubber Baby to continue his wise leadership for the next 20 years. May his sons and grandsons follow in his wisen paw steps for the next 100 years.
Don't forget the sarcasm alert, Bill.
I “liked” you.
Indeed Ellen!
One of the finest critiques of such lobbying is the move "Thank You For Smoking"
None of those lobbyists for fundamentally greedy and destructive industries are decent human beings.
I preferred the insider. Mainly because of the casting. Both great films.
Before my mother died 40+ years ago, repubs were doing the “modify SS again by calling it entitlement” blather. She was livid, having worked all her life in a hosiery mill and raising eight children. So had my dad. She said I earned it, it’s not a handout. Sadly, she died within a year, so the government was off the hook. Dad followed the next year. Yep, they were the welfare kings and queens that repubs like to denigrate. There should be a memorial somewhere to the victims of the “shirtwaist fire.” Those women and girls were martyrs to the cause of the working poor everywhere. The working poor, and what’s left of the middle class are the backbones of our society. The corporate rich, the trust fund rich, those who manipulate the system while denigrating the labor force, are just pigs slurping at the trough. Teddy R was the last rugged individualist, Ronald R was just all hat, no cattle. The poorest excuse for presidential bona fides, until chump reared his orange, ugly head. Republicans have forgotten what it is to act in good faith, democrats have not.
So very true. Both of my parents died before collecting ONE cent of their EARNED SS benefits. That situation led me to retire early and take my SS right away. I was not leaving money in the government's bank! BTW, when my Dad died (a WW2 vet who served in the jungles of New Guinea) he received a paltry $250 death benefit, and insulting sum for a veteran!
Hope your Dad got GI benefits or some recognition. But your Dad was definitely not a sucker or loser. That is the ultimate insult for veterans. BTW, I was supposed to get benefits on what my husband paid into SS. I got a letter saying that I would get $631 dollars if they could give me anything. But sadly, they could not. I had paid into Tex teacher retirement from which I get a paltry sum. Seems that they invested in Enron back in the day, which kept retired educators from reaching millionaire status.
My Dad got zilch! While in New Guinea he contracted malaria and sought compensation but the VA denied his claim. Of course my Dad never talked about it or complained...that is how the greatest generation was, unselfish, patriotic and HARDLY suckers or losers! 45 must be soundly defeated!
Unfortunately it seemed most had to try at least three times to get approved. I retired (after 20 years) in 1984, but it took until 2020 to get some compensation for hearing loss related having been hanging on to an Air Raid siren when it went off. It seems it produced 175 dBa at 100 ft, so who knows how much when you are 1 ft away. It was so loud I jumped off the tower (about 20 ft above the ground), and was badly shaken for several minutes. Service members that work in especially noisy environments (Jet engines, etc) must wear approved ear protection to avoid having problems claiming hearing damage, but most people like Artillery do get compensated even wearing all the ear protection available.
My dad was a WWII Veteran that taught me to always buy the National Service Life Insurance like he did, and keep it active for as long as possible. He told me about a recruiter who had 100% of his recruits signing up for it by hinting that policy holders would be less likely to be sent into combat so the service wouldn't have to pay out so much insurance. I'm sure this was just his sales pitch with little connection to reality, but it got him good reviews from the higher ups.
We knew too many Korean War widows who's lives were helped or hurt by their husband's choice to have or not have the insurance policy.
Had no idea there was such a thing.
My dad joined in 1940 before the war started for us.
See https://www.benefits.va.gov/insurance/nsli.asp
"...The National Service Life Insurance (NSLI) program was created on October 8, 1940, to manage the insurance needs of World War II service personnel. Over 22 million NSLI policies were issued from 1940 until the program was closed to new issues on April 25, 1951. Policies were issued under a variety of permanent plans and as renewable term insurance.
Today there are just over 67,880 policies still in force . Annual dividends are paid on these policies. The maximum face amount of a policy is $10,000..."
The Greatest Generation was great for more than their service. They didn't complain about being entitled to what the greedy bastards claim to be entitled to these days. Just duty and get on with your life. No bitching. Why it is so galling to hear the privileged complain about not having it all. Crap on chump, Bezos, Musk and the whole crew
I agree. The Great Depression made that generation a good generation for enduring that deprivation. Fighting and winning World War II made that generation a great generation for its valor. What made that generation the greatest generation, however, is what the men and women did after World War II in social policies and the safety net. A privileged kid out of a private college may have served next to the son of a plumber. The former may well have thought, "Why should that plumber NOT get the chance for a college education."
De-segregation started with that generation. Obviously, older people like Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower helped enormously. Yet, I believe, that each followed the tacit mandate of mass participation in an existential depression and war.
Yes, exactly, and Japan united a country that was divided, sort of like now. See Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939. Shocked me to my core when I first saw the pics.
I got a letter from SS saying they owed me 48k. Then I got a letter they changed their policy. It is all BS. I tried to fight it. They wore me down and won.
Well that is a drag. It is basically out of money or headed that way; so, there is a lot of finagling going on. Bi-partisan shame this time.
Wow, fighting city hall never works unless you're a chump, or another one with the bucks to start with.
It sounds like you and Fay ran into some of the same issues as retired educators.
It was a trip. The “smartest people in the room” are sometimes just the greediest bastards. Certainly true in Texas now. Of course, I question that smart part here.
My dad died when I was age 19 and in college. Until I graduated I received a monthly support payment. I believe it was from social security but might have been a benefit to WW2 vets.
Probably the SS survivors benefit.
My youngest bro got a check as a teenager. Last thing he needed. My parents were retired (he was a surprise). Never did get that.
J. Hall, I am sorry that you faced so BIG a loss at so young an age.
My dad also fought in New Guinea in WWII. I believe his death benefit was the same and he got a headstone.
There is a memorial to those workers, those girls and women, finally: it was dedicated in 2023. https://rememberthetrianglefire.org/memorial/. It's on the site of the factory in lower Manhattan.
Lynn Spann Bowditch, thank you for the very powerful Link. Three 14 year old teens died:
Rosa Grasso,
Kate Leon &
Rosearea Maltese
There was no surname for Lauletta, age 33.
Lordy, just kids. And now in Arkansas, they can work in meat packing. I was afraid that chump would choose Huckabee Sanders as VP. Bet the "powers" would have loved that.
She and Stefanik are a pair - I get a newsletter from a retired newsman - and the people who are unfortunate enough to live in her district seem very unhappy - sadly she keeps getting re-elected!
Well, she and daddy think they have god on their side. Some idiots believe that. Funny how god always agrees with the gullible “believers.” Marx was right when he said that religion is the opiate of the people (oppressed people). Also the gullible and the ignorant if they see any righteousness in any Repub these days.
Thank you, they gave us as much by their deaths as any service member, in my opinion
Teddy R was not a rugged individualist, being the son of a very wealthy family. But like his cousin, he knew he was lucky, while others, through no fault of their own, were not.
Rose Kennedy seemed to know that too.
I think President John Kennedy sort of knew that as did Sentors Bobby and Ted. Caroline and John-John seemed to exhibit that humility.
Good faith service, more or less. Rose should have taught Elon and chump’s parents a thing or two. Guess it is the stage you are born on. The play is already written, cast, and afoot. Rewrites at that point take guts or tragedy.
Great comment!!!
JD, my dad had nothing good to say about Rosie as he called FDR, but did not turn down his social security.
Well said JD! I, too, abhor the word entitlement applied to Social Security. My husband & I worked long hard hours to pay those taxes. We were probably lower to middle class. We both had college degrees. My husband had a master’s from
Penn. I was a nurse, he a social worker. We didn’t have huge salaries. My entire check for 4 years went to pay our daughter’s college without any student loans. He died right after applying for SS, and I am grateful for the benefits I receive. Add to that, Medicare, or I might be living in my car…
Sounds like my family. Counselor, nurse, contract specialist, worked to pay college also. Thanks to husbands choices, I have most of his retirement, and health ins. So grateful. Worried about my two grands though.
Here! Here!, JD
Fay you make a great point about welfare. Tax dollars to the undeserving? The rich get all sorts of tax breaks, but help the poor/needed oh no that makes people dependent on the government. But the poor spend every dollar they get which does in fact stimulate the economy. When the wealthy save a dollar in taxes those dollars do not get spent, hence do not stimulate the economy.
SSI, as opposed to SSA, are welfare payments. SSI benefits recipients, landlords, medical suppliers, grocers, ad infinitim.
As president, Trump tried and failed to cut all benefits drastically. SSI, Supplemental Security Income, is not the same as retirement benefits and neither are disability benefits based on FICA contributions. But some Republicans wanted to replace the entire system. GWB tried to privatize it.
See. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Trump, House Republican Cuts to SSI Would Harm Children With Disabilities, Sept. 18, 2017, Kathleen Romig and Guillermo Herrera. https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/trump-house-republican-cuts-to-ssi-would-harm-children-with-disabilities
“The Trump proposal would cut SSI by more than $8 billion over the next decade, shrinking benefits for roughly a quarter of a million children with disabilities by between 38 and 66 percent. It would also increase SSI’s administrative costs and improper payments”.
The Republican study group wanted to "sunset" all benefits. It "scored" an attempt to cut a children's SSI benefits. . CBO Eliminate Supplemental Security Income Benefits for Disabled Children. https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/54742 (2018)
Background
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides cash assistance to people who are disabled, aged, or both and who have low income and few assets. In 2018, 15 percent of SSI recipients, or 1.2 million people, are projected to be disabled children under age 18, receiving an average monthly benefit of $686. To receive benefits, those children must have marked, severe functional limitations and usually must live in a household with low income and few assets.
Option
This option would eliminate SSI benefits for disabled children.
When I was an Eligibility Worker Daniel, back in the late 90's early 2000's drug addicts were able to get SSI, on the grounds their addiction was a mental health disease (which it was) therefor these poor souls (mostly men and many veterans from Vietnam and Desert Storm) were able to get a minimum (I think it was around $619 back then. We usually got a conservator to handle the money and see it went for housing and food. The problem at that time was Social Security who ran the program although it didn't fund it, denied all disability on the first application. Since these men were incapable4 of representing themselves we had some attorneys who for a small flat rate taken from the lump sum would get the necessary paperwork and file the appeal for them, The client would get the check before the conservator could get it from them and many of them overdosed and killed themselves. We still treat the mentally ill in the same poor fashion today.
Welfare was not a dirty word when I was little. It was a policy aimed at the welfare of all the people. I doubt the distinction between welfare and paid-in benefits was a big deal. I never took entitlement programs as a pejorative term; simply benefits to which people were entitled for paying into them.
They do get spent, one way or another, whether directly, or through investments / savings. I won't argue about the wealth inequality issue on this one. There is huge imbalance here.
One more reason to vote for Harris/Walz. In 2022, one of the first bills Tim Walz signed into law was our 100% renewable energy standard which means by 2040, we Minnesotans will have (mostly) carbon free electricity. And farmers and other land owners will be able to garner income from turbines or solar arrays sited on their property including roof tops. And turbine technicians- who can attend a community college to earn their certificate in MN free of charge if their family’s income is below $80K, can earn a six figure salary maintaining the system. Yeah, you read that right. A six figure salary.
If Harris/Walz can make the case nationally of the incredible economic benefits of renewables, we might yet stop climate collapse. And gut the power of the oil lobby bent of destroying the planet for a buck.
Agree! I’ve been working since I was 14 years old and paying into social security for 50 years. That is my money, there is no welfare here.
Yes entitlements! AND we ARE entitled to the money we paid in! These dimwits dont seem to understand that or dont want to.
Regardless of how government support is funded or where it is aimed, any payout always flows back into the demand side of the economy.
And acts as an 'automatic stabilizer'.
Ned, my husband ran the UI unit at the Oregon Employment Agency, so I heard about the ins and outs of this program. For awhile it was well run and now it is a mess, thanks in part to incompetent agency heads (picked by the governor) and an antiquated computer system, now finally updated, but still not working that well. One of the things that really irked him were people who criticized the agency, but were first in line when they needed it.
As a card-carrying hypocrite myself, I must confess to not being above doing that. One thing to which you sensitize me, Michele, is the humanity of the much maligned bureaucrats; they often catch the flak that should be aimed higher. Thank you for showing me the way.
But, that is the Republican stategy to denigrate every program that benefits individuals. Imagine the financial boost of eliminating the employer contribution portion of social security. While SS designers probably saw this employer contribution as a form of earned compensation to the employee, I think most employers feel it is unearned compensation.
regardless, every cent ends up fueling the demand side of the economy, in turn wages and profits of the businesses which provide goods and services at all levels.
This is an excellent point - in some ways the most relevant point in a discussion of the various government support programs. "Every cent" puts a floor under demand.
As all individual support systems (SS, AFDC..welfare in the form of food stamps, WIC, housing payments, Medicaid) do....they all fuel the economy, either through dollars that supplement living expenses, pay for health care that keeps rural hospitals open or work programs, or childcare programs, etc. etc. The unearned corporate welfare just enriches their bottom line allowing stock buy backs and larger CEO compensation. Nothing for the economy here. Nothing for the nation here.
Exactly....which I think business owners would understand but somehow don't. That their SS contribution fuels their bottom line.
in any case, SS contributions are countered with price increases, something a wage earner cannot. Their personal demand is deferred until "pension payout" time. The economy is fundamentally circular, and behaves much like a biological ecosystem.
Well, we Social Security recipients have not actually paid for our benefits. We have paid into Social Security, but most of us will collect much more than we paid in (that’s one reason the fund has to be topped up every once in a while). And the old depletion allowance has a theoretical justification, although given what we know of global warming, it can’t be justified.
and there is a real conundrum to significant reduce, let alone eliminate, fossil fuel 85% energy dependence, not to mention plastics et al.
How right you are!
Regret my now deleted response. I misunderstood what you said, Fay. I agree with your analysis; many thanks.
Thank you for the clarification!
Aspiring to triple-digit IQ territory… really, Ned
tee-hee
Jokester
Euphemism for class clown, my first calling in life. 😉
Seriously, J.D., while we disagree at times, I appreciate your spirited attitude. 💡
I didn't mean to disparage your comment
I certainly did not take your response that way; I took your comment as a light-hearted compliment.
It was, as one who administered IQ tests for years, I imagine you reached three digits before the teens. Hard to get a floor at an early age, but ceilings can keep climbing. I would also say you also have admirable priorities, just as important. My off-the-cuff assessment and a definite compliment.
Yes, we KAM!!!!
Aha!
Amen, sister!!
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