Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Recompense
Stockman:
Oh, yes, the monetary geniuses who peddle the 2% inflation gospel claim we are all in it together. That is, prices, wages, profits, rents and even indexed social benefits allegedly all march upwards at 2% per year, and, save for minor leads and lags in timing, no one is financially worse for the wear. C’mon. That’s rank poppycock. The truth is, savers get killed and borrowers get windfalls; the wages of upper-end workers keep-up, while the purchasing power of paychecks lower down the ladder shrinks continuously; social security recipients get recompense, private pensioners get shafted.Interesting word. When I decided to take SS at age 62, I was trying to get moral revenge for the Chosen theft of all interest on savings. I didn't think of it in simple math terms as a "recompense." Does it work out? Quick figuring: Yes! Start with the inflation-adjusted total of all my income, and then take 15% of it to represent my SS "account". Add my real savings which I'm getting ZERO INTEREST on. This sum represents my total savings through both channels. Assume that a normal pre-Chosen-theft return on an annuity would be about 6%. And sure enough, my annual SS is within a few hundred dollars of that 6% return. This is purely coincidental since the SS would be the same if my personal savings had been zero or a million; but it's still nice in an Emersonian sense.
Labels: Emersonian justice, TMI
¶ 6:27 AM
