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Socialism : Its a Thing!!

March 9, 2019 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Building Higher and Higher on a Rare Clear Day in China

The rising trend in politics is a jump to the far left, now openly called Socialism.   As you read this you are most likely older and have a high chance of being firmly opposed, but I want to challenge you to think about it like any problem you face.   Review the information, decide how it impacts you, and make your choice.

To remind you, this is an opinion blog, not a journalistic enterprise.   My background is that I was a PR card holder in two foreign nations.   I lived in a democratically elected socialist country in Europe, Italy, and a benevolent dictatorship with extensive government controls, Singapore.  Both had government driven universal health care, free college, and exercised high level of government controls.  In addition, I worked extensively in a communist dictatorship, China, forging and executing agreements with high ranking party officials.  And lastly, I was part of the Target Tax Class.   Thats the group of ‘well off’ that includes skilled trades, engineers, scientists, etc who receive wages and get a W2, and can usually afford a house and a some toys.   Its not the “rich” or the “business owner”, where taxable income is a grey area term that can shift.

The Theory most of us work off in retirement is that we have little to no debt, and our taxable income is greatly reduced. These lower tax brackets have access to more government assistance such as Obamacare.  Socialism is a attempt to bring lower wage earners up, and requires higher wage earners to pay more taxes.   There is not a money tree, and money available is essentially fixed.   Single payer health care will more than likely provide us better health care coverage than we can get ourselves, and certainly they won’t  be allowed to discriminate by age, so why not get that college degree you have always been wanting, for free?  Other wealth redistribution programs include living wage, so that part time job you have been thinking about now pays 30% more!!! There are also bennys  proposed for those unwilling to work (snicker, snicker, yeah thats me) that could be windfalls.  Hmm, that sounds pretty sweet when you put aside the rhetoric.  But lets take a closer look.

My wage earner peers in Italy were a group that was resigned to a disappointing existence, with extreme disdain for the government.   Their effective tax rate, as they reported to me, was about 50%.   Wages were generally low, about 1/3 less than US.  This was in a country with single payer health care, free college, and very extensive living wage policies.   The work year was 20% less hours than US, and firing anyone usually required a trip to the court house for full justification.   Highly educated, hard working people rarely owned houses that they bought on their own, certainly had no toys.   The economy was dominated by oppressive government and disposable income was a rarity.  Living wage programs, which sound good initially, turned out to be wages below the poverty level.   There is one data point!!

Singapore, on the other hand is a rarity.   In a government controlled country, tax rates remain very low and competitive business was part of the DNA.   As a matter of fact, the ultra rich in the US can become residents with large bank deposits, and they can enjoy low tax rates in a first world country with spectacular mass transit, health care, and crime rates only dreamt about in the US.   Business’s locate there because of extremely favorable tax conditions.  Sure, its a bit sterile, and they struggle with creativity due to active suppression of fringe population, but there are a lot of positives.  This benevolent dictatorship is a rarity across the globe.  Well, thats another data point.

China is a purely communist country where industry and infrastructure, health care, education, etc are directly controlled by government. It is a classic example of wealth consolidation within government.  Its hard for US citizens to picture, but you don’t pay senators 175K and a president 400K.  Ministers of Finance, Transport, Education, Defense, Housing, Economic Development, etc are the Mega Rich.   These are the people traveling to Macau with suitcases of cash, buying property in California, fleets of Rolls Royces, or Rolexes in Singapore.    They are laundering money taken from the masses, and this represents a large portion of their economy.   A working level employee at a high quality manufacturing job makes about 1/3 of what we call in US to be poverty level.   Thats why your cell phone is manufactured there: instead of paying a worked $35K per year with benefits, taxes, etc, you pay them $8k.   Okay, that is not so promising.

There are current examples we can also look at in the US.   Progressive and socialist leaning states with high tax rates don’t exhibit better infrastructure, lower crime rates, or benefits over lower tax states.  There are reams of information on the Web about where to retire to live in low tax environments with good quality of life, so check it out.   If you don’t know that Texas, Florida, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, and the like all deserve a look, please check it out.   In addition, there is an insidious new threat to both seniors and working class:  gas tax that is siphoned off to general funds.   California enjoys horrible road quality while having the second highest gas tax, only behind Hawaii.   Other states are now proposing huge jumps.  So you have to take that into account these far left leaning states do not make the lists of places you should consider for retirement.  What do we learn from this??

In the short term, Socialism is likely to be a win for the retired, especially those paying for their own health care. However, when you look over time, you see in the majority of cases the economy suffers by consolidating wealth and power in government, and buying support for such programs by redistributing money from high wage earners to low wager earners.  The extended view of Socialism is almost guaranteed to be a situation with declining quality of life, bad infrastructure, and bad economy.   With a bad economy, side hustles like part time and seasonal jobs and passive income from investments dry up so that is a real impact to us.   My opinion, based on data, history, and personal experience, is that seniors will not benefit under Socialism.  

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By admin

Money is Time

March 3, 2019 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Many of us work hard for years, follow the rules, pay our taxes and devote our lives to a career. At some point, we begin to think about what is next. Could it be retirement, a 2nd career, or time spent volunteering? Those questions seem simple but in reality are not.

Studies show people with lots of money are actually less happy that those who have sustained a major injury with long term impact. How can that be? There must be something about the thought process by those faced with struggles that we can learn. Being faced with a life altering struggle produces happier people that buying a brand new sports car. It’s well documented about the struggle of lottery winners. This is entirely counter to everything taught by financial planners and comes up in every web search on retirement; more money, more savings, more mutual funds. In reality, your financial planner most likely has never retired, and has no experience in the matter. Take your advice from people with experience. That young family living in school bus know a lot more about how to be happy than the guy across the desk in the three piece suit.

This answer, like most answers, is simple. People who have learned to value Time, not Money, are always the happiest. More money and more stuff does not buy happiness. It can rent happiness for a short period but it is not sustainable. Experiences like a sunset on the beach, hanging out with your best friends, spending time with loved ones, traveling to exotic new places, or helping someone in need, provide true happiness. Some people find true happiness at work, as that is where they are challenged and have friends. Others think mostly about the day they don’t have to work. When they get to that point, they have no clue how to proceed.

Work is the ultimate safety blanket. There is not doubt what you are going to do for the majority of your time during the week. People put money in your bank account for you, some pay for your health care, you have rules to follow, and generally there is a nice tidy box in which to exist. You develop relationships, both friend, not friend, and sometimes even spousal relationships. When you stop work, none of that exists. You have to decide which friends to spend your time with and which activities you want to pursue. If you spend some time in an RV park with retired or semi retired, you get the impression many are on a slow march to the end, rather than in an intentional drive to gain experiences.

In my early 50s I did a few mud obstacle course events. At the start of each event, they gave you a motivational speech that asked, ‘when is the last time you did something for the first time’? For that day it was diving through an ice bath and running through dangling electrified wires. The question was not asked about that specific event, however, but more in the generic sense. That translates to any unique hike, bike ride, or travel experience, food experience, family birthday, and the list goes on.

Retirement provides a whole list of questions, like where should I spend my time, where should I spend my money, what tasks should get my energy, and so on. What was important to you over the past many years may not be so important now. As you look around at years of accumulated infrastructure, you have to ask what is important. That infrastructure can include things your garage, relatives, people executing tasks you did not have time to do yourself, etc.

So now as you start to ask that question about whats next, or you already have reached that point and found what you are doing to be unsatisfying, you have a pretty simple question that many refuse to answer. What do I Need to Change?

This blog is meant to be an accumulation of ideas that may help people optimize their time on this planet. I hope you find things here that make your time more enjoyable!

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By admin