You Can't Silence Us

Smoke and Mirrors

I know that I tackled this one 16 years ago, but after eighteen years of running this blog, there are very few topics that I haven’t mentioned. The left loves to claim that Clinton ran a budget surplus when he was President. That is false. The national debt actually went up every single year that he was President. The reason that they can claim this, is the money was moved from one account to the other.

Let me explain:

Let’s say that your wife is angry that you are spending all of your money on guns and booze, and is afraid that you are maxing out the credit cards. You show her the bank statements from the checking account, and low and behold, your balance is larger now than it was a year ago: “See?” you say, “We have a positive cash flow.”

But what you didn’t show your wife was that the only reason your checking account is larger is that you borrowed the money from the kids’ college fund. It’s cool, your kids are only 8 and 6 years old. You have more than a decade to pay yourself back. It will be fine. It doesn’t count as debt, because you owe it to yourself.

That’s going to cost you later, because your wife is going to be pissed when she gets ready to send the crotch critters off to college, but that’s a problem for future you to deal with.

Well, that is exactly what the government did. They took the money from the Social Security Trust fund and used that money to cover the deficit. Every administration since 1983 has used Social Security surpluses to mask deficits elsewhere.

Politicians love the unified budget because it lets them:

  • Spend more
  • Claim fiscal discipline
  • Avoid raising taxes
  • Increase total debt hidden inside trust fund obligations

Gen Z keeps bitching about how “Boomers” are making life hard on them because housing costs or something. This is not how the previous generations really screwed them. The Silent Generation (those born between 1928-1945- my parents’ generation) were young adults when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, establishing it as part of the New Deal to help workers and the elderly during the Great Depression. The architects of this deal were the Greatest Generation (born 1901-1927), led by FDR.

What Social Security was, was a plan for the Silent generation to be made whole because the Greatest generation screwed up the nation’s economy. In order to prevent the silent generation from stringing people up from lampposts, the Social Security Ponzi scheme was invented. This permitted the Silent generation to be taken care of in their older years, despite the fact that the Greatest generation had wiped out everyone’s retirement nest eggs.

At the same time this was being done, FDR also eliminated the domestic gold standard. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt:

  • Prohibited the private ownership of gold bullion
  • Stopped redeeming dollars for gold inside the U.S.
  • Devalued the dollar

But at this time:

  • The Greatest Generation (born ~1901–1927) were young adults
  • The Silent Generation (born 1928–1945) were children
  • Baby Boomers had not yet been born

So this step did NOT involve Boomers.

The greatest generation had spent all of the silent generation’s money on booze, coke, and hookers, so the silent generation was reimbursed by stealing the future earnings of their children, the baby boomers. Like all Ponzi schemes, the people who got in early made the most money, and those who got in late are paying the bills. The older generations got way more than they paid in, but have ignored how badly they shafted their descendants.

In 1971, Richard Nixon permanently ended the ability of foreign governments to convert U.S. dollars into gold and this is what truly created our modern fiat currency system. This is the event almost everyone refers to when they ask about “who eliminated the gold standard.” Who were the key players?

  • Richard Nixon (born 1913) → Greatest Generation
  • His advisors (Shultz, Connally, Burns) → Greatest & Silent Generations
  • Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964) were young adults, entering the workforce, or still teenagers.

Although Boomers didn’t decide the change, the fiat-dollar economy that followed became the system they lived their entire adult lives under, and which they defended politically as they took leadership roles in the 1980s–2000s. To understand how bad of an idea Social Security really is, let’s look at the math:

Let’s say that a person put $4100 per year into a retirement account that is earning 8% per year. This would simulate a person making $33,000 per year and the 12.4% Social Security tax is invested instead of being given to the government, who will quite literally spend it on booze and hookers. We will compare that to Social Security.

After working for 47 years, the person turns 65 and decides to retire. They have contributed a total of $192,700 into their account. If that money had gone to Social Security, their monthly benefit would be $2800. If they had instead invested that money as above, the balance on the account would be $1,856,890. It would earn $12,379 per month in interest. We have all been screwed out of our money.

So now generations that comprise the Millennials and GenZ are likely not going to get anything near what they are paying in, because all of it is gone. It’s been spent. That fund is nothing but a file cabinet full of several trillion dollars in IOU’s, but there is no money in there.

That is why the younger generations should be angry- they were robbed of their future earnings nearly 100 years before they were even born. They were born into a life of slavery. It wasn’t the Boomers who did it- it was the Greatest generation and the Silent generation- if you are GenZ, you were robbed by your great-great grandparents.

The system is insolvent. There isn’t enough money in the world to cover the debts created by that system. Currently, Social Security owes everyone about $75 trillion more than we have to pay- an amount that is double what our national debt already is- in other words our national debt isn’t $34 trillion, it’s more like $107 trillion. If you total all of the money in the world: every nation, every currency, every ounce of gold, it comes up to $134 trillion.

In other words, we are on the cusp of owing more money than actually exists. Even the official national debt of $34 trillion wouldn’t be eliminated if the government confiscated every 401k, IRA, 457 plan, and all other retirement accounts. The retirement accounts of US citizens are only worth about $31 trillion.

We are about to see a collapse of the US economy, and with it, the world economy. It’s inevitable.

People who have read this post: 285
By Divemedic, ago

Inheritance?

The left’s constant refrain is that rich people don’t get rich through hard work and wise decisions- they do so because of inherited wealth and privilege. There are multiple points of evidence to show that this is incorrect. Having a net worth of over $1.5 million places you into the top 10% of wealth in the US, and 79% of millionaires are first generation millionaires.

First generation millionaires share a few core characteristics:

  • setting ambitious goals
  • seeking mentorship
  • taking calculated risks
  • learning from failure
  • managing time effectively
  • diversifying their investments

Five careers produce the most millionaires:

  • engineers
  • accountants
  • management
  • attorneys
  • teachers

In other words, regular people. The Walt Disney, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates types are the rare exception- those rare visionaries who shaped their industry. But that isn’t how the left sells it- they claim that people who are “rich” somehow cheated the system and stole the money from those who are poor.

That isn’t reality. Becoming part of the top 10% isn’t magic or cheating- it’s simply the result of hard work and math. To reach $1.5 million in 40 years at an 8% annual return, person only needs to save about $430 per month. If you were to start at 22 years old and contributed to an employer 401K plan that has a 1:1 match up to 5% of your salary, it would look like this:

  • You would contribute $215 per month, but because it is pretax income, it would reduce your take home pay by $167 per month.
  • Your employer would contribute $215 per month in matching funds
  • Your fund grows by the historical average of 8% (It’s an average. This year, my investments grew by 15%, but there were years when I actually lost money. Some years, like 2020, I doubled my money.)

If you do this, the year that you turn 58 you would have a value of $1.5 million in your 401k, even though it only reduced your take home pay by a total of $80,500 over that same time span. In exchange for not having that $167 per month, you can safely live out your retirement years as one of the top 10%.

It isn’t that hard to get there, and it doesn’t require luck or cheating the system. It just takes discipline, wise decisions, and time.

Some years it takes a bit of a calculated risk. For example, when the stock market crashed in 2020 as a result of the COVID shutdown, we saw this as an opportunity. We bought stocks with every spare cent we had. Since we were locked down for a couple of months, we also had fewer expenses. We went on a stock buying spree.

We watched as Royal Caribbean went from $120 per share to $25 per share and began buying. The average price we paid was just over $22 per share. The first buy was at $25 per share, and we bought $5k worth. We also bought shares in Darden Restaurants, Hilton, Smith and Wesson, and Marriott. When I sold my stock in 2021 to collect the profits, RCL was selling at $90 per share. Overall, we more than doubled our money.

People who have read this post: 415
By Divemedic, ago

Leftist Debate Tactics

This is the left’s way- if you disagree with them, they want you shot. That’s why they favor gun control. It’s not that they are against people having guns, it’s that they are against people that they would like to kill having guns.

People who have read this post: 382
By Divemedic, ago

Good

It seems that liberals are buying guns. Good. More gun owners= more freedom. Of course, the linked article shows they still know nothing about guns, viewing them as a magic talisman more than a tool for freedom. For example:

He grew up and became a doctor, and these days, he heads to a shooting range in Maryland each week for target practice with his Smith & Wesson .380.

Charles, who is Black, says he bought the handgun after the Trump administration did things that scared him, including arresting a foreign student who criticized her university’s policy on Israel and handcuffing a U.S. senator who was forcibly removed from a Homeland Security news conference.

“What I’m talking about is protecting myself from a situation where there may be some kind of civil unrest,” says Charles. 

So a Senator being arrested by the police is going to be stopped by a .380? He goes on:

Charles says he worries that some of President Trump’s supporters may feel emboldened someday to target minorities like him and his family.

“He could dispatch citizens or the government,” Charles says. “I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. What I’m saying is none of this is out of the question any longer.”

It’s never been out of the question, that the government would abuse its power and come after you. An armed society is a polite one. I applaud you taking the first step.

But many liberals who spoke for this story say it’s the other way around. They say the president dehumanizes others with his rhetoric. For instance, Trump has said undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” The president has also called his political opponents, “radical left thugs that live like vermin.”

In the past 6 years, I have been called Nazi, racist, and deplorable. I have been deplatformed, threatened, and had someone try to destroy my professional life. I had government officials threaten to toss me in a reeducation camp, and worse. Don’t even go there.

Still, welcome to the gun culture. Once you realize that an armed society is a more free one than that of unarmed sheep, you have taken the first step towards rejecting despotism and embracing freedom and liberty.

Welcome to the party.

People who have read this post: 322
By Divemedic, ago

Envy

To be in the top 10% of net worth in the US, a household needs about $1.5 million. Those people are your nurses, many business owners, electricians, plumbers, and other blue collar workers. Also includes doctors, lawyers, and many other professionals. If you buy a house at 30, have it paid off before retirement, and contribute money to your 401k, you will likely be in the top 10%.

This is the left setting the stage for the confiscation of everyone’s retirement funds. They are making you think that they are going after “the rich” when in reality they are targeting ordinary people and their retirement funds.

They are selling it as a tax on billionaires, but a 1% “wealth tax” on net worth means a tax on unrealized capital gains- they will take your house or your retirement fund.

People who have read this post: 293
By Divemedic, ago

Cringe

Hiring this moron is going to get someone sued or get the moron killed. I’m sure there are ways to do self help evictions of squatters, but I am betting that sending over a dude with a katana isn’t one of them. However, that isn’t the worst thing about this article. No, the worst part is this:

“The only reason why businesses like this could exist,” said Tobias Damm-Luhr, staff attorney at the Sustainable Economies Law Center, is because “people hoard land and housing. They create these artificial scarcities such that people who don’t have a home or any other option are forced to try to live in places where they have no legal right to live.”

Don’t you see? The fact that some people own more than their fair share of things is the reason why others have to steal and vandalize their property! You rich people are the ones who caused all of this! This is your fault! Look what you made me do!

People who have read this post: 396
By Divemedic, ago

Social Norms

This article is a great illustration of the differences between Gen X and thier kids: 9 social rules Gen X learned as kids that completely confuse Gen Z today. Here they are:

  1. You must answer the phone—every single time it rings
  2. You never call someone after 9 p.m.
  3. You show up exactly when you said you would
  4. You don’t interrupt adults—ever
  5. If you borrowed something, you returned it in better condition
  6. You don’t talk about money, politics, or personal problems in public
  7. You respect the privacy of others (even if it’s inconvenient)
  8. You keep your problems to yourself and “tough it out”
  9. You don’t question authority publicly

Let’s talk about those: Rule 1 was because there was no such thing as caller ID. You answered the phone because people generally called because it was important, and you didn’t want to miss a call.

Rule 2 is about courtesy. My ass is in bed at some point just after nine. I don’t want some ass calling me at 2345, asking me what potato chips to buy. In fact, my phone is in “Do Not Disturb” mode at 9, and it doesn’t come out until 8 the next morning. Use a trick to bust through my DND mode for stupid shit and find yourself on the block list, because you are an inconsiderate ass.

Rule 3. Punctuality. That’s a sign that you respect (or don’t) the person’s time. If you tell me that you are going to meet me somewhere at 4 and you don’t show up on time, what you are saying is that your time is valuable but mine is not. Wasting my time is a guarantee that I won’t want to have anything to do with you- in a professional or personal capacity.

Rule 4: Children shouldn’t involve themselves in adult conversations. It’s unlikely that you have anything meaningful to contribute. You’re a child, and your life experience is exactly zero. That’s just a fact. However, as adults, we shouldn’t even be HAVING adult conversations in your presence. To this day, I don’t know how much money my father made, or even how much they paid for their house. It wasn’t my business to know. This concept also ties in to rules 6, 7, and 8. Mind your own business. If I want your opinion, I will ask you for it. Running around offering unwanted advice, or crying like a little bitch is a sure way to find yourself without any friends.

Circling back to rule 5: If I loan you something, it had better come back in the same condition that I loaned it to you. If it doesn’t, I expect you to make it right. If you don’t, don’t ever come back and ask to borrow anything, because I won’t loan you anything, not even a stick of gum.

Rule 9: There is a way to question authority, and screaming about it while you stamp your feet and shout about how things aren’t fair isn’t the way to do it. The person who wrote this article obviously doesn’t know that, which means he is still a tactless child who likely doesn’t get his way very often.

Gen Z needs to learn what manners are.

People who have read this post: 328
By Divemedic, ago