Raise the cap. Simple, easy, painless, and we’re done. But of course, that’s beyond the capabilities of the political class. You know, the ones we elect to serve US. 😔
There was once a proposal that said if you make more than 20% (I fail to recall exactly) of your income from capital gains or stock dividends that that income would also be taxed as FICA taxes. Seems like it was a high income shill, but I am aware of mid income people who pay themselves minimum wage and then a stock bonus as needed to avoid social security tax, all perfectly legal. Raise the cap and eliminate the legal ways the folks avoid it. I am not so fortunate as to not need my SS, it essential and without it I'd live in poverty.
I wonder how the good teachers in Texas will explain to their students how the US has a president who thinks he is God, golf on Sunday instead of attending church, has committed adultery numerous times, lies, cheats and steals, yet many think he is blessed by God?
Or are the commandments supposed to be posted without comment?
I just posted a comment that kind of addresses this....
the magAholes have never been about reality.. if they were, they would address their own racism, hate, misogyny and bigotry.
They support hmpy trmPedo, not just in spite of his lack of morals, but because they want that life style for themselves. That above any faux commitment they have to a religion.
Thoughtful and engaging essays, as always, Ken. I enjoyed reading about your journey into writing. The Social Security cap issue has to do with limiting the payout. It was instituted as a forced savings plan for "lower income" people, specifically widows. By setting a limit on contributions to Soc Sec, they set a limit on how much we receive upon retirement. The system was set up in the mid 1930s. It didn't include retirement age adjustments pegged to changes in life expectancy. Had it done so, it may have worked better. The financial problem was compounded by the baby boom generation. Once we started to retire, the program went into new challenges. Fewer active workers per retiree stresses the SS payment system. Let us hope, without any tangible reason, that this Congress finds a solution🤞. Stay cool, everyone.
Stay cool, everyone, is a mantra for the day, and the era. And I appreciate the acknowledgment that the intention of a program from the mid-30's may not address today's reality. We do need to raise the cap - it's overdue and should be much higher without a corresponding increase in benefit. And I believe the some politicians have suggested it and we have raised it in the past.
{{That’s the ulterior motive of all writers - you want to change the world.}}
I have been accused of being an 'internet warrior' often with cruder language filled with vitriol.. and at times asked by friends why try to change the minds of a magAhole that is set in their ignorance. I don't want to change the world, but It is a nice goal... What I try to do is set the record right.
Which I am sure in your pursuit of being a reporter, is as much your goal as trying to change the world.
There is a mentally unstable woman who has been banned from this substack and many other places... anyone who interacts with her ultimately has to block her because of her inability to understand or accept reality.
Sadly she is a tool for people like pos_tfnKKK and hmpy trmPed0... because she will promote the evil they need to succeeds. I am not going to change her, but I feel it is everyone who can think and understand reality, to is to contradict her, pos_tfnKKK's and all the magAholes' lies.. to set the record straight.
{{I was reminded our lives should be a life-long search of a knowledge and truth.}}
Just as sad, it is those magAholes who do not search for knowledge and truth. Instead they gravitate to someone who will tell they they are right.. so they can continue their hate, racism, misogyny and bigotry.
I am willing bet those who were reading... saught out knowledge and truth. It is well known the one skill that hmpy trmpedo does NOT have is reading comprehension.
His very own Director of Homeland Security (kristi noem) told him the truth about Iran, which hmpy ignored. People miss out on the big story.
In late 2,000 and early 2,001 America was supporting israel’s crusade of genocide of Gaza (funny how history repeat’s itself). People forget that, what they remember is the result = 9/11 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks). If people think Iran will try to retaliate face to face with the American people.
They have no knowledge and do not understand truth.
I do want to take issue with your comments of NOT depending on social security and finding other solutions.
Not that you were wrong to do so, or to wonder if SS would be there for you... but to point out.. some will not be as lucky as you.
ª many people do not have jobs with retirement plans (I've worked 47 years and only 37 of those years did my jobs have retirement as a benefit... and not always a good retirement at that.)
ª often people have retirements, but ones that depend on their ability to save....but if your job pays around the poverty level, you are not saving much.
ª even if you were lucky enough to have the funds to save and you did.. what you thought was enough. Part of retirement might mean you have savings, but you need to buy your health insurance.. That means you thought you had enough, but realize you could handle inflation, but health care and insurance is rising at a level well beyond inflation.
To clarify, Social Security is my largest revenue stream and without it, my savings would continue to erode so it certainly makes me fell better about long term finances, my larger point was that these dire warnings have been happening for decades. But this one sounds a little more serious.
Last night's 60 Minutes redid a previous broadcast about people having Social Security claw back money they had been paid...by mistake...BY Social Security. It didn't matter that SS was the party at fault, you HAD to pay back the money. The particular people who made it INTO the story were taken off the hook by SS, yes, very lucky!!!! Biden lowered the amount that could be clawed back (was it to 10%??)...Trump, of course, raised it again...to 50%(?). The number of people this has happened to was incredible....and can you just imagine how that would affect your life?
Wow! No one has ever pointed out that connection before. And I did watch Captain Kanagroo religiously, so that very well may be where it came from. Although, the clip did not dislodge a memory of the "Banana Man."
Ken's comment about being a dinosaur, makes me declare that we dinosaurs need to stick together.
I have a dumb phone: it flips open, makes & takes calls. Period. Ukrainians have an app on their smarter phones to report Russian troop movements. Russian troops in Ukraine have app on theirs to arrange for their personal surrender if wounded & without access to medical care or out of ammo & surrounded (NY TIMES). I relayed that info (@aol.com) to Ukrainian student organization at Syracuse University, in touch with home.
Ken's what he wanted to be, a writer. So he used that skill to open his heart to us about his family illness, in a way to help us, should we face that same pain. Youngsters (under 25) also exploring their future vocation and reading about his quest, should know that the odds are 50-50 that the future career they'll love, hasn't been invented yet.
Now as a member of Veterans For Peace, I may have to see whether we've given the 90 million people of Iran, "their Pearl Harbor." Trump's getting rid of immigrants, may make Social Security go broke sooner. Maybe that's the plan.
You are the only news I read, online💛Thank You for having integrity, professionalism and passion, and keeping up with the technology, there will always be the good word.💛
Poor Mark Frost keeps tripping over his ethics in support of his advertising base.
His other long-time foible is forever boostering Glens Falls. I’ve a typical headline for him;”Attempt to swim from Ticonderoga to Glens Falls blocked by town of Queensbury”.
The one magazine that I would add to your list is THE ECONOMIST. I find it superior to even the NY Times when it comes to international news. The only downside is that it's pricey.
I liked following your journey of writing. Just to say, my father was a banana man, an immigrant with a small outdoor stand in the SE Bronx selling tomatoes and bananas which he picked up at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx and ripened in his cellar--working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, and supporting our family. I write--essays, poetry, books--but mainly teach writing-- not to change the world, not with the belief/illusion that my words will have an effect, but believing how good it is to give form to feelings, to complex and truthful feelings, writing as a way of traveling in my mind and in the world, of growing and learning. The desert fathers defined sin as the refusal to grow. Writing and teaching--and nature--watching seeds in us and outside of us grow.
Actually Gillibrand and others did propose it many years ago. and actually I have called many politicians and spoken to them about this easy "solution." And there is a group "patriotic millionaires" that talks about our increased inequality in wealth as destroying democracy. They write alot about the tax structure, the loopholes, the unfairness....Clearly the increased deficit of Trump's budget plan--giving even more forever tax breaks to the already too wealthy--will become an "excuse" for having to cut our safety net, continuing his program of cutting funding for all our needs and raising money for himself and billionaires and fossil fuels and....
Everything you write about, particularly yesterday’s essay, is material for another book…”Legacy of a Newspaper Editor.” Along with Bernice’s gift of teaching others how to write, and Bea’s creation of more books, and Roland’s Veterans for Peace pursuits, you’ve given all of us a forum for releasing concerns, fears, hopes and dreams for avenues of possibilities vs. perpetual pessimism.
This is still a safe space to worry with others, vs. getting stuck in isolation. To see/hear other options for processing/defusing the barrage of incoming missiles of misinformation coming from unexpected sources at a rate that often disables our courage muscles.
Many blessings to you and Will and everyone who contributes to peaceful rhetoric today and always…🙏
Raise the cap. Simple, easy, painless, and we’re done. But of course, that’s beyond the capabilities of the political class. You know, the ones we elect to serve US. 😔
There was once a proposal that said if you make more than 20% (I fail to recall exactly) of your income from capital gains or stock dividends that that income would also be taxed as FICA taxes. Seems like it was a high income shill, but I am aware of mid income people who pay themselves minimum wage and then a stock bonus as needed to avoid social security tax, all perfectly legal. Raise the cap and eliminate the legal ways the folks avoid it. I am not so fortunate as to not need my SS, it essential and without it I'd live in poverty.
I wonder how the good teachers in Texas will explain to their students how the US has a president who thinks he is God, golf on Sunday instead of attending church, has committed adultery numerous times, lies, cheats and steals, yet many think he is blessed by God?
Or are the commandments supposed to be posted without comment?
Color me ...perplexed. And confused.
I just posted a comment that kind of addresses this....
the magAholes have never been about reality.. if they were, they would address their own racism, hate, misogyny and bigotry.
They support hmpy trmPedo, not just in spite of his lack of morals, but because they want that life style for themselves. That above any faux commitment they have to a religion.
Like so many others.
Thoughtful and engaging essays, as always, Ken. I enjoyed reading about your journey into writing. The Social Security cap issue has to do with limiting the payout. It was instituted as a forced savings plan for "lower income" people, specifically widows. By setting a limit on contributions to Soc Sec, they set a limit on how much we receive upon retirement. The system was set up in the mid 1930s. It didn't include retirement age adjustments pegged to changes in life expectancy. Had it done so, it may have worked better. The financial problem was compounded by the baby boom generation. Once we started to retire, the program went into new challenges. Fewer active workers per retiree stresses the SS payment system. Let us hope, without any tangible reason, that this Congress finds a solution🤞. Stay cool, everyone.
Stay cool, everyone, is a mantra for the day, and the era. And I appreciate the acknowledgment that the intention of a program from the mid-30's may not address today's reality. We do need to raise the cap - it's overdue and should be much higher without a corresponding increase in benefit. And I believe the some politicians have suggested it and we have raised it in the past.
'stay cool' made me smile (ironically)
it is expected to be unseasonably hot today (but that is a misnomer.. since because of climate change that is the new norm)
2024 was the world’s warmest year on record
https://www.noaa.gov/news/2024-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-record
WMO confirms 2024 as warmest year on record at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial level
https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-confirms-2024-warmest-year-record-about-155degc-above-pre-industrial-level
Dangerous Heat Dome to Bring Record Temperatures to Much of the U.S.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/heat-dome-wave-record-temperatures-565d6d13?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAiwKgxSsObbrvJrOE4_wP3EkWFi6fE3OtOhba4nnT3qvpcjAuD5B0Ha9uRL8aU%3D&gaa_ts=685937ec&gaa_sig=dHiEd0Jpe7P52bhjRD5DHYllWBYAdAkcHT7bdsnMNzCM5i_NVaj25gIoOKqNO1UEpMSA4ez4JeozQSSui3MU-g%3D%3D
{{That’s the ulterior motive of all writers - you want to change the world.}}
I have been accused of being an 'internet warrior' often with cruder language filled with vitriol.. and at times asked by friends why try to change the minds of a magAhole that is set in their ignorance. I don't want to change the world, but It is a nice goal... What I try to do is set the record right.
Which I am sure in your pursuit of being a reporter, is as much your goal as trying to change the world.
There is a mentally unstable woman who has been banned from this substack and many other places... anyone who interacts with her ultimately has to block her because of her inability to understand or accept reality.
Sadly she is a tool for people like pos_tfnKKK and hmpy trmPed0... because she will promote the evil they need to succeeds. I am not going to change her, but I feel it is everyone who can think and understand reality, to is to contradict her, pos_tfnKKK's and all the magAholes' lies.. to set the record straight.
{{I was reminded our lives should be a life-long search of a knowledge and truth.}}
Just as sad, it is those magAholes who do not search for knowledge and truth. Instead they gravitate to someone who will tell they they are right.. so they can continue their hate, racism, misogyny and bigotry.
I am willing bet those who were reading... saught out knowledge and truth. It is well known the one skill that hmpy trmpedo does NOT have is reading comprehension.
His very own Director of Homeland Security (kristi noem) told him the truth about Iran, which hmpy ignored. People miss out on the big story.
In late 2,000 and early 2,001 America was supporting israel’s crusade of genocide of Gaza (funny how history repeat’s itself). People forget that, what they remember is the result = 9/11 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks). If people think Iran will try to retaliate face to face with the American people.
They have no knowledge and do not understand truth.
Whatever it would be that you chose, you would have peeled it back. You had no choice in that.
I do want to take issue with your comments of NOT depending on social security and finding other solutions.
Not that you were wrong to do so, or to wonder if SS would be there for you... but to point out.. some will not be as lucky as you.
ª many people do not have jobs with retirement plans (I've worked 47 years and only 37 of those years did my jobs have retirement as a benefit... and not always a good retirement at that.)
ª often people have retirements, but ones that depend on their ability to save....but if your job pays around the poverty level, you are not saving much.
ª there are many financial perils in life.. one is health care -- and mind you there are many others -- that can destroy someone's savings (https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/ )
ª even if you were lucky enough to have the funds to save and you did.. what you thought was enough. Part of retirement might mean you have savings, but you need to buy your health insurance.. That means you thought you had enough, but realize you could handle inflation, but health care and insurance is rising at a level well beyond inflation.
56 million US workers lack employer-provided pension or retirement savings plans.
https://www.businessinsider.com/employer-sponsored-retirement-plans-social-security-savings-boomers-aarp-report-2024-12
Who’s left out of America’s retirement savings system?
https://eig.org/whos-left-out-of-americas-retirement-savings-system/
To clarify, Social Security is my largest revenue stream and without it, my savings would continue to erode so it certainly makes me fell better about long term finances, my larger point was that these dire warnings have been happening for decades. But this one sounds a little more serious.
The same is true for me... and while when I could I created another revenue stream - I did
but MY POINT is
many people do NOT have anything BUT social security.
No, I realize that and any cut would be devastating.
Last night's 60 Minutes redid a previous broadcast about people having Social Security claw back money they had been paid...by mistake...BY Social Security. It didn't matter that SS was the party at fault, you HAD to pay back the money. The particular people who made it INTO the story were taken off the hook by SS, yes, very lucky!!!! Biden lowered the amount that could be clawed back (was it to 10%??)...Trump, of course, raised it again...to 50%(?). The number of people this has happened to was incredible....and can you just imagine how that would affect your life?
Perhaps this is the Banana Man you were talking about. https://youtu.be/yfJqLKM3dtw?si=b4OarrwRL8E4HeW3
I remember him vividly.
Wow! No one has ever pointed out that connection before. And I did watch Captain Kanagroo religiously, so that very well may be where it came from. Although, the clip did not dislodge a memory of the "Banana Man."
Ken's comment about being a dinosaur, makes me declare that we dinosaurs need to stick together.
I have a dumb phone: it flips open, makes & takes calls. Period. Ukrainians have an app on their smarter phones to report Russian troop movements. Russian troops in Ukraine have app on theirs to arrange for their personal surrender if wounded & without access to medical care or out of ammo & surrounded (NY TIMES). I relayed that info (@aol.com) to Ukrainian student organization at Syracuse University, in touch with home.
Ken's what he wanted to be, a writer. So he used that skill to open his heart to us about his family illness, in a way to help us, should we face that same pain. Youngsters (under 25) also exploring their future vocation and reading about his quest, should know that the odds are 50-50 that the future career they'll love, hasn't been invented yet.
Now as a member of Veterans For Peace, I may have to see whether we've given the 90 million people of Iran, "their Pearl Harbor." Trump's getting rid of immigrants, may make Social Security go broke sooner. Maybe that's the plan.
You are the only news I read, online💛Thank You for having integrity, professionalism and passion, and keeping up with the technology, there will always be the good word.💛
Poor Mark Frost keeps tripping over his ethics in support of his advertising base.
His other long-time foible is forever boostering Glens Falls. I’ve a typical headline for him;”Attempt to swim from Ticonderoga to Glens Falls blocked by town of Queensbury”.
The one magazine that I would add to your list is THE ECONOMIST. I find it superior to even the NY Times when it comes to international news. The only downside is that it's pricey.
Yet another piece of writing that supports your young self hunch of someday being a good, sometimes great writer! Read on!
I liked following your journey of writing. Just to say, my father was a banana man, an immigrant with a small outdoor stand in the SE Bronx selling tomatoes and bananas which he picked up at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx and ripened in his cellar--working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, and supporting our family. I write--essays, poetry, books--but mainly teach writing-- not to change the world, not with the belief/illusion that my words will have an effect, but believing how good it is to give form to feelings, to complex and truthful feelings, writing as a way of traveling in my mind and in the world, of growing and learning. The desert fathers defined sin as the refusal to grow. Writing and teaching--and nature--watching seeds in us and outside of us grow.
Actually Gillibrand and others did propose it many years ago. and actually I have called many politicians and spoken to them about this easy "solution." And there is a group "patriotic millionaires" that talks about our increased inequality in wealth as destroying democracy. They write alot about the tax structure, the loopholes, the unfairness....Clearly the increased deficit of Trump's budget plan--giving even more forever tax breaks to the already too wealthy--will become an "excuse" for having to cut our safety net, continuing his program of cutting funding for all our needs and raising money for himself and billionaires and fossil fuels and....
Everything you write about, particularly yesterday’s essay, is material for another book…”Legacy of a Newspaper Editor.” Along with Bernice’s gift of teaching others how to write, and Bea’s creation of more books, and Roland’s Veterans for Peace pursuits, you’ve given all of us a forum for releasing concerns, fears, hopes and dreams for avenues of possibilities vs. perpetual pessimism.
This is still a safe space to worry with others, vs. getting stuck in isolation. To see/hear other options for processing/defusing the barrage of incoming missiles of misinformation coming from unexpected sources at a rate that often disables our courage muscles.
Many blessings to you and Will and everyone who contributes to peaceful rhetoric today and always…🙏