Liberal Forum

JohnnyYou » 06 Dec 2025, 3:49 pm » wrote: ↑

06 Dec 2025, 3:49 pm

The stalker market is a stagnant swamp of shyt. Printed dollars get collected there, devalueing currency.   Like electrons, value has to flow to create anything.  

An associate had 4 shares of Sherwin Wiiiliams his Dad got in 1984 as a bonus for being manager at Drug Fair..  'I helped secure his ownership (no will) and helped him sell it (Understanding persian accents required).  5 Splits, 30 years.. It was north of 30K. We sold at 386$, I saw the tariff shyt and Trump Jitters about to put a dive on it one morning before the chasm on the biggest insider trading scam in the history of humanity and we flipped that day. Today, 6 months later... it is at 333$

One day, you may wake up to a bursted bubble and all your "money" has evaporated into a vacuum that it never existed in the first place.

 If I had a any money to play with, I would porbably bet on the hyped tech center like everyone else. Another good stock is adult diapers.  Half of America needs them on any given election cycle.
 
We have several dead at 65 stories in our circle. I won't disagree SS may be insolvent.  I know libs claim it isn't. It's complicated, There are more workers and more jobs over the course of my 40 years of contributions... I am not able to debate our retirement concepts. I am too uninformed.

I'm not exactly a maven in the stock market either, having invested most of my money in my own businesses over the past 50 years, but even a dope like me can look up the price of Sherwin Williams stock in 1984 and see that it averaged a mere .51 cents a share at that time, where today it stands at $333.11 per share.  So first off, getting 4 shares of it as a bonus in 1984 amounts to a total value just over $4, which by any account is a pretty **** "bonus", but at today's price, it sounds like it could have been a terrific investment if you had that $1000 of the Trump plan at birth that would have netted you roughly 2000 shares which would have had a value today of over $666,000.  So why would you think that's such a terrible "bubble" to retire on with such a small investment?  And don't forget the fact that even if you died at 65 and never received a penny of your Social Security today, even that $666,000 would be a fine life insurance " policy" to leave your wife and children, don't you think?  And that's also assuming that you never added a nickel to your fund all through your 50 years of work.

Once the majority of the country learns the kind of nest egg they could have if their SS value wasn't stolen by Congress every year, most would DEMAND a change of this kind, even as Congress would be screaming bloody murder because it would take away hundreds of billions of the money THEY now are able to use to buy votes.

Now don't forget, that's ONE lousy $4 investment over 50 years!  Can't you just imagine how much the same kind of SS deduction that is withheld from your paycheck every week for 50 years would net you?  Then add the matching contribution from your employer for all that time and it's very easy to see how even conservative investments would likely provide you with a nest egg of tens of millions of dollars at 65.

And yet, libs like you would fight like hell to protect their current Social Security plan, wouldn't you?
 

Zeets2 » 07 Dec 2025, 10:47 am » wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2025, 10:47 am

I'm not exactly a maven in the stock market either, having invested most of my money in my own businesses over the past 50 years, but even a dope like me can look up the price of Sherwin Williams stock in 1984 and see that it averaged a mere .51 cents a share at that time, where today it stands at $333.11 per share.  So first off, getting 4 shares of it as a bonus in 1984 amounts to a total value just over $4, which by any account is a pretty **** "bonus", but at today's price, it sounds like it could have been a terrific investment if you had that $1000 of the Trump plan at birth that would have netted you roughly 2000 shares which would have had a value today of over $666,000.  So why would you think that's such a terrible "bubble" to retire on with such a small investment?  And don't forget the fact that even if you died at 65 and never received a penny of your Social Security today, even that $666,000 would be a fine life insurance " policy" to leave your wife and children, don't you think?  And that's also assuming that you never added a nickel to your fund all through your 50 years of work.

Once the majority of the country learns the kind of nest egg they could have if their SS value wasn't stolen by Congress every year, most would DEMAND a change of this kind, even as Congress would be screaming bloody murder because it would take away hundreds of billions of the money THEY now are able to use to buy votes.

Now don't forget, that's ONE lousy $4 investment over 50 years!  Can't you just imagine how much the same kind of SS deduction that is withheld from your paycheck every week for 50 years would net you?  Then add the matching contribution from your employer for all that time and it's very easy to see how even conservative investments would likely provide you with a nest egg of tens of millions of dollars at 65.

And yet, libs like you would fight like hell to protect their current Social Security plan, wouldn't you?

The wife and I have deposited $470k into SS coffers.

I can only imagine what the total would have been if wisely invested.
 

Fuelman » 07 Dec 2025, 11:25 am » wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2025, 11:25 am

The wife and I have deposited $470k into SS coffers.

I can only imagine what the total would have been if wisely invested.

Agreed, and most people would never even consider looking at the totals that the combination of the additional matching contribution your employer paid, as well as adding it to both the husband and wife totals.  

The objection most have to such a program is nothing but a red herring.  A well diversified portfolio of investing those contributions would all but eliminate the chance that a stock you pick would crash and leave your account empty, but just imagine how hard a corporation would work to get you to invest in their company if they knew that their good stewardship of their company could potentially give them hundreds of billions of new investors who see their value rise substantially over many years.  We're literally talking about tens of millions of new millionaire citizens over the course of less than one lifetime.  And the country would also realize how the government has duped them with their lies for generations because THEY wanted full control over YOUR money!  The results would force Congress to stop the waste and fraud that's now rampant, with the American taxpayer the clear beneficiary for a change!
 

Zeets2 » 07 Dec 2025, 10:47 am » wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2025, 10:47 am

I'm not exactly a maven in the stock market either, having invested most of my money in my own businesses over the past 50 years, but even a dope like me can look up the price of Sherwin Williams stock in 1984 and see that it averaged a mere .51 cents a share at that time, where today it stands at $333.11 per share.  So first off, getting 4 shares of it as a bonus in 1984 amounts to a total value just over $4, which by any account is a pretty **** "bonus", but at today's price, it sounds like it could have been a terrific investment if you had that $1000 of the Trump plan at birth that would have netted you roughly 2000 shares which would have had a value today of over $666,000.  So why would you think that's such a terrible "bubble" to retire on with such a small investment?  And don't forget the fact that even if you died at 65 and never received a penny of your Social Security today, even that $666,000 would be a fine life insurance " policy" to leave your wife and children, don't you think?  And that's also assuming that you never added a nickel to your fund all through your 50 years of work.

Once the majority of the country learns the kind of nest egg they could have if their SS value wasn't stolen by Congress every year, most would DEMAND a change of this kind, even as Congress would be screaming bloody murder because it would take away hundreds of billions of the money THEY now are able to use to buy votes.

Now don't forget, that's ONE lousy $4 investment over 50 years!  Can't you just imagine how much the same kind of SS deduction that is withheld from your paycheck every week for 50 years would net you?  Then add the matching contribution from your employer for all that time and it's very easy to see how even conservative investments would likely provide you with a nest egg of tens of millions of dollars at 65.

And yet, libs like you would fight like hell to protect their current Social Security plan, wouldn't you?

I am amazed how savvy the younsgters are..  They play the investment game with a lot more chess pieces than I ever had.  I keep asking them if quantum computing has hit yet. That seems like a lucrative business.  I took a course in Urban Studies at College.  The teacher said a thing called computer browsers and the internet was coming and tell our parents to invest.   I was hung over from partying  the night before that day. Later I learned how people made incredible ROI's on Google.  The Quantum Chips seem like the next breakthrough that might hit to me.

My friend the comptroller at work told me to buy gold 6 months ago.  I could have but didn't.  He says it will double from where it is this week, after it nearly doubled in the 6 months to like 420$ an ounce.  

My socio economic guru pointed out that every major civilization failed when thee economy reaches "Financialization" .    Electrons have to flow to do work.  Value is the same thing in a different form.   If your just charging batteries all the time nothing gets created and the electrons are worthless.  The trading shyt is the same. Bank Accounts full of liquid currency that is manipulated are just batteries  hat never even move anything.  You can't push a rope, but I fear investments as a gamble that can hang you. I know in general everybody wins all the time right now.  But man, it looks like it could all go Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke at a whim of some mad man oligarch. 
 
 

JohnnyYou » 07 Dec 2025, 12:55 pm » wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2025, 12:55 pm

I am amazed how savvy the younsgters are..  They play the investment game with a lot more chess pieces than I ever had.  I keep asking them if quantum computing has hit yet. That seems like a lucrative business.  I took a course in Urban Studies at College.  The teacher said a thing called computer browsers and the internet was coming and tell our parents to invest.   I was hung over from partying  the night before that day. Later I learned how people made incredible ROI's on Google.  The Quantum Chips seem like the next breakthrough that might hit to me.

My friend the comptroller at work told me to buy gold 6 months ago.  I could have but didn't.  He says it will double from where it is this week, after it nearly doubled in the 6 months to like 420$ an ounce.  

My socio economic guru pointed out that every major civilization failed when thee economy reaches "Financialization" .    Electrons have to flow to do work.  Value is the same thing in a different form.   If your just charging batteries all the time nothing gets created and the electrons are worthless.  The trading shyt is the same. Bank Accounts full of liquid currency that is manipulated are just batteries  hat never even move anything.  You can't push a rope, but I fear investments as a gamble that can hang you. I know in general everybody wins all the time right now.  But man, it looks like it could all go Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke at a whim of some mad man oligarch.

You've hit on precisely the reason that a privatization of SS would work.  
At the age of 91 as I am, the only concern must be to find the safest investments possible, despite the fact that it may only return a minimum of profit.  But at the age of 0, which is what a newborn would have to invest, the 60+ years make the recovery from any loss palatable, and would easily be absorbed and the ship righted over the many decades the market would have to offset a loss, and the potential that a riskier venture into new technology like Microsoft, Google, or Apple 40 years ago could return tens of millions into that account.

But it's nothing but a dream, as Congress would NEVER willingly give up that money and power that now allows them to buy votes through policies that people want to win them elections in the short term.
 

Zeets2 » 07 Dec 2025, 12:01 pm » wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2025, 12:01 pm

Agreed, and most people would never even consider looking at the totals that the combination of the additional matching contribution your employer paid, as well as adding it to both the husband and wife totals.  

The objection most have to such a program is nothing but a red herring.  A well diversified portfolio of investing those contributions would all but eliminate the chance that a stock you pick would crash and leave your account empty, but just imagine how hard a corporation would work to get you to invest in their company if they knew that their good stewardship of their company could potentially give them hundreds of billions of new investors who see their value rise substantially over many years.  We're literally talking about tens of millions of new millionaire citizens over the course of less than one lifetime.  And the country would also realize how the government has duped them with their lies for generations because THEY wanted full control over YOUR money!  The results would force Congress to stop the waste and fraud that's now rampant, with the American taxpayer the clear beneficiary for a change!

I was a little surprised to find out only a third of Americans have an online SS account. Those totals for your contributions and the employers are there plain as day.

I had a couple of years of zero income and had to show proof of income to get it corrected in the data base.

If you don't know where your money is going you have a pretty good chance of being broke when you get to retirement.