Showing posts with label personal accounts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal accounts. Show all posts

Monday, May 09, 2011

The Fair Tax Act versus A Personal Accounts Plan (for Laymen)

by Dick McDonald
Ownership Society Institute
www.RiseUpAmerica.us

Rather than get into too many complicated inter-related issues, I am writing this to make crystal clear the main (but not all) of the differences between the highly touted Fair Tax plan and the less understood personal account plan I am supporting and writing about in my book “Make the Poor Rich.”

The Fair Tax Plan

The Fair Tax Plan is very attractive. It scraps all Federal taxes and replaces them with a 23% consumption tax. It eliminates the IRS. It eliminates the need to file income, estate, gift, excise and payroll tax returns. The Fair Tax abolishes them all. Your yearly trek to your tax accountant is eliminated and H&R Block evaporates. No need for copious tax receipts and support; all that is eliminated. Tax cheats who failed to pay their taxes in order to buy more stuff get caught in buying that stuff because the Fair Tax is a consumption tax.

The Fair Tax is based on the assumption that it is fairer to tax consumption than net taxable income which is based on ability to pay. The richer you are the more you pay in our 93-year old system. The Fair Tax doesn’t care how rich or poor you are it just imposes the tax on the new products you buy. It rebates (called a pre-bate) the 23% tax on the necessities the poor buy and exempts them completely from tax as the payroll tax will have been abolished. This is a good thing for the poor, but hardly a bonanza as they are prone to consume every dollar they get.

Under the Fair Tax the rich guy pays nothing except the 23% tax on that which he personally consumes. As he has most everything already, the portion of his income and wealth spent on taxable consumables will only be a fraction of the percentage the poor and middle class spend on taxable consumables. Granted the rich man will invest in the market and create jobs and economic activity which will up overall consumption. That is a good thing but I’m afraid the ordinary taxpayer will complain that the rich get richer under such a plan and the poor and middle class stand still and pay the freight.

The Personal Account Plan

This tax reform ”personal account” plan eliminates all payroll taxes going to the government and diverts them (the 15% which is already withheld) into a taxpayer’s own personal investment account to grow over his 40-year working life by compounding into a sizeable nest egg. As compared to the Fair Tax, the account cannot be reached until retirement as the plan calls for the transfer of the funding of retirement from the government to the individual and the government doesn’t want to have people be irresponsible and spend all their savings and come back as a ward of the state. The nest egg is sufficient in size that just the income off the nest egg will provide the retiree with an affluent retirement. At death, his sizeable estate can be passed on to his children. No other taxes are repealed. However with the repeal of the payroll tax, half of the national budget is eliminated and the need for half the taxes. As those taxes are invested in the economy a substantial increase in economic activity is anticipated.

Comparison of Some of the Features:
  • Simplicity

    Nothing beats the Fair Tax for simplicity. It eliminates and abolishes all Federal taxes and replaces them with one simple consumption tax. It eliminates the need for a sizeable IRS. It reduces the need for complicated accounting and supporting documents. It eliminates the need for tax returns and the complicated determination of taxable income. Nothing could be simpler than the Fair Tax.

    By comparison there would be more complications with a personal account as all taxes stay the same and payroll taxes still have to be determined and paid into an individual’s personal account. In the present Social Security system the government takes care of funding retirement and old-age medical needs. Under personal accounts this responsibility falls on an individual’s shoulders.
    Advantage: Fair Tax
  • Limiting the Size of Government

    The Fair Tax would substantially reduce the Government’s need to administer so many taxes but HR 25, its empowering legislation, makes this “consumption tax” revenue neutral. In laymen’s terms that means that if the government collected $2.8 Trillion in Federal taxes in 2006, the Fair Tax would be designed to tax the “consumables” subject to this Fair Tax so as to collect $2.8 Trillion in 2006. Therefore it doesn’t limit the size of government to any significant extent. Politicians would still retain the right to allocate that $2.8 trillion of tax receipts at their whim.

    The personal account plan would cut the Federal government in half. The Federal budget would fall from $2.8 Trillion to $1.4 Trillion overnight. As the government would no longer be charged with the responsibility of funding retirement and old-age medical needs, it no longer would be in the entitlement business. It would no longer be playing nanny to its citizens.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Tax Cuts

    As the Fair Tax is revenue neutral, its imposition would not cut the nation’s tax burden. It would merely shift that burden among the various classes of taxpayers. The poor would be exempt from all taxes and the wealthy exempt from income, dividend and capital gains from which most of their wealth presently flows. Those whose income is spent on consumption over the poverty line would be hardest hit. However, as the Fair Tax is not designed to cut taxes, it is not a vehicle for tax cuts.

    As far as tax cuts are concerned, the imposition of full-blown personal account legislation would result in the biggest tax cut in the history of the planet. Eliminating the need for government to fund retirement and old-age medical costs would result in a $1.4 Trillion tax cut.. Unfortunately for those who want to spend their tax cuts now, that money will be put away for them to grow into millions over the years and will not be immediately available. They will be able to direct their investment into pre-designed indexed funds but that is all. Still it is a massive tax cut.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Cost and Logistics of Transition and Implementation

    The cost and logistics of transitioning to the Fair Tax would be daunting logistically but not too costly. As the plan is revenue neutral, the federal government would still be raking in the same dough; they would just be in a scramble as to whose ox is gored changing job descriptions and desks.

    The transition to a full-blown personal account modality would be painful to those who look at the problem linearly. Today the payroll tax receipts are used to pay retirees. Upon implementation of personal accounts that source of funding disappears as those funds will be placed in personal accounts. The question then becomes how do we fund the benefits of those in the system now and those whose accounts won’t have sufficient time to mature into sufficiently large nest eggs.

    In my book, “Make the Poor Rich,” I have at least eight methods to easily accomplish this. None may be needed, however, if history repeats itself. In the 1980s when Reagan cut the tax rate from 70% to 28% the result was that government “income” tax revenues doubled because of increased economic activity. If that happens again and there is good reason to believe it will as the stimulus of personal accounts will pale to insignificance the tax cut of the 1980s then such increase in revenues will be more than enough to pay for the smooth transition to personal accounts.
    Advantage: Fair Tax
  • Unfunded Debt Reduction

    The Fair Tax hopes to generate sufficient activity to make a big dent in the $13.2 Trillion unfunded Social Security debt. It makes no provision for the looming $30 to $50 Trillion of Medicare liabilities. I personally am unconvinced that it adequately addresses the Social Security problem as the Fair Tax is revenue neutral and present revenues are not adequate to pay the ever-increasing unfunded liability much less reduce the existing liability. It would be necessary to run enormous surpluses under the Fair Tax to even begin to address these unfunded entitlements. Under Fair tax these liabilities remain a severe problem.

    The personal account plan abolishes both the Social Security and Medicare unfunded liabilities on the date of the plan’s passage. They are written off the books with the stroke of a pen. Congress is not obligated to fulfill those promises and they have proven that in the Supreme Court. They have no contractual obligation to retirees. They can repeal any laws without consequence.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Retirement Funding

    The Fair Tax makes no provision for retirement funding. Taxes presently collected to pay retirees will remain the same and substantial benefit cuts or an increase in the 23% consumption tax will be needed to keep those programs afloat. I don’t see any significant change in the dynamics of a revenue neutral consumption tax that would in any way ameliorate the problem.

    The personal account plan has been devised to make the poor rich and able to afford upon retirement an affluent lifestyle and the best medical coverage money can buy just off the income from their nest egg. Your $60,000 a year truck driver retires with a $4.8 Million nest egg and a $40,000 a month retirement check (2006 dollars) without invading his nest egg. He can afford a magnificent lifestyle and buy the best medical care money can buy.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Crime, Discontent and the Pursuit of Happiness

    The Fair Tax and its abolition of all the taxes and the bother they create will do wonders for the people. It is a step up in the pursuit of happiness. I question, however, its effect on crime and discontentment. I think it will only marginally improve either of the latter. Its revenue neutrality bespeaks of its failure to lift all boats.

    Personal accounts have been designed to make the poor rich; even those who by circumstance or environment can’t compete for the big bucks. It carries them into a paradigm in which they can achieve the American Dream by merely working to survive. As most crime is driven by the lack of money, personal accounts will do wonders in reducing crime. As a disincentive for bad behavior for those who commit crimes for money we will subtract their incarceration costs from their personal accounts when jailed. As the poor get wealthier, both the tenor of life and its crisis will tone down and hopefully mute. Personal accounts and the security they provide should be the ultimate reward in the pursuit of happiness.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Private Sector Retirement Funding

    The Fair Tax abolishes the payroll tax and provides Social Security and Medicare coverage assumedly at the same level presently paid. As those amounts are insufficient to provide just enough to avoid starvation and homelessness, I don’t see the Fair Tax helping the private sector fund retirement. As it presently stands business is abandoning fixed retirement benefit plans for 401(k)s which have no mortality pool (not payable until death). The Fair Tax should provide a cushion for corporations to provide retirement plans but I doubt they will do so considering the cost that must be added to their products and services.

    Personal accounts are designed to provide in one place all the retirement funding an American needs. He won’t need funding from his employer or employers. He can scrap his 401(k), his IRA. There will be no need with the nest egg he will accumulate under the personal account plan.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Wealth Creation

    The Fair Tax is not designed to create wealth. It is revenue neutral and neither cuts overall taxes nor provides for an increase in the capital pool (here we assume the rich will be freer to invest but it should be offset by a reduction from other classes who pick up the shortfall in tax collections).

    Personal accounts have been devised to create enormous personal wealth for American citizens; even the poor and uncompetitive will become wealthy. . Under this plan the overall wealth of America will geometrically rise to supply the world with the capital it needs to improve the overall standard of living of the oppressed and unfortunate of underdeveloped nations. Advantage: Personal Accounts FairnessIf by fairness one wants to rid themselves of bothersome details, the Fair Tax is your number. However, as between classes of taxpayers I have concluded the Fair Tax is anything but “fair”. Were it not revenue neutral and created huge surpluses with which to liquidate our unfunded debt. I would feel differently. As it is, it loses my vote. This is of course predictable as it is my passion to implement personal accounts at 15% of income and wages and I am exceedingly biased. I leave it to the Fair Tax crowd to challenge my findings and my conclusions. I doubt they will be sitting on their hands.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts
  • Legislative Potential

    Neither Fair Tax nor Personal Accounts legislation will go down without a massive battle with the establishment as both are designed to free the individual from the yolk of government. The forces of government are massive and impressive. Fortunately they already have personal accounts which I will use like a rapier to impugn their character and honesty with the American people. I predict they won’t get away so easily this time;. George W. Bush won’t be running interference.
    Advantage: Personal Accounts.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Does one man have the answer for America?

I emailed Al Martinez (The Daily News) twice about my friend Dick McDonald...and look what finally happened today!

Al Martinez: "Does one man have The Answer for America?"

PS: Dick has a free e-book on his website called "Make The Poor Rich and America Wealthier" that is over a hundred pages of specific details that show why his plan will save our country. (Please forward to your lists and spread the word!)

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Social Security Goes into the Red in 2010 not 2018

by Dick McDonald - Ownership Society Institute

In 2010 the Congressional Budget Office has projected a $92 billion surplus of payroll tax receipts over Social Security benefits paid. That figure includes $120 billion in “non-cash” receipts of fictional interest paid on fictional US Bonds – a bookkeeping trick like Enron used to cover up Congress’s theft of over $4 trillion of excess payroll tax receipts it has been appropriating from Social Security since the early 80’s. See here.

http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/108747/next-in-line-for-a-bailout-social-security?mod=fidelity-readytoretire

That means that by September, 2010 the US Government will need a $28 billion cash infusion just to meet its Social Security obligations. So much for the age-old denial that Social Security isn’t broke. That it has unfulfilled promises of over $14 trillion in future benefits in excess of projected receipts. Similarly Medicare is in the tank for $93 trillion. The jig is up and the Democrats and RINOs have no where to go on this issue.

The real benefit to be gleaned from this is that Americans will seriously try to solve this problem by any means other than raising taxes and/or cutting benefits. Believe me Americans will insist on it. The baby boomers will demand their full benefits as they come on stream in the next 15 years and the kids will resort to violence if they are unfairly taxed because it will take 2 kids to support one retiree

President Obama has challenged the Republicans to come up with some ideas to solve the dilemma and the best they came up so far is Paul Ryan’s proposal to raise the retirement age to 70 years (benefit cut of major import), cut the Medicare benefits (benefit cut of major import) and allow a small portion of a worker’s payroll taxes be invested in a personal investment retirement account (step in the right direction).

The real tragedy is that current benefits don’t begin to cover retirement costs and trying to save these entitlements is merely rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. What Americans want and will insist on is a re do of the funding of retirement costs so that more than the solvency of the government entitlement programs is achieved. Bush limited his Social Security reform to solving the solvency issue – Ryan appears to have limited his approach to solvency as well. There should be no limitations placed on what Americans can do in solving this issue.

We at the Ownership Society Institute (OSI) recommend these entitlement programs be scrapped with the proviso that the government guarantee that all benefits under them will be honored and form the floor under which no future benefits can ever fall.

In place of these programs we institute personal investment accounts we like to call “USAs” – Universal Savings Accounts. That into these accounts the entire 15.3% of payroll taxes presently sent to Congress will be redirected and immediately invested in the stock market for the 40-year working life of every taxpayer. The details of OSI’s plan are outlined here. It is called the Rise Up America plan.

In addition to solving the solvency issue RUA does the following:

· Generate the biggest tax cut in history

· Reduce the size of government by half

· Alleviate poverty and economically emancipate lower class citizens

· Infuse enormous sums directly into the economy and accelerate growth

· Eliminate the need for government pensions and Medicare

· Pay off $110 trillion of unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities

· Give back to Americans the money that they earn

· Increase the economic opportunities of all Americans

· Avoids Bankruptcies of cities, counties and states from pension liabilities

· Makes everyone a shareholder and responsible for oversight

· Reduces crimes especially those triggered by poverty

There a hundreds of other benefits of privatizing the entitlements but let’s leave it to a simple example.

The average American household makes over $50,000 a year and pays more than $7,500 in payroll taxes. Under RUA those taxes are placed into a USA and immediately invested in the stock market for 40 years. The $300,000 (40 years times $7,500 a year) grows into a $4,004,000 nest egg because of the magic of compounding. Just the annual income off that nest egg will generate a $33,000 a month retirement check – more than enough to support an affluent lifestyle.

RUA uses the principle of small government and takes away from government the responsibility to fund entitlements. It relies on the words of Alfred Einstein as everyone should. “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.”

All those concerns about such a sea change in the way the government does what its citizens will want is explained at www.riseupamerica.us including how to simultaneously fund the transition, place $1.3 trillion into the stock market annually, pay benefits under the old programs and miraculously enough increase the value of the US dollar. See here.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Magic Transition: a plan to save America

by Dick McDonald

When I tell people that the Rise Up America plan has a way to simultaneously
1.
place $1.3 trillion in payroll taxes annually collected by the government into personal accounts owned by the tax payer and immediately invested in the stock market to ignite the creation of new businesses and jobs,

2.
pay $1.1 trillion in Social Security and Medicare benefits to participants, and

3.
magically increase the value of the US Dollar heretofore crippled by the overuse of the printing press

I get looks that can best be described as “Are You Nuts?”

So I best explain.

OK, let’s start with a fictitious country where we pretend it is worth $400. That is all its cash, bonds, stock, real estate, its ports, airports, roads, bridges, corporations, businesses – in fact all tangible and intangible assets owned by the private sector and the public (government) sector total $400.

Now let’s assume the people make $14 a year but after $3 in taxes they spent every dime leaving no money to invest in the economy. So the government decides because it is a capitalist economy to print $1 dollar every year for the next 40 years and give that dollar to the people and let them invest it in the stock market.

Because the way capitalism works the people would get a return investing in the stock market for 40 years. For the last 30 years the S&P 500 stock index had an average annual return of 12.8% so let’s assume the return the people of our fictitious country got was 10% annually. Under those circumstances the $1 invested for 40 years compounds into $443 at the end of 40 years.

Now let’s compare the results. Every year for forty the government printed $1 dollar for a total of $40 dollars. The investment by the people of those $40 dollars increased the assets of the country by $443. So we can conclude that there was a small devaluation of the dollar - $40 over 40 years – whereas there was an immense increase in the country’s net worth of $443, Quite a bargain wouldn’t you say?

Investing is the trick –The simple truth this example illustrates is that investing money increases value of a country even if you invest money you print. A country who’s net worth increases has a currency worth owning from an international a trader’s standpoint.

Consuming is at fault –The reason the value of our dollar has fallen regularly ever since we went off the gold standard in the 1930’s is that we insist on printing money to pay for our mistakes. The most recent example was our use of the printing press to enable the banks to lend money to home buyers at 1% which has resulted in a 40% fall in the value of the dollar. It has been a costly mistake the government supported. We needed help out of a recession but we didn’t need to leave the door to the vault wide open.

The magic transition –

Now – it is as simple as this. We take $1.3 trillion in payroll tax receipts, put them in the taxpayer’s personal accounts, invest them in the stock market and start the compounding miracle of $443 for a $40 investment. Simultaneously we print $1.1 trillion in new money and pay retirement benefits. As the recipients will be dieing off during that 40 year period and others will be self-funding their needs from the income off their personal accounts we will never print the entire $40.

Increase in the value of the dollar –Establishing an economic policy wherein investment in the country is the tool used to create wealth can only convince international traders into bidding up the price of the US Dollar.

It is just as simple as that.

A Historical Clue –

It has been the international socialist movement that has encouraged consumption and the confiscation of property from the productive elements of society. Unfortunately the free market capitalists have failed to fully support the investment principle and have too long tolerated the inflationary effects devaluations have fomented because socialists always spend more than they have.

It is time America wakes up to the fact that socialism is a failed economic philosophy and adopts Rise Up America’s plan to vault the USA into the 21st Century.

RISE UP AMERICA!

Friday, July 04, 2008

Today's American Revolution

The American Revolution – Part II

Dick McDonald
www.riseupamerica.us
www.dickmcdonald.blogspot.com


America was the first country in the world to attempt to cripple “Big Government”. It started a Revolution to free itself from a tyrannical big government - a government headed by a King who had imposed taxes on the American colony to fight a war with France. Taxation without representation was the rallying call of our patriots.

Eleven years after declaring its independence, America signed a pact with itself to be ruled by a constitution - a compendium of laws designed to put the individual in charge of the state. It established rights of individuals and prescribed limited powers to the central government. The Founders realized that a country governed by its people had a better chance for survival and success than any form of totalitarianism.

One of the most important feature of that document was that no taxes were imposed on the income or wealth of the people thereby assuring the population that “big government” would never again emerge to confiscate private property. The Founders believed their Constitution would insure freedom and liberty for all through capitalism. Capitalism was and is the economic discipline used when countries transact business with each other and the Founders made that the economic standard in America in transactions between its citizens.

That was then and this is now. The Constitution has been amended and slowly but surely the American people have ceded their power to the state and become powerless to force the politicians to work on their behalf – exactly what the Founders didn’t want to happen. The majority of Americans find themselves unable to live comfortably, pay their taxes and still save for retirement. Politicians have damaged the American economy with laws that suffocate capitalism. That is particularly true for the poor and middle-class in America. As a result today they are so frustrated by political inertia they are willing to let socialists and Marxist further cripple capitalism by expanding “big government” through punitive taxation on the "rich" members of society in hopes of finding a solution to their dilemma.

Considering that frustration many say that the 2008 election will usher in a new chapter in American history. They conclude that America had its collectivist cycle with FDR that lasted from 1932 to 1968 and the individualist cycle with Reagan that has lasted from 1968 to 2008. Many believe that America is again going to call on big government collectivists to run the American economy in the next term.

We believe that electing Democratic socialists is the worst possible solution to the plight of the ordinary American. It is no solution. The Democrats talk the talk but don't walk the walk - they just promise the American Dream but never deliver it.

In the American Revolution Part II the stakes are a lot higher than electing Democrats or Republicans. America has to reform a good part of its economic system to fix what is wrong – to achieve what the people really want and logic demands. The country is the most successful on the planet but it is only running on one cylinder – the country should be a lot wealthier and every American should be a lot closer to achieving the American Dream of financial independence – a whole lot closer.

History tells us that Democrats and Republicans have done nothing to really improve the lot of the poor and middle-class in America. Sure America has the richest poor people and the biggest middle-class in the world – but why should that be our benchmark. Too many are still poor, have no property and fewer prospects of achieving the American Dream than ever before. Through the combination of the Federal Reserve fueling inflation by printing too much money and the punitive taxes the poor and middle-class have to pay ordinary Americans today have no chance to reach that dream no matter which party is in power.

Common sense suggests that if the poor and middle-class were wealthy they would be able to afford things like retirement, higher education, higher gas, energy and food prices, their own home and the rest of those things promised in the American Dream. So what history can America call on to prove that it can solve this dilemma - solve poverty? We have ample proof that communism, socialism and big governments can’t – they never have. So what will work?

Believe it or not capitalism has proven it can solve poverty. We just need to start with those who became rich using capitalism. In the late 50’s I entered the tax field and the second income tax return I prepared was for the planet’s only billionaire – J. Paul Getty. Earlier this Spring Forbes magazine disclosed the names of over 1,000 billionaires mostly earning that status in the last 25 years. What happened to change the American economy so radically that it was capable of creating so many billionaires (those with over 1,000 million dollars)?

What happened was a massive change in the way the big government taxed the income of Americans. It was the first phase of supply-side economics. I call it the first phase because I hope the American Revolution Part II is the second phase. I consider these phases part of the return to what the Founders envisioned for America – a people free of taxation on income - free to use that money to grow the economy and improve their own living standard. This is what happened.

Twenty-five years ago the top income tax rates were dropped from 70% to 28% allowing the people to keep and invest more of their own money. In 2002 the government dropped dividend tax rates from 35% to 15% making investment even more attractive. Many people took advantage of these breaks invested in the economy and created an absolutely enormous class of wealthy Americans. Ordinary Americans call them the “rich”. By letting them keep their own property capitalism eventually made them rich and the country wealthier.

All of which brings me to the American Revolution – Part II. Let capitalism make the poor and middle-class wealthy too. Empirically capitalism can do it and do it easily. Now in your wildest dreams do you think the majority of the American people would buy into that plan – a plan that will make them wealthy? What are their prospects now?

They have been fooled into further “economic slavery” and an impending era of limits by their supposed advocates in the American socialist movement. Their champion, a street-organizer is a one-solution fits all kind of politician – tax the rich and redistribute that money to the poor and middle-class. Unfortunately his plan won’t work – Democratic socialism never has and never will. The poor and middle-class will never achieve the American Dream for the simple reason – that under Democrat rule they will never get a pool of capital to benefit from capitalism.

If I didn’t make it clear, American history is proof positive capitalism can solve poverty. The surge in America wealth in the last 25 years was triggered because the state stopped confiscating more than half of the income of the American taxpayer. Many invested that extra money and let their profits compound until they became wealthy. Had we kept marginal income rates at those high levels we would still be limping along and much poorer as a country. Unfortunately projections of tax levels under the street-organizer are predicted to rise to pre-Reagan levels - approaching 60%.

Now that the rich are wealthy what about those left behind? How can they get on our capitalist band wagon? What will make the poor and middle-class rich other than redistributing money from the wealthy? The answer is simple. Get them a pool of capital to invest in the stock market that over their working life will compound and make them wealthy too.

A pool of capital is almost too easy to find in America. For starters try privatizing the 15.3% in payroll taxes confiscated by big government from every worker’s paycheck throughout his working life. It is his money and the government is his government. Invested in the stock market for 40 years earning the historical rate of return will make the taxpayer a millionaire capable of funding an affluent retirement and the best medical care on the planet. As this plan would be involuntary just like Social Security and Medicare is today, it would present no hardship.

Today the people are screaming for big government to do something to stop the economic bleeding. Privatizing these entitlements would be a first step in restoring the “crippling of big government” our Founders had in mind. The enactment of private accounts would cut the government’s budget in half by removing entitlement funding. See below to learn how this revolutionary plan would still pay off all obligations under the discontinued plans.

Many of those elite Americans - wealthy and indoctrinated in liberal philosophy - are opting to back the socialists in the Democrat party in 2008 with full knowledge that their own wealth will be untouched by liberal legislation. As hypocritical as it is, this is the America way – selfish and individualistic. Oh they talk about solving poverty but see to it that their government never has that kind of money.

Those elites, the Democrat party and the real socialists along with the Republican party have absolutely no interest or legislative plan to improve the financial strength of the poor and middle-class. Promises to give them a $1,000 tax break and lower income tax rates and preferential education will not make the poor wealthy. In fact when you look up who is trying to make the poor rich on Google you only find several religious articles excusing the church from that responsibility. Oh they will hand out food and provide temporary shelter but attempt to make them rich – forget it. The standard excuse is let them get educated, work hard and get lucky.

There is no single impediment in the way of making the poor rich than the refusal of the political class to give the poor and middle-class back 15.3% of their lifetime income to invest in their own economy for the 40 to 50 years of their working life. As Americans save so little today (it often slips into negative figures) what better way to make America wealthier than to make all its citizens millionaires.

The Democrats derisively called the first phase of the supply-side revolution the “trickle-down” theory. If we made a class of rich people that invested in the economy it would trickle down to the poor. It did just that. However, by comparison to the wealth showered on the “rich” by “trickle-down” a great gap in comparative income and wealth has evolved.

Ordinary Americans are besides themselves because that disparity along with punishing inflation has led them to look for an answer and the only person listening is the street organizer. He understands the plight of the poor and middle-class as he has been schooled in collectivist dogma of the communist, socialist and Democratic socialism movements. Of course he is smarter than to be one of them, he is no doubt a capitalist using populism to get the power needed to employ the only arrow he has in his quiver – taxing the rich. That policy guarantees the continued poverty that underlies the support of his party and his run for office.

So here we are at the cross roads. Unfortunately the American people have been offered only one road – continued economic stagnation. Electing the street organizer will only make it worse but electing his adversary and their party only guarantees a continuation of the inability of ordinary Americans to achieve the American Dream.

The only recourse ordinary Americans have is the power they exhibited in 1776 to fight the totalitarians and recently to preserve their sovereignty by opposing amnesty. It is going to take a grass roots movement on the part of the American people. People on Main Street will benefit by becoming wealthy and people on Wall Street will benefit by making the capital markets explode with a massive source of new capital. The only people scarred by this revolution will be the politicians whose entitlement industry will be dismantled and their ability to dictate how Americans have to suffer an era of limits or other political cruelties will be extinguished.

Americans are not on the cross roads, they are not facing a new chapter in American history in 2008 they are on the precipice of a hill ready to be plunged into socialist punishment in the canyon below. It is not terminal. America is too big and too savvy to let socialism creep too far into their society. Presently the underclass in America don’t have an alternative to their dilemma – they are going to have to start their own American Revolution Part II.

We at the Ownership Society Institute have a website and book promoting this second phase of the supply-side economic revolution – we call it the Rise Up America plan and it can be found at www.riseupamerica.us. There are tables on the site that illustrate how even a minimum wage earner will end up a millionaire at retirement. There are tables illustrating the explosive growth the economy would realize if it adopts Rise Up.

The standard objection to what most people know will make them wealthy – privatizing entitlements – is that we can’t afford the transition. They ask where are we going to get the money to pay off all the present retirees and those retiring in the near future who don’t have time to accumulate a significant nest egg. The Plan answers that question illustrating how not only to fund private investment accounts and pay off all old program liabilities but in the process increase the value of the US dollar. See here and here and here.

You might want to check out Rise Up America as it promises to:

Make the poor rich
Make America wealthier
Extinguish $45 trillion in unfunded debt
Reduce the Budget by $1.3 trillion
Deliver the largest tax cut in history
Make 100% of Americans capitalists
Increase the value of the US dollar
Make American products competitive
Reduce management-labor difficulties
Cut our national debt from $9 to $5 trillion
Economically emancipate women
Increase retirement benefits

And Much, much more!

Happy Independence Day

Ownership Society Institute
Dick McDonald, Managing Director

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Rise Up America: A plan to Restore Fiscal Conservatism

Ownership Society Institute
May, 2008
  • Make the poor rich

  • Make America wealthier

  • Extinguish $45 trillion in unfunded debt

  • Reduce the Budget by $1.3 trillion

  • Deliver the largest tax cut in history

  • Make 100% of Americans capitalists

  • Increase the value of the US dollar

  • Make American products competitive

  • Reduce management-labor difficulties

  • Cut our national debt from $9 to $5 trillion

  • Economically emancipate women

  • Increase retirement bnefits
Introduction

For the past year ordinary Americans have made two things crystal clear:

First they want economic change. They want their politicians to do something about either reducing the price of gas, food, services and other products or increasing their income and wealth - or both.

Second they want politicians to start working for the people. They are fed up with hearing promises from Washington that are never kept and continuous excuses f why they aren’t.

Note: these concerns have been successfully tested by Barack Obama during his nominating campaign.

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This short booklet outlines a plan ordinary Americans and their politicians need to hear, promote and adopt. The plan will make ordinary Americans richer without asking them to invest a dime of their own money nor change any aspect of their present employment or activities. The plan has been designed to enable Americans - even those without high school educations - to achieve the American Dream of financial independence so long as they remain stable and industrious during their working life.

The plan is called the Rise Up America (RUA) plan and has been designed to be a force for unity enabling all Americans to pull in the same direction. Rather than having segments of the population competing and warring with each other, the plan will unify the efforts of all Americans.

Pass this booklet on to your friends to start the ball rolling to restructure our government and streamline our private sector to work for the people rather than against them. Make sure your political representatives are aware of RUA and are promising to enact legislation to put the Plan into effect

Core Premise

The Rise Up America plan is based on one core premise and that is that Americans can do a better job than their government in managing their money. This booklet will be devoted to illustrating how major government entitlement programs including Social Security and Medicare fail to meet the intended or perceived purposes they were enacted to fulfill and in fact severely limit the growth of the American economy.

Current Social Security, Disability and Medicare Programs

Today Americans pay 15.3% of their annual income up to $102,000 (2008) in payroll taxes to the Federal government in return for a monthly Social Security check and medical coverage at retirement as well as disability coverage for all ages.

Those workers who are employees have 7.65% of their income withheld for payroll taxes and employers match that amount and send the entire 15.3% to the government. Self-employed individuals pay the entire 15.3% at the same time their income taxes are due.

The government does not save the money in a fund for the employee’s future retirement but immediately spends it to pay benefits to currently disabled and retired Americans. Many Americans have been led to believe these monies are saved in the Social Security Fund. They are not.

Payroll taxes are withheld (or paid) on all earnings no matter how old an individual is. Those who attain the retirement age of 67 however, are entitled to a monthly retirement check from Social Security and coverage for their medical needs under Medicare.

Even though Americans pay 15.3% of their lifetime income in payroll taxes, they are not entitled to a nest egg. Unlike a savings account where an amount is accumulated for the saver, there is no accumulation of an individual’s investment in Social Security and Medicare. If a taxpayer dies before retirement all payroll taxes paid by them throughout their life are lost and any government obligation to them extinguished.

Assume a long-haul truck driver made $60,000 a year for his 50-year working life dies at 67 years of age. The $450,000 he paid in payroll taxes over the years is forfeited to the government and the government has no obligation to pay his heirs anything. This is unlike the result he could have achieved if he had invested this amount in an interest-bearing savings account or in an account where his money was invested in stocks or bonds and it compounded over the years.

Social Security is perceived by the public to be a retirement pension. Congressmen will quickly correct that misperception describing it rather as a “safety net” – specifically a benefit not designed as a retirement pension. Its reason for existence is to enable retired people to have enough money to avoid starvation. The average Social Security check is just over $1,000 a month.

Both the Social Security and Medicare programs are tragically under funded. The government accounting office fixed the unfunded liability at $45 trillion as of September 30, 2007. As the funding of these programs is on a pay-as-you-go basis both programs are technically bankrupt. To date politicians have failed to correct the problem suggesting however that the only solutions are to either raise taxes or cut benefits. The Rise Up America plan to be discussed below has been designed to substantially “increase” those benefits while simultaneously generating the largest tax cut in US history.

Proposed Solution – Rise Up America Plan

The Rise Up America plan is a comprehensive solution to many problems faced by America and its people as well as a blueprint to literally explode the growth of the American economy. This booklet will touch on some of the major problems that Rise up solves or will assist in solving. It will illustrate how the American economy is severely limited by existing government policies and practices.

The first problem it solves is changing the misguided method of financing Social Security, Disability and Medicare entitlements. Instead of legislatively assisting Americans in saving for their own retirement government has misled them into perceiving that Social Security’s “safety net” is a retirement pension.

The Rise Up America plan proposes to return the responsibility for funding the retirement and old-age medical needs back to the individual retirees. In other words, the Plan proposes to take the responsibility for funding retirement away from the government and place that responsibility directly on the shoulders of individual Americans.

In order to do that, the Plan must make every American wealthy enough to cover those costs. That includes the poor and lower-income Americans who presently can’t save enough to retire on. In addition the Plan must pay off all obligations under the old plans until all the participants die. As a part of the Plan to transition to Rise Up, the payment of those legacy obligations will be grandfathered and guaranteed by the government.

The Plan increases the monthly retirement check from ten to twenty times more than it is today and allows the individual to build a multimillion dollar nest egg to finance their retirement and pass that wealth on to succeeding generations.

To enable the poor and lower-income Americans to participate along with wealthier Americans, Rise Up will divert the 15% presently paid in payroll taxes directly into a personal investment account owned by the taxpayer and held by an independent entity operating solely as a trust. The funds will be held in the trust until retirement. As explained below a sizeable nest egg will be accumulated for all taxpayers.

The reason poor and lower-income Americans have been unable to save for retirement is they never have enough left over after paying their expenses to save for their retirement. Under Rise Up their payroll taxes accumulate in their own account which is invested at their direction into several different stock-indexed funds which for the last thirty years have been growing at over 10% per year. E.g. the S&P 500 stock index has been growing at 12.8% over the last 30 years.

The average American household earned over $48,000 a year in 2006 according to the US Census Bureau.. Assuming that in 2008 that figure has approached $50,000 let’s take a look at how the 15% withheld weekly and invested in indexed stock funds would do over a 40 year working life.

The $7,500 of annual withholding (15% on $50,000) if invested weekly for 40 years and earning 10% a year would generate a nest egg of $4,004,000. If the taxpayer earns the same 10 % in his 41st year (the first year of retirement) he will have earned $400,400 that year which when paid out in installments amounts to a monthly retirement check of $33,000 - 12 times a year.

Under Social Security the taxpayer is not entitled to a nest egg. His investment of $300,000 ($7,500 x 40 years) in payroll taxes is lost to him. His scheduled Social Security “safety net” amounts to $1,345 a month according the Social Security Administration’s Quick Guide calculator or 1/24th of the amount he would get under the Plan.

Why Rise Up America is So Powerful

There is no mystery why the Rise Up America plan generates such enormous nest eggs and monthly checks. It is based on compounding. Thought of simply when you put a dollar in the bank each year for 40 years and the bank pays you 10% interest every year on the ending balance of the previous year you would accumulate an account of $442. Now had you not received interest on the account you would only have $40 at the end of 40 years.

The reason you end up with so much more is that the account compounds over the years because the 10% is earned not only on the $1 contributed every year but also on the accumulated interest*. See the table below to see how large a nest egg you would accumulate at your income level.

http://hstrial-rmcdonald1.homestead.com/indextablenesteggsvarious.xls

Footnote
For example, in the 39th year the account has $401 in it. The 10% interest it earns in the 40th year is $40 (10% on the ending balance of the 39th year). When the $1 contributed is added to the $401 beginning balance and the $40 earned is added the account totals $442 at the end of 40 years.


Rate of Return

The average citizen has a difficult time believing the enormous sums that can be accumulated under long-term investment plans like Rise Up. Their experience is generally limited to the small percentages they get from the bank in interest. As far as a rate of return on stock (the increase in yearly value plus dividends) few have ever invested in stocks and many who have had bad short-term experiences in picking individual stocks. Many Americans are therefore frightened by the swings in the market having no experience with the long-term growth in the business sector of the economy and the stock market in particular.

When taken in 40-year intervals, the last 25 40-year periods have averaged an annual rate of return of 12. 5% on the S&P 500 stock index. Another study indicates the rate of return experienced when just the last 30 years have been analyzed is 12.8%. To be conservative we have used a 10% rate of return in this booklet.

It is important to note that either the 12.5% or the 12.8% rate include a 3% inflation factor. Therefore the real growth in the account would be 9.5% and 9.8% respectfully. It is also important to note that the return on US Bonds in 40-year increments is only 4.1 %. That also includes a 3% inflation factor thereby netting only a 1.1% real growth in the value of bonds. So it is important to remember that a safe investment in US Bonds is really not that safe – stocks return 9 times more in real growth than bonds over extended investment cycles.

Rise Up is a Proven Plan

A number of countries, several counties in Texas and the United States government have implemented personal accounts similar to what Rise Up proposes. Those plans have been unqualified successes and prove that Rise Up works in practice.

In each plan the participant accumulates a nest egg by investing amounts withheld from his earnings. He invests in indexed stocks that not only create a retirement nest egg but generates a substantial monthly retirement check.

These plans have proven over the years that personal accounts invested in broad-based indexed stock funds are not risky, the plans are very inexpensive to operate and the growth through compounding the most successful method of financing retirement.

An Example of Personal Accounts in Practice

The government’s Thrift Savings plan, is only a very small version of the Rise Up America plan. As of the July, 2007 it only had accumulated $227 billion for 3.77 million government employees after almost 20 years of operations. Rise Up contemplates investing $1.3 trillion into personal accounts in its very first year of operations.

Of the many funds a participant can chose to invest in the government forced many in the early years to choose money market funds which paid small annual rates of return. The government also allowed participants to transfer their investments between stock and bond funds which reduced their returns because individuals can seldom make good investment decisions.

Thrift Saving’s one pure US stock fund based on the S&P 500 (which recently changed to include the Wilshire 4,500) had a rate of return of 35.49% in 1999 which was followed by three years of losses totaling 42.95% (15.77% in 2000, 9.04% in 2001, 18.14% in 2002). However in 2003 alone the rate of return jumped to 42.92% followed by three years of 18.03%, 10.45% and 15.30 in 2006 totaling 43.78%. Therefore, the fund had a 9.9% average annual rate of return in the 8 years including the disastrous market crash of 2000 to 2002.

We note this example as the rationale behind long-term investing. When the market falls the investor does not lose the number of shares he owns so when the market goes up his recovery is rapid like the above 42.92% increase in 2003. In addition during the fall the investor is able to add shares at reduced prices which also enjoy the rapid 42.92% recovery.

The government matches up to 5% of the participant’s salary in the Thrift Savings plan which is a substantial departure from Social Security in which ordinary Americans provide 100% of the funding. This government plan has been operated for less than 1/10th of 1% of its income since 1990 proving that Rise Up will be very inexpensive to operate.

Transition to Rise Up America Plan

It is important to understand how our monetary system works in order to fully understand how we can simultaneously divert $1.3 trillion in payroll tax receipts into the personal investment accounts, pay $1.1 trillion in benefits that were previously funded out of that $1.3 trillion and at the same time increase the value of the US Dollar internationally. It is not difficult to understand. Just take a minute to see how easy it is.

When one talks about money on a national scale we either refer to “fiscal” policies or “monetary” policies. They are not difficult to understand. Fiscal policies you recognize when Congress tries to balance the national budget. If we “fiscally” spend more than we get in we create a “deficit” which is added annually to our national debt - if we run a surplus that reduces our national debt.

Monetary policy involves the printing of money and the uses to which that money is put. “Printing” money is just a catchy phrase to encompass a number of ways the Federal Reserve Board - who controls our money supply – actually spends our money. If they print more money that dilutes its value but only if it is spent covering the mistakes our government makes or other expense items. It can “print” money by dropping interest rates to 1% like it has the last several years. That has cost us trillions because that was a pure expenditure of money that added nothing to the net worth of the country – in fact it dropped the value of the US Dollar by 40% to 50%.

Now for Rise Up’s magic transition. $1.3 trillion in what used to be payroll taxes is placed in personal investment accounts and invested “fiscally” in the stock market. The entire value of stocks in the hands of Americans is only $23 trillion right now so by adding $1.3 trillion a year of new capital will dramatically increase economic activity, increase government’s “income tax” receipts and create an economic environment where ordinary Americans can become wealthy stock investors. By investing such sums over the years will “compound” the net worth of America to over a quadrillion dollars in 40 years. See

http://hstrial-rmcdonald1.homestead.com/indextable40yearsofpersonalaccounts.xls

Now comes a part that will be difficult to believe but easy to understand – just where will we get the money to pay existing Social Security participants and all those qualifying in future years that don’t have sufficiently large enough personal accounts to fund their own retirement and medical needs?

The answer - we “print” the money – and dilute the value of our money supply by $1.1 trillion the very first year. This is a “monetary” solution and does not involve Congress and the budget process.

We don’t pay interest on the money we print therefore future interest costs are not relevant. As the existing participants and those nearing retirement will need the minimum guaranteed by Social Security and Medicare we can print that money on a dollar for dollar basis. Amounts due these ever-decreasing number of participants will automatically extinguish themselves as participants die or their personal account grows big enough to support their retirement.

An international currency trader looking at a government that is investing in its economy will drive up the price of the dollar. Under Rise Up the economy is annually adding “and” compounding $1.3 trillion in new capital and extinguishing ever-decreasing older obligations at no interest cost and on a dollar for dollar basis. Currency traders are going to buy into this extremely positive economic move that will explode the net worth of America and Americans; Rise Up will make the US dollar more valuable and exceedingly more stable than their previous policy of only printing money to pay for mistakes and expenses. Printing money to support the national investment in personal accounts that grows and compounds will allow America to not so “magically” but realistically and prudently transition to personal accounts.

Additionally, the explosive economic growth will cause Federal income tax receipts to mushroom which can be used to pay off some of the old Social Security and Medicare obligations.

Benefits – to the American Economy

America has experienced an average 3% economic growth per year for over 80 years. That growth has been impeded by policies of high taxation on the rich until 1982 and on the poor and middle-class right up to the present. Rise Up eliminates “payroll” taxes and returns that money to the people who in turn invest it in the economy and enable the poor and middle-class to enjoy the benefits of capitalism with their own pool of capital – personal accounts. By aggressively pursuing the Rise Up model the country could see rates of growth up to 10% per year and a substantial increase in the country’s net worth.

Unity of Purpose

Today just slightly over 50% of the population own stocks. Many have been led to believe big business is a threat to liberty and justice. As a result many anti-business regulations, red tape, law suits and adverse publicity has reduced the profitability of American businesses. Under Rise Up 100% of the population will be shareholders with an abiding self-interest in seeing to it their personal accounts grow. The Rise Up America plan will have them all pulling in the same direction – bringing the responsibility for profitability down to the lowest level in the company where it is most efficient.

Benefits to the Government

The government has failed to fund the future benefits of its entitlement programs. The Government Accounting Office claims politicians have run up unfunded obligations to participants of over $45 trillion as of September 30, 2007. The Rise Up America plan will extinguish the entire $45 trillion on the date of its enactment.

Benefits of One Plan

Today there are millions of participants in millions of retirement and old-age medical plans in government and in the private sector. The cost of administering and funding these plans has been costly, time-consuming and inefficient. Just the administration of Social Security takes over 60,000 employees at the Social Security Administration. Billions can be saved switching to one personal account administered by one trust for all Americans.

Benefits to the American Worker

Rise Up will deliver to all Americans a personal account that will compound and grow into million-dollar nest eggs during their working life. Even a minimum wage work who earns only $7.50 a hour for 40 years will end up with a $1.2 million nest egg and a $10,000 a month retirement check. The enactment of Rise Up will enable ordinary Americans to achieve the American Dream without having to be highly educated or socially connected. All he or she needs to do is be stable and industrious and the Dream is theirs.

Political Benefits

There can be no argument that all political parties want to improve the living standards of the poor and middle-class. Every party wants to fulfill their promise to lift Americans out of poverty and improve the economy. The enactment of Rise Up will accomplish both major objectives.

Benefit – The National Budget

This year the national budget is over $3.1 trillion. By enacting Rise Up the mandatory entitlements for Social Security and Medicare will be eliminated bringing the budget down below $2 trillion. The annual increase in mandatory non-discretionary spending for entitlements that soaks up so much of the growth of the economy will be eliminated and the budget reduced.

Benefit – Tax Cuts

By enacting Rise Up, Americans will be getting the largest tax cut in US history - $1.3 trillion in the first year alone. By relieving government of the responsibility of providing a “safety net” and medical coverage relieves the people of paying taxes to support those programs. This will especially benefit the young who will be relieved of the responsibility of funding entitlements.

Benefits to Business

Many businesses provide pensions and some provide old-age medical benefits to supplement the insufficient “safety net” and other benefits supplied to retirees by government. These costs are added to the price of their products and if they have global competition the cost of these supplemental plans have made our businesses less competitive. Rise Up will relieve business of tens of billions to fund these supplemental plans. Enacting Rise Up will make the companies more profitable and their products more competitive.

Benefits in Labor Disputes and Strikes

Unions have long been getting pensions and old-age medical benefits for their members. By adopting Rise Up unions will get better benefits for their workers and eliminate the need to strike and perpetually negotiate with businesses for better retirement benefits.

Benefit to Women

One of the great insecurities in a woman’s life occurs when she opts to raise a family rather than continuing her education and adding to her working skills. Under Rise Up married spouses share their personal accounts from the date they marry. In that fashion a wife who opts to stay home, raise a family and never work a day in her life, can still retire a millionaire at 67. One –half of her husband’s withholding is placed in her own personal account and invested to grow into a sizeable nest egg and monthly retirement check.

Family Creation and Demographic Benefits

Falling birth rates are presenting demographic concerns throughout the world. Certain ethnic populations are predicted to be instinct in a century. Rise Up should go a long way in changing that dynamic - by enabling women to have financial security and four or more kids as well.

Benefits to the Individual

The ever-increasing reliance and dependence on the government to solve problems has reduced the self-reliance and the can-do spirit of many Americans. By giving them property, some for the first time in their life, should generate an internal need to protect that property– their personal account. The wealth that property represents should empower people to be more independent, responsible and less likely to rely on government.

Crime and Punishment

So much of crime is driven by poverty. By eradicating poverty, many of the financial crimes will not be committed. Under Rise Up a criminal’s “personal account’ is charged for the cost of his incarceration which will be a deterrent to recidivists and first timers as well. The possibility of losing his million-dollar nest egg should be a motivation to many to avoid committing crimes in the first place.

Benefits to Academe

Many educators, in fact many famous old universities, have been accused of indoctrinating students with anti-capitalist socialist doctrine and collectivist dogma. It could be said that academe had no alternatives. Their goal was to level the economic playing field and as capitalism was not solving poverty they embraced and promoted utopian constructs like socialism. As capitalism under Rise Up actually eliminates the working poor, capitalism should replace socialism as the doctrine embraced by academe.

World Opinion

In the last several years many have claimed America is headed downhill, an empire experiencing the decay that destroyed prior “empires.” Astute observers see few signs of that decay. With the enactment and implementation of Rise Up, America will be the first nation on Earth to eradicate poverty. As most of the world’s population suffers endemic poverty the sea change in America economic fortunes should put to rest any doubts about the fact that America is the “shining city on the hill”.

Consequences of Inaction

If a plan like Rise Up is not enacted it can be predicted with a reasonable degree of certainty that those with a progressive-socialist agenda will continue to tax the rich and redistribute to the poor. That will in turn reduce the capital needed to run the country and build new businesses and hire new employees. Such an eventuality will seriously impact the explosive growth that would occur under Rise Up and deny America all the benefits listed above.

As Western Europe has seen the serious economic error of its cradle-to-grave dependencies it has recently elected conservative capitalist-supporting leaders to reverse their country’s course and move closer to the free market capitalist model of the USA. The USA on the other hand appears to be headed into the cradle-to-grave model that Europeans are finally rejecting. Failing to enact Rise Up legislation would insure a big government dependency would emerge in the next few years.

The Opposition to Bush’s Personal Account Plan

When President Bush spent the first 5 months of 2005 promoting personal accounts he failed to sell a plan that would do only 3% of what Rise Up can do. The opposition to personal accounts held 6,000 Town Hall meetings to defeat his proposal and special interests like the NEA and AARP spent tens of millions in advertising to defeat it.

Bush concentrated almost exclusively on solving the solvency problem – the $45 trillion debt Congress has not funded. People couldn’t have cared less about the government’s problem. Until it impacts their pocketbook they don’t pay attention and Bush’s opposition told them it was not a problem until 2042 and they bought it.

The President did not submit a plan but asked Congress to work on it. Republicans in Congress came up with 2% 4% and 6% plans and proposed keeping both the old system and the new smaller system running simultaneously. This totally confused the issue and made those proposals easy targets for the opposition to attack.

After several months of promotion it was proposed that the annual contribution to personal accounts would be capped at $1,000. This made the proposal totally unattractive to the people as they couldn’t see them getting rich like they would under Rise up.

The frontal attacks on Bush’s plan were it was too risky, Wall Street would get rich charging fees, it cost too much to administer, Bush was out to destroy Social Security and cut benefits to the elderly. Not one of those charges were true but the media, the advertising, the Town Hall Meetings and the ineptitude of Bush to present an aggressive Rise Up type plan doomed his effort.

People will be moved to improve their own well being and the Country’s economic strength. They just need to be presented with a viable plan. Rise Up America is such a plan.

Opposition to Rise Up America

It is hard to believe that a plan that would make the poor wealthy and America richer would have serious opposition. We hope it doesn’t but we anticipate substantial opposition from various political groups and special interests. It is believed that the opposition will come from those whose interest in say the poor and middle-class is not about improving their well being but in securing their vote to retain political power. Hopefully, they can see their way clear to let Rise Up be enacted from a purely moral and religious standpoint.

Initially it is anticipated that the same objections from the same parties will be made against Rise Up as were made against President Bush’s efforts. Of course the argument against Rise Up is more difficult this time around as it is a comprehensive plan improving too many aspects of modern life to be ignored or dismissed like the small footprint the President tried to make.

Rise Up’s Constituencies

Every man and women in America should be a constituent of the Rise Up America plan. It makes the people and the country wealthier, more efficient, more stable more industrious and less contentious. Certain groups will benefit by reducing or eliminating problems they are currently facing. They include:

American Manufacturers

They will benefit by eliminating the need to provide retirement plans for their workers; eliminate the need to negotiate with unions on retirement benefits; eliminate the cost of retirement from product cost thus becoming more competitive in the global; market.

Churches, NGOs and Religions

As the basic tenet of all religions is the care and nurture of the less fortunate, Rise Up should be a godsend to them as it allows capitalism to solve the riddle of endemic poverty in the United States. Churches, religions and especially NGOs can carry that message worldwide so that it is promoted and implemented globally.

World Leaders

The world suffers from catastrophic food shortages and poverty. Leaders the world over are looking for ways to increase the economic and social well being of their citizens. Rise Up presents them with a model to copy to self-finance their own progress.

Women

As women are more than half of the population of the planet, economically emancipating them in America might encourage their elevation in status and stature throughout the world.

Others

There are so many other constituencies like teachers, union members, impoverished minorities and the like there is no reason to belabor the point here. The Rise Up America plan can be the issue so many of these constituencies find as an indispensable tool to accomplishing their particular goals.

Current Political Climate

Polling during the primary election season of 2008 and three losses of “safe” Republican Congressional seats has proven that the American people are deeply disturbed about the economy and they are placing that blame on the Bush Administration.

It would be convenient to blame the War in Iraq but polls show the overwhelming majority of American people do not want to lose that war. As the country has not even experienced one quarter in which the Gross National Product dropped below the previous quarter, the possibility that a recession of two consecutive quarters of falling GDP cannot be the reason right now that 82% of the people think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

It is our belief that neither party is offering the people what they want. We believe they want is a better of standard of living and the ability to achieve the American Dream. Neither political party is offering policies that will materially affect the fortunes of ordinary Americans nor deliver a better standard of living. In fact it is projected that the younger generation will not achieve the financial success of their parents because of “income disparity.”

The proposition that the Trickle Down theory is failing to include ordinary working Americans has been widely accepted by the voters. The rich have profited greatly from 25 tears of “trickle down” whereas the wages of ordinary American’s have suffered a $1,000 drop in purchasing power over the last 7 years of the Bush Administration.

Promoting and enacting the Rise Up America plan will inform the American people that their government is looking after them, returning trillions of their own money to invest in the economy and create million-dollar nest eggs. It is what the American taxpayer-voter wants it is the deep significant change they are crying out for.

What Can You Do About It

We have formed a think tank called the “Ownership Society Institute” to lead the charge under the Rise Up America flag to get a grass roots movement going to lobby our representatives at every level to create the enabling Rise Up Theory of Economics legislation outlined here.

We anticipate that we will need a lot of volunteers and a major funding effort to affect the outcome of the 2008 election. In this era of instant celebrity and fame over the new internet communication channels like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, IPod and cell phones we plan to mount a serious attack to inform the public that they are missing out on million-dollar nest eggs. Without spending a dime or changing anything in their life they can accumulate enough to retire affluently and will enormous sums to their kids.

You can assist us by becoming a member of our Institute and helping us fund our plan to promote Rise Up. Our primary legislative target is to inform politicians of our comprehensive plan so they can use the principles to win their election campaigns the same time they are instructing the public on the benefits.

As it is the Congress that must embrace Rise Up and enact the laws we will concentrate on the Congressional races. We hope to win our many constituencies over to Rise Up so they will support candidates promising to enact Rise Up legislation and pool their lobbying efforts to effect this change. They include the ordinary American, the poor, manufacturers, union members, women, churches and synagogues, non-governmental organizations (NGO), Wall Street, charitable organizations, etc.

The money we raise will go to produce documentaries focused on the general application of Rise Up as well as specific targets like women’s groups, manufacturers, etc. that will benefit from specific portions of the Rise Up law. It will also go to creating materials like pamphlets, and DVDs for political candidates to use in disseminating their message.

The money will also go for creating a presence in every state to specifically promote Rise Up. A new master website needs to be built to handle the effort. The more successful we are the greater need for logistics to coordinate the operation’s many-faceted effort.

You can participate by helping us fund this effort – an effort to make every American a millionaire using his own money to do it. If you believe in free market capitalism there can be no better way to support its victory over creeping socialism than the wealth and success Rise Up will deliver. If you are a politician there will be no greater service you can perform for the people (and the Congressional Budget Office) than lifting $45 trillion of unfunded debt off their shoulders.

Manufacturers will improve their bottom line and become more competitive without having to supplement retirement for their workers. They are a significant beneficiary of Rise Up as are women, union workers, teachers, tradesmen.

To become a member of the Institute go to our temporary website www.riseupamerica.us and contribute by credit card or write a check to the Ownership Society Institute and mail it to our office at 9662 Jumilla Avenue, Chatsworth, CA 91311-5610.

The Ownership Society Institute is a California Charitable Trust # CT0136416 which qualifies for charitable status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

OWNERSHIP SOCIETY INSTITUTE
By:_Dick McDonald

Richard A. McDonald

Managing Trustee

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Throwing off the entitlement mindset

Written by Star Parker
Posted: November 3, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

The U.S Comptroller General and head of the GAO, Government Accountability Office, has described the entitlements crisis facing this country as a "tsunami" that approaches while we continue to party on the beach

What GAO head David Walker is talking about are the massive upcoming obligations under Social Security and Medicare that we have no funds to meet. Tens of trillions of dollars of supposed commitments, promises made to us by our government, that today we have no clue how we'll pay.

In those rare moments when our political "leaders" screw up sufficient courage to acknowledge this dark and ominous fiscal cloud hanging over us, the discussion is invariably technical. Proposed tax increases, cap increases, retirement age increases, benefit cuts, indexing -- all geared to "save the system."

But who has considered that, despite all the discussion about unfunded liabilities, what we really have on our hands is, at root and core, a moral crisis?

No one explains this better than my friend Jose Piñera. And no one has better credentials to talk about this problem.

Twenty seven years ago, in November 1980, Chile, Dr. Piñera's home country, approved Social Security reform in which a tax-based, pay-as-you go government retirement system -- essentially identical to what we have here -- was replaced with an ownership based system of individually owned retirement accounts. Yes, in principle the kind of reform that President Bush proposed.

As the then-youthful Minister of Labor and Social Security of Chile, Piñera was the godfather, mastermind, architect, navigator, and quarterback of the reform.

Key in execution was to allow every Chilean worker the dignity of choice.

They could choose to stay in the existing system, continue to pay payroll taxes, and qualify for government benefits at retirement, or they could get out and use those same funds to open and invest in their own personal retirement account.

Within months, 90 percent of the Chilean workforce opted out of the government system and into their own personal ownership regime.

The result has been more than just an enormously successful transformation of a failed government retirement system. Chile's social security privatization -- if I may use the word that politicians, even the conservative ones, choke on these days -- has been a driving piston in Chile's economic engine, now the most powerful in Latin America.

The average real (adjusted for inflation) annual return of Chile's personal retirement accounts over the last 26 years has been over ten percent (the historical real annual return on stocks in the U.S. is 7 percent).

And Chile catapulted from one of the lowest per capita GDP countries in Latin America in 1980 to the highest today.

But, where, amidst all this great economic news is the moral lesson?

In talking about the transformation of all pension systems -- government and private alike -- from defined benefit (controlled by others and they tell you what you'll get) to defined contribution (you own it, and put your own funds into it), Piñera touches the root of the problem of today's welfare state He sums things up, pointing out that "life is not a defined benefit."

When our founding fathers signed off, in our Declaration of Independence, on the words that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights," they meant "rights" to live your life freely and unimpeded by others. Government's job, as the Declaration goes on, is "to secure these Rights." It's there to protect you.

Over the years, as we've become intoxicated with our own success, and detached from our own roots and principles, our understanding of "rights" and government has morphed into things altogether different. "Rights" have become what everyone is allegedly entitled to (our claims on others) and we look to government to enforce delivery of these entitlements.

The ocean of Social Security and Medicare red ink in which we are about to drown speaks to the efficacy of the entitlement mindset. The nanny state violates, rather than protects, our rights. It doesn't work.

Today we must look to Chile to learn what America's founders knew. Freedom is built on and fueled by personal responsibility

In an international survey released by the Pew Global Attitudes project last July, 62% of Chileans responded that they expect the next generation to be better off than their parents -- highest in Latin America.

In a just released USA Today Gallup poll, only 46% of respondents in the U.S. expressed optimism that the next generation in our country would "live better than their parents."

The entitlements crisis is a moral crisis and we ought to grasp that ownership is part of the "values" agenda. Life is not a defined benefit.

Star Parker is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News as well as author of White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.

Throwing off the entitlement mindset"


READ ABOUT THE SOLUTION HERE!



Sunday, October 07, 2007

Ladies: How to stay home, never work, and retire a millionaire--guaranteed!

Family Really Matters



by Dick McDonald



It is sad commentary that so little attention is paid to strengthening the family unit in today’s warp-speed world. The family is the basic building block of all civilizations yet today fewer and fewer women are having babies and those that do are shrinking in numbers. In Europe the problem has become genocidal as couples are not having enough babies (minimum replacement is pegged at 2.1 babies per couple) to even replace themselves. In some countries the rate of replacement has fallen to 1.2.



As the leader of the free world in so many categories, the USA is presently just keeping its head above water birthing 2.1 babies per couple. The trend, however, appears headed lower. The question is what can be done about improving these downward spiraling demographics. As this is primarily a problem of modern western societies, the USA should lead the way in restoring the family to prominence and reverse the impending demographic disaster.



The Ownership Society Institute (OSI) believes it has the answer. Were women secure financially in staying home to rear their kids and grand kids, a big family and the joys of having one would not only become more attractive but possible. Unfortunately our laws, policies and economics are presently stacked up against the creation of big families.



What if we change the laws and policies to allow women to stay home, never work a day in their entire lives and guarantee they retire a millionaire? Sound crazy? Just stick with me a moment longer.



Politicians, the media and the public focus discussions almost exclusively in economic matters on income taxes - raise taxes on the rich – lower taxes on the rich. Candidates for President are exclusively focused on income taxes, e.g. the Fair and Flat Tax proposals and the income disparity issues. OSI wants to refocus attention to the real snake in the woodpile –payroll taxes.



OSI does not want to destroy Social Security, Disability and Medicare but merely change the way those worthy projects are financed. In the process women will become financially emancipated, among many other benefits emanating from such a change, This is how it works.



Today 15.3% of the income of working Americans (up to $97,500) is taken by government as payroll taxes. The self-employed pay the entire 15.3%, employees split that cost with their employers. An average household earning $40,000 a-year pays $6,000 a year in payroll taxes. In return for that $240,000 40-year lifetime investment the government gives the taxpayer a $1,122 a-month retirement check and no nest egg to will to his kids. Under Medicare most old-age medical costs are also covered.



Under OSI’s Rise Up America plan the entire $240,000 is placed in a personal investment account owned by the taxpayer and deposited weekly over a 40-year working life to grow into a $3.2 million nest egg. This computation was made using the average rate of return experienced by the S&P 500 stock index (actually the 10% rate used in computing the $3.2 million is less than the 12.5% actual rate experienced in the last 25 40-year periods.) Just the income off that nest egg will generate a monthly retirement check of $27,000 ($3.2 million @ 10% divided by 12 months).



One can find all about the feasibility of this plan and the tables proving various nest egg accumulations at www.riseupamerica.us as well as ways you can assist in seeing to it that this change in funding entitlements is enacted. But let’s get back to the family and how Rise Up America benefits the family and makes the stay-at-home mom a millionaire.



Rise Up proposes that one-half of the withholding of payroll taxes (in the future that 15% deposited into personal accounts) from your spouse is credited to your personal account. In the case of the stay-at-home mom in the above mentioned case she would end up with a $165 million nest egg and a monthly retirement check of $13,500. Her husband would have the same amount in his account and an identical monthly retirement check.



OSI believes that its plan will be a stabilizing influence on the family because it secures its most important element – the mother. She will, during her lifetime, watch her personal account grow and find comfort in the financial security it provides. It will allow she and her husband to consider the joys of having a big family and how that will not only provide them comfort in their old age but a lifetime of joy rearing them. At the same time they will be doing their patriotic duty to reverse the looming demographic disaster. As an added benefit, they can spend all their lifetime income (after taxes) on their kids and still retire millionaires.



Under the Rise Up America plan all obligations under the old entitlement programs would be honored and exempted from reduction of benefits by Congress and such monthly checks and Medicare benefits guaranteed by the government.



In addition, all unfunded entitlement liabilities would be extinguished; the national budget cut almost in half; the need for millions of pension plans eliminated; the biggest tax cut in American history enacted; the largest infusion of funds into the capital market in history ($1.2 Trillion in the first year just from personal accounts); the wealth of the country and each citizen geometrically improved even for those without the tools to make the big bucks; and many more benefits enumerated on the website at the mission statement.



Under Rise Up the cost to transition from the existing programs to personal accounts can be painless, the cost to maintain them inexpensive and the risk to invest in the American economy non-existent over the working life of the participants. All this and more is covered on the website and in the free e-book offered there.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Fixing Social Security means Replacing Social Security

Solving Problems
Is what People do, Not Politicians

JB Williams
©2007 USA

I’m forty seven years old. Ronald Reagan was the first president I was old enough to vote for and it was an easy decision after a disastrous Jimmy Carter era. Reagan talked about solving our immigration woes, fixing a broken Social Security system, strengthening our military and national security, dealing with the evil empires of the world, which threatened our peace and prosperity, re-building traditional family values and returning America to its core principles of freedom, personal liberty and personal responsibility.

Twenty six years later, politicians have solved none of these issues and a record number of presidential candidates are once again crisscrossing the nation, promising to deal with all the same issues politicians have been promising to solve for as long as I can remember.

Since I cast my first vote for President Reagan, our immigration problems have gotten worse, Social Security has been plundered into insolvency, our national security is a shambles with terror sleeper cells living next door, and we have more evil empires taking aim at America than ever before in history.

Both Democrats and Republicans have held power, in congress and in the White House over the last twenty six years, and none of them have solved any of the problems people elected them to solve. Yet here we are again, listening to the same old campaign promises from the same old career politicians and lining up behind candidates as if we actually believe that any politician is really going to solve any problem. Fool me once, shame on you – twice, shame on me, but for twenty six years in a row, that’s got to be some kind of new record for gross ignorance, doesn’t it? This makes the people in Jones Town look like independent thinkers!

Our Republican President has about a 30% approval rating. Our Democrat congress is even worse, holding at around a 20% approval rating. We elected them… Yet American voters are brandishing campaign signs as if they really believe politicians can or will solve anything. Hope is one thing, but blind faith in politicians is not supported by their long track record of solving nothing.

The People will solve the problems

The people are responsible for the political mess we have today. We elect these politicians and then return to our daily routines as if we’ve done our part and the rest is up to the elitist intellectual do-nothings we just elected. What we see today is nothing more than the natural results of absentee management. We’ve been too busy with life to run our own country, so we’ve left it in the hands of politicians who have no track record of solving anything, other than their personal financial wellbeing.

Once Americans become convinced that a problem is severe enough to demand immediate attention, they step up and solve the problem themselves. Congress and the president recently tried to legalize illegal immigration as a means of solving the illegal immigration problem. Only when the American people became convinced that the problem demanded their immediate attention, did they step in and set Washington on the right track towards secured borders and a sane immigration policy.

The most creative productive people on earth

When it comes to getting things done, no society on earth can hold a candle to Americans. Over and over throughout history, Americans have stepped forward to solve seemingly unsolvable problems, both at home and abroad. It’s the people who get things done in America, not the politicians and its high time voters remember this…

The only problem the American people can’t solve, is the useless, lying, backstabbing politician problem (this is what politicians do)

We know that our tax system is oppressive and insane. When we get sick of it, we’ll fix it. We know that our federal government has strayed into a socialist abyss, sapping more and more resources (freedom) from the private sector by promising more and more gifts from the federal treasury. When we get sick of it, we’ll fix that too. What politician is going to fix any of it when it profits politicians both monetarily and in terms of power, to keep the problems intact?

Hillary’s Socialized Medicine – A good example of making a problem worse, just to benefit politicians alone

Hillary Clinton just rolled out her Socialized Medicine plan again. Most Americans would never knowingly vote for socialism, not in their medical system or anywhere else. So why is the Democrat front-runner so convinced that rolling out an already failed plan for socialized medicine will win her the White House in ’08?

That’s easy! She believes that enough American voters are stupid enough to vote for socialized medicine today, so long as she calls it “Universal Health Care”, that’s why. Her plan has a $110 BILLION price tag attached to it, by her own accounting, which means it will cost more like five times that amount once Washington is done with it. That’s $110 BILLION (a trillion once installed) more than the federal government is already spending and it’s been spending red ink into the future as far as the eye can see already.

Yes Hillary, let us vote for certain national bankruptcy and yes, will congress please be my doctor? Are you kidding me? If Americans will vote for this, we don’t need health care at all because we’re already brain dead!

Our health care system is something than can be fixed without replacing it with a federal socialist medical system. It requires increased free market competition, not a federal health care monopoly run by politicians. The last thing we need is the same people running health care that ran Social Security into the ground.

Fixing Social Security means Replacing Social Security

FDR’s New Deal became a Raw Deal before the ink was dry. The Social Security System was never designed to be a retirement plan. It was designed only to be a crisis security net and a supplemental paid-for entitlement that might give seniors a little added comfort and security in their golden years.

But after the fed took half of your life’s earnings in taxes, folks think they are due at least what they paid in over the years and why not? Had the federal government done a reasonable job of managing and investing the Social Security Trust Fund over the years, retirement would be secure for everyone. But surprise – surprise, the federal government, our politicians, not only failed to manage the fund well, they PLUNDERED it into insolvency. Now they want to do the same with your health care and anything else you’ll let them “manage.”

There is NO way to “fix” the existing Social Security System. Fixing it requires replacing it with a system managed by people, not politicians, that can actually work and once again, when the people have had enough, they will fix it.

Fixing it is easier than most think by the way. A fellow conservative writer has an excellent book on the subject titled “The Rise Up Theory of Economics.” Author Dick McDonald is offering readers a FREE online copy of the book here. If you think our current Social Security system is the best we can do, I encourage everyone, including Washington dimwits, to get a copy of this book and read it cover to cover.

McDonald once again proves my point, that average Americans have what it takes to solve even the biggest problems. If solving problems were as profitable to politicians as it is to tax-payers, our problems would get solved. But problems are profitable to politicians. So tax-payers will have to do the solving!

Ending the War on Terror

One way or another, the people, not the politicians, will end the war on terror. The people will end it by demanding that Washington drop its insane politically correct rules of engagement abroad, that hamstring our soldiers in battle and unleash the full power of the American military to rid the world of those who seek to kill innocent civilians in pursuit of their religious or political goals, or they will end it once the war comes home to roost, by taking up arms themselves if need be. One way or another, the people will solve this problem, not the politicians.

How much is enough?

Politicians have a long history of accomplishing. How long will the American people leave matters in the hands of failing politicians before they wake up and remember why the founders placed control of this nation in the hands of the people?

At best, government and politicians are a necessary evil

At worst, they are dangerous to every American

We must vote. We must select legislators and executive leaders. Politics has never been a practice of the perfect. It’s only an experiment in the arena of the possible. There is NO such thing as a perfect political leader because there is no such thing as a perfect politician, or even a perfect person. We work with what is possible, because there is no ideal candidate.

In this regard, we should work with politicians who understand that it is the American people who are the power in America - that the American people are the solution to every problem and that government is in large part, much of the problem.

Americans should never buy into the promise that any politician is going to solve anything. There is no track record to support such a notion and megalomaniacs who see themselves as our saviors can’t be trusted with even the simplest of tasks. They are off on the wrong foot from the start!

No More Elitist Intellectual Dictators

There are many good reasons why our founders entrusted the power over this nation in the hands of average Americans, rather than in the hands of elitist intellectuals seeking to dictate from on high. Politicians who promise to save us from ourselves are not only liars - they are dangerous.

We need to save ourselves from the politicians, not elect politicians who promise to save us from ourselves. Could any truth be any clearer at this moment in history?

Special Links

The Rise Up Theory of Economics – FREE online copy of the book!