Hey Larkin? How about something new?

I did a cleanout a while back and had a bunch of early 70s Playboy magazines, I gave them to a guy here living on a boat. He said for women in there late 50s, they sure look good. Mike

Ya, I thought That was understood.

But mine only cost a few bucks!

50s? That sounds more like Plowboy. ;-)

--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

--
I think he rather fancies himself a shepherd.

Did you ever need to hit one of those panic buttons?

Stuff I'm working on at the moment powered by 24V from a couple sets of SLA batteries (big ones are 100AH), so I'm more worried about fire than high voltage these days. Individually fused batteries and quality connectors to limit fault current.

Grant.

--
http://bugs.id.au/

They have to be tested every year. At my PPOE we used to hit the EPO button on the way out for the Labor Day weekend, when the place shut down for Provocative Maintenance. (It always took a couple of days to get everything working again when power came back up.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal
ElectroOptical Innovations
55 Orchard Rd
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

[snip]

Nope. Just periodic test.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
      The only thing bipartisan in this country is hypocrisy

Actually, the income from payroll taxes is credited to the SS trust fund in the form of "special-issue" securities", which are like Treasury bonds and earn interest the same as Treasury notes. Reference:

"Far from being "worthless IOUs," the investments held by the trust funds are backed by the full faith and credit of the U. S. Government. The government has always repaid Social Security, with interest. The special-issue securities are, therefore, just as safe as U.S. Savings Bonds or other financial instruments of the Federal government. "

The only question is, when the SS fund runs out of money, who will get paid first? the Chinese holding treasury bonds, or the SS trust fund holding special-issue securities?

The Chinese don't vote, and all the retired people do. So, I would imagine when things get tough, the politicians will know who to pay first, if they want to stay in office.

-Bill

Yeah, I tend to agree. I've been around here for a decade+. I've noticed JT going AWOL in the last year or two as well.

but

g

t you

ing

he

cap

of

=A0 =A0Mike

I did a little basic program to illustrate investing $500 per month over 40 years at 5% compounded return yields about $763,017. Income at

5% would be about 38K per year, probably not enough to pay the rent 40 years from now.

Principal =3D 1 Rate =3D .05 For Year =3D 1 to 40 For Month =3D 1 to 12 Principal =3D Principal + Principal*(Rate/12) Principal =3D Principal + 500 Next Month Next Year Print Principal

$763,017

-Bill

JL would never physically challenge me... he'd lose :-)

Sometimes I get busy :-)

"The mark of a civilized man" is the ability to admit errors gracefully. JL has trouble with that. When I point out crap in his designs he tends to dig in his heels.

Perhaps AWOL is the answer... henceforth I'll make _exactly_ one declaration of circuit design/explanation errors, then walk away. If the young bucks don't then question JL, I'll let them grovel in their own sputum of ignorance, and then I'll enjoy a laugh when they're proven too incompetent to get jobs. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
      The only thing bipartisan in this country is hypocrisy

When I started paying the rate was

I did a little basic program to illustrate investing $500 per month over 40 years at 5% compounded return yields about $763,017. Income at

5% would be about 38K per year, probably not enough to pay the rent 40 years from now.

Principal = 1 Rate = .05 For Year = 1 to 40 For Month = 1 to 12 Principal = Principal + Principal*(Rate/12) Principal = Principal + 500 Next Month Next Year Print Principal

$763,017

-Bill

I'm a believer in saving and the magic of compound interest. Maybe you misunderstood this comment from above; " When I started paying, the rate was 4.2%, now it is up to 6.2%." These are the percentages taken *from* your paycheck not the interest paid *on* your contributions. My average SS contribution has been about $150 a month not $500. At this point I'm not convinced that you earn interest on you contributions, I don't even think there is an account with SS money in, I think it has all been spent on previous recipients. And I think today's workers SS payments are going directly in one end of the SS admin. and right out the other end to today's recipients of SS. Mike

A bigger worry: even if you do manage to "save and invest" on your own, the money is usually just numbers in a computer somewhere, not stacks of gold in the closet. Its value depends on the next generation's productivity. And the government will most likely steal it from you via inflation. The only relatively safe investments are real things, like property and productive assets.

John

ll

s d

Well, you will have to find evidence of that. As I understand it, the SS funds collected are invested in "special-issue securities" similar to government bonds that pay interest, and carry the same guarantee as US government bonds. The money is basically borrowed from the SS fund to pay current obligations the same way the government borrows money from China by selling bonds.

I'm not sure if regular treasury bonds held by investors, or special- issue bonds held in the SS trust fund have the same credit rating. In other words, if push comes to shove, who gets paid first? the Chinese holding our bonds? or the SS trust fund holding the special-issue bonds? It's an open question I can't figure out.

-Bill

y

That's just debt Bill. Worthless or not, they *are* just IOUs. They are not a pile of money that's been invested anywhere making money.

Yes, those bonds supposedly pay interest (...I could see you were going to say that...), but that's just another promise--a promise to take that money from someone in the future. It's not the same as being truly invested in something that produces a return, for example, invested in a factory that makes widgets at a profit, and will repay the loan over time from the profits.

So, the upshot is that your money isn't invested, it's gone, and even though they promise to pay you back with interest, the money in fact _earns_ no return.

The most likely scenario, I think, is inflation, or hyperinflation. It all depends.

The financial thing isn't over--there's still a tsunami out there, on the way. The funny thing with tsunamis, though, is that they're sensitively dependent on several conditions--you never know if a gnarly wave's going to scour the coast, or if the water will just slowly rise and flood everything for a long, long time.

The unfunded federal liabilities are roughly $100T. They almost make California look responsible.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Hi John, I'm sure you are aware of what I'm going to say but I need to say it anyway.

I agree, accept for calling property a safe investment. I live in Panama City Fl., I bought my house 15 yrs ago. I have watched the value go from $83K to $260K and now to less than $150K. With the oil getting closer, I don't know where it could end up. I talked with a real estate agent about a week ago, she has had, as she says, "a beautiful one bedroom home" near the beach listed for some time at $119,000. With the oil getting closer the exasperated owner said lower it to $69,000 and get it sold. It gets worse, the next door neighbor with the identical house said " if his is $69K lower mine to $45K! The real estate agent told me she had 5 cancellations the previous week and while we were talking she received a phone call, it was another cancellation. People don't want to purchase with the oil damage unknown and some realize if the oil does get here, they will be able to purchase at a much lower price. Add to this the crash of Texas real estate in the 80s. Mike

.>> 5% would be about 38K per year, probably not enough to pay the rent 40

This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office. From

As has been said before there are IOUs not cash. The IOUs are an unfunded liability to be seized form the next generation of workers, if they don't revolt. Mike

Bill continued, As I understand it, the SS funds collected are invested in "special-issue securities" similar to government bonds that pay interest, and carry the same guarantee as US government bonds. The money is basically borrowed from the SS fund to pay current obligations the same way the government borrows money from China by selling bonds.

I'm not sure if regular treasury bonds held by investors, or special- issue bonds held in the SS trust fund have the same credit rating. In other words, if push comes to shove, who gets paid first? the Chinese holding our bonds? or the SS trust fund holding the special-issue bonds? It's an open question I can't figure out.

-Bill PS. When I reply to your posts, I don't get the (>) before your post. I also don't get the (>>) before my previous post. Is this my computer or yours and how do I fix it. It is a pain to add them myself.

That's just debt Bill. Worthless or not, they *are* just IOUs. They are not a pile of money that's been invested anywhere making money.

Yes, those bonds supposedly pay interest (...I could see you were going to say that...), but that's just another promise--a promise to take that money from someone in the future. It's not the same as being truly invested in something that produces a return, for example, invested in a factory that makes widgets at a profit, and will repay the loan over time from the profits.

So, the upshot is that your money isn't invested, it's gone, and even though they promise to pay you back with interest, the money in fact _earns_ no return.

The most likely scenario, I think, is inflation, or hyperinflation. It all depends.

The financial thing isn't over--there's still a tsunami out there, on the way. The funny thing with tsunamis, though, is that they're sensitively dependent on several conditions--you never know if a gnarly wave's going to scour the coast, or if the water will just slowly rise and flood everything for a long, long time.

The unfunded federal liabilities are roughly $100T. They almost make California look responsible.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

James, If I were a drinking man I'd like to have a beer with you, maybe even through in a few liberals so we could teach them how to think properly. This was not necessarily aimed toward you Bill :-) You make me look for facts and sharpen my aurguments. Mike

That happens when some newsreaders (like OuthouseExcess) quote material from Google Groups. It's something Google does to the posts, but I've never been able to track it down.