Random Gripe
ByI’m really tired of paying the salary of all of the people I arrest. It seems that 2/3 or more of my suspects are on disability and getting money from the Social Security Administration. That doesn’t include food stamps or other perks like government provided cell phones. (Since when did having a cell phone become a right??)
But now I understand it. You see, work is for suckers. I got my Social Security statement in the mail today, and here is how the numbers play out.
Without overtime, my take-home pay is roughly $2400/month. If I was to fake an injury and go on disability, my take home would be about $1500/month. But, a big chunk of that $900 difference is made up by food stamps (roughly $400/month), meaning the difference is really only $500. Does anyone think I can’t make $500 in cash labor in just a couple of days, leaving the rest of my month free? And those numbers don’t include any additional cash the government hands out because I have kids. I could be making more money not working.
I have more than 20 years to go to hit early retirement (age 62). If I continue to work full time for the next 20-something years, as I have since I was 16 years old, my Social Security check would be about $1150/month, which is $350/month less than tapping out now, and collecting disability.
Ever get the feeling the wrong people are being rewarded?
10 Comments
February 7th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Ive always thought the same way. Id like to see drug testing manditory to SSI recipiants. Sure they have to pay for the testing but i gaurentee that theys save more by not paying out to substance abusers.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Clearly, you’re racist.
/end sarc
February 7th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Robert,
Thanks for the laugh. Your sarcasm is well-taken.
Kevin,
Excellent point. The problem is trusting the SSA to properly administer a pee-test. Frankly, I don’t think I trust the feds to manage that without multiple layers of oversight committees, etc.
Oh well…
–Richard
February 7th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Your lucky. Our Public Employee’s Retirement System in Nevada does not allow me to draw on the Social Security I paid into faithfully for the 10 years of full time employment I worked outside of law enforcement.
Not only do I pay for them with my current salary, but all the money I put in the system prior to law enforcement goes to them too.
And I thought I was being the smart one…
February 7th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I’m on disability due to a truck accident when I was in the Marines. I still worked over 30 years before I was forced to retire. I want to know how all these drug dealers and other criminals get SSI? After I got hurt the second time, I had to hire a lawyer and fight for almost 2 years to get what I had paid into all those years. I also can’t get food stamps. Because my wife has a part time job we make too much. And how do I get a government issue cell phone? It would beat having a phone bill every month. Seems to me that the dregs of society get treated a whole lot better than people that worked all their lives.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:28 am
Robert,
This will get you really torqued up: there is a billboard in my city trying to get more people to sign up for the free, government-provided phones. So, we are spending money on the phones PLUS advertising to get more people in on the deal. It’s a racket.
–Richard
February 8th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Too true. We see this all day in health care. Some dude comes in with a “bad back” who hasn’t worked in 3 years, but he was in a rock climbing accident (no s***). He’s taking up a trauma/drama bed while some working guy who blew out his knee sits on the floor outside triage waiting cause HE didn’t scream like a girl when I took his temperature.
As one tough old vet told me while we sutured his 6-inch work-related laceration, “Since when is gettin’ drunk a disability? When I was that age we called that bein’ stupid, and you got your butt handed to you, not a check.”
Consolation is when the handouts end so will most of these lowlifes, because they have literally never done anything for themselves in their lives. If they’re not real good with weapons they won’t be able to roll the rest of us. They will sit home and whine until they starve or dehydrate, still waiting for “somebody” who has an obligation to support them. Maybe then we can use any surplus we have to help out folks who actually are needy and deserving, as it should be.
Thanks for what you do for us every day. When you reach the point of sitting it out, you can look back and see that your work meant something, and you will have earned every single penny that comes to you and then some.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Rain,
Thanks for taking the time to post. Ending the handouts would be fantastic…hunger is an excellent motivator…but I don’t imagine we will see that soon. There are plenty of people who actually need help, but we rarely see those people, because they are not standing around with their hand out.
–Richard
February 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
My Social security is reduced by 60% because I have a government (Police) pension. It is called the Windfall Provision Act brought to you by Dan Rosenkowski?, before his arrest on theft charges from the United States Post office while a member of congress.
There is a bill up before the House and Senate calling for the repeal of this act and has over three hundred co-sponsor’s including the President of the United States while a U.S. Senator from Illinois. This Bill is in committee with little chance of seeing day light.
Retired Officers met with a representative of our congressman, one of the Officers was a Viet-Nam vet, wounded several times and worked for caterpiller for ten years before joining the department, His Social Security is reduced.
Please contact your Senators and Representatives, and have them take this bill out of committee and vote on it.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:58 am
The last poster Ralph is correct. You are considered a government employee you automatically lost 1/3 of the total and depending upon your age if you take it prior to the required time you lost another 1/3 so thats 2/3 of the total gone. I took mine at 62 and got $185.00 a month now going on medicare and my montly check will be $71.00 a month.