As Bloomberg reports, “On the third day of capital controls, a few dozen pensioners lined up by 7 a.m. at a central Athens branch of the National Bank of Greece, an hour before opening time. They were to receive a maximum of 120 euros (£85), compared with the average monthly payment of about 600 euros. Many left with nothing after the manager said only those with last names starting with the letters A through K would get paid.”
Another customer, a retired mariner who asked not to be named, told AFP he had no cash to buy crucial medicine for his sick wife.
“I worked for 50 years on the sea and now I am the beggar for 120 euros,” he said.Such a sad, heart-wrenching, scenario… but not unexpected!
Unfortunately, many of these seniors lived in a time before the internet. Their only source of information was from government controlled or regulated television, radio and newspapers. These were owned by the people who control the government itself. It was not in their interest to tell the truth. And they didn’t.
They always told people that government management of retirement funds would work out well. Most pensioners thought that their money was being held in trust and managed by good and honest people. After all, they knew what THEY would do – the right thing.
But government is a pathological entity with a sociopathic mentality. Anything not nailed down will eventually be ripped off. And the longer modern government (regulatory democracy) persists, the worse it tends to get.
Often government attracts the worst kinds of people, those who are either insecure about their abilities or too lazy to try to find a job in the private sector. They are the last people who should be entrusted with billions, even trillions, of dollars.
Many of these people have the trick of sounding serious and responsible. They dress up a sordid reality with fancy words. What government official with a media portfolio has not spoken of the “sacrifices” of public service, etc.
When government systems go broke, the looters often find themselves among the looted. This is because “social security” (or socialist insecurity) systems are actually ponzi schemes. A ponzi scheme is, “paying returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator”All social security programs are based on this system including in the US. So, if you don’t think this can’t/won’t happen in the US then you are just as blind as these Greek pensioners… and likely headed for the same fate.
A US Senator, Ron Johnson, put together the numbers showing that US social security became a true ponzi scheme in 2010 when total pay-ins were surpassed by pay-outs.
image: https://www.dollarvigilante.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JohnsonChartSocialSecurity1.jpeg
Al Gore, when running for president, used to speak of a “lock box” in terms of US social security. This was a lie. There is no “box” associated with US social security. The program has just been treated as one more year-to-year source of tax revenue. It has been borrowed against and pledged many times over.
This will not end well. Either Americans will end up like the Greeks standing in long lines for tiny amounts of money, or the US dollar will end up being hyperinflated in order to pay back the state’s IOUs, meaning that you’ll still get your check but it won’t buy you a tin of cat food.WHAT TO DO?
If you are so old that you cannot be productive anymore and survive on your socialist insecurity check, I have very, very bad news for you. You will soon find out that you were scammed by the very system you likely supported (or at the very least could not stop). Karma is a bitch. Hopefully your kids or grandkids have some precious metals or bitcoin put aside for unavoidable expenses. (And hopefully they subscribe to TDV to be aware of what is about to come).
For those who can still be productive but who are in retirement and living off of social security, I advise you to get back to earning money, any way you can. Invest whatever funds you can into things like precious metals that will retain their value as the US dollar collapses.
If you are in your working/productive years, please make up your mind to forget about ever seeing a social security check. It either won’t be there or won’t be worth anything in a few years.
And, forget about your company pension plan too. Almost all corporate pension plans are invested in things that are going to be either worth less or worthless in the coming years, including US government bonds.
Sorry! But, not my fault. I’m just the messenger.If you have a significant amount of funds in an IRA or 401k you should either withdraw immediately (before it gets nationalized) or, if withdrawal is not an option, move into a Self-Directed IRA.
A Self-Directed IRA allows you to invest your retirement funds into hard assets worldwide (whereas a standard IRA does not allow you). You can even buy foreign real estate.
It also allows you to internationalize your assets so when the situation becomes so dire that officials begin to eye nationalization of your IRAs your assets are out of their immediate reach. Fortunately, you can’t nationalize what’s not there to grab. And with a little forethought and planning, you can be one of the fortunate ones.
CONCLUSION
The Dollar Vigilante has subscribers worldwide including many multi-billionaires on various continents… but I just looked to see if we had any subscribers in Greece and we only have one. He is the person who has been reporting from Greece this week for us and he has already, long ago, moved all of his assets outside of Greece!
He currently reports from cafes in Greece, very comfortably, with his foreign bank accounts and credit cards while many in Greece are getting a real wake-up call. He can afford coffee. More and more Greeks may not be able to afford anything at all. We hear dumpster diving is becoming fashionable. What a depressing turn of events.Greece may still accept the EU/IMF “bail-out”, and you can be sure the pensioners will be the loudest advocate for it as it will re-institute their pensions for a little while longer (Some misguided people are even trying to crowdfund a bail-out and have raised over 1 million euros in three days). But, it will only be for a little while longer. The Western central banking/fiat currency/socialist-democracy system is in a state of collapse and Greece is the proverbial canary in the coalmine.
Don’t be like many Greeks and wait for the banks to close and pension funds to be cut-to-nothing before you become aware of what is going on.
There is a saying, “Better a year early than a day late.” True enough, but here’s a newsflash: I’m not sure Americans even have a year at this point.
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