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A story of Waste, Fraud, and Inequities
by Joseph N. Fried, CPA (Algora Publishing, 2003)
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"Buy the book. It's "chock full of examples that both anger and entertain." - David Hogberg in the American Spectator
"Joseph Fried has put together an excellent examination of our government Social Security program and why it must be changed.
Plus, the book is a fun read." - Distinguished economist Dr. Walter E. Williams
"Mr. Fried has done three things here: written a cracking good story, revealed everything important about the retirement system
for most Americans, and offered solutions to the looming disaster that are worth your consideration." - Jameson Campaigne,
Jr., Secretary of the American Conservative Union
Recently, a few tiny Texas school districts perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in United States history - a fraud
that will cost the Social Security trust fund approximately $2.5 billion dollars. (Yes, that is Billion with a "B.")
The scam involved Texas teachers who became "janitors" for just one day - the last day of their teaching careers.
They became janitors so that the school districts could withhold FICA tax on those custodial earnings. That in turn triggered
a unique loophole that qualified about 22,000 "jani-teachers" for approximately $110,000 in Social Security benefits
- each! That is the legal part of this scandal.
The ILLEGAL part of the scandal is explained in "How Social Security Picks Your Pocket," and elsewhere on this
Web site. (See "Joe's Battle against Social Security Fraud.")
"How Social Security Picks Your Pocket" identifies other areas of waste, abuse and inequity, including:
--Senior citizen tax rates that can effectively exceed 100% of income
--The inequitable shifting of benefits from the middle class to the wealthy - even to millionaires
--Retirement "apartheid" - i.e., government sanctioned systems that are separate and unequal
--Crazy Checks and Lazy Checks, and the difficulty of identifying those who are truly disabled
--The reasons why only 1 disabled beneficiary in 500 recovers and returns to work
--Social Security disability trends versus the real disability trends
--The pros and cons of Personal Retirement Accounts
--A very unique recommendation with regard to the Trust Fund
Each area of waste is defined and quantified, and expressed as dollars that will be wasted in each of the next 75 years.
Methodology is presented.
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Read sample chapter from book
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