Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics A fix for the SSTF

I've gotta go with NW_P on this one. The risk IS much greater than the reward.
Also, there are many other ways to rip off undocumented workers that do not involve the legal liabilities that defrauding SS do.

There are also significant cash rewards for turning in someone to the IRS, so not only do you have to hide everything from SS, the IRS, and law enforcement, you have to worry about EVERY SINGLE PERSON who either likes cash, doesn't like you, or has a sense of right and wrong. This covers just about everyone, including relatives.

Paying cash under the table is good for instances so small the IRS and SS would not enforce it. For anything bigger, law enforcement sees it as a useful tool for putting you in jail

When I used to hire people I remember hiring those who I was sure were not legal. I, however, needed to hire somebody that was what was available. At the same time I was also forced to report all new hires to the feds (I think that is still going on). What is interesting is that the feds never came back at me. I finally asked some of them to explain why. They ALL had valid SS numbers. The problem was that they were not THEIR SS number but, in most cases, the SS number of a relative who was legal. I often wondered about that. I asked if anybody else was using the same SS number and they ALL said "other relatives".

Another thought. If you have a SS number, and are close to retirement, you might consider finding some illegals to share your number with. You could probably increase your SS but quite a bit! (on the other hand you shouldn't really count on gov to allow this to continue forever and might get you into prison as you probably don't have enough money to qualify for the fine/price of doing business deal that the rich get from the feds)


I remember when the head of medicare computers, on 60 minutes, explained that the medicare computers were incapable to knowing when the same medicare account was charged with exactly the same services, on the same day, multiple times (she later lost her job). I suspect the same holds true with SS as, I suspect, if they could, they would find a lot of people paying into the same SS Number. In any case, the relative with the legal number will probably retire really well with everybody paying into it for her/him.

SS collects submitted money in the Earnings Suspense File when social security numbers do not match names. Some of these cases get resolved because of legal name changes, etc. but the account currently has $1.2 TRILLION dollars in it! That's 1.2 million millionaire's worth of money. (We pay about 75 billion per month in benefits, so that represents 16 months of payments.)

That's a butt-load of money! So anytime somebody tries to tell you illegals are defrauding social security, you know the truth: They have paid in 1.2 trillion dollars and never will get it back. They are significantly financing our retirement.

Oh, I think you are right about that. We always made sure that the SS name, and the employee name, was the same. This particular employee told me that her cousin, owner of the SS, was aware and, apparently, they did not check to see if duplicate names are working at different places at the same time. The owner was a VERY happy camper. Last time I saw this one she told me that her cousin retired back to Mexico and is living rather well on her SS.

Its kinda interesting. We go down to Mexico, every now and then, and I have met a lot of Mexicans who are retired on American SS. Somebody once told me that there are also a lot of retired, and living on American SS, in Poland and Cuba. Have no idea if that is true or not but I suspect it is. I remember, years ago, we were down in Mexico (Yucatan) and found out one could take a ferry to Cuba cheap. We took the ferry and got off, nobody said anything or asked for any ID so we wandered around, spent the night and took the ferry back to Mexico the next day. Apparently that ferry has been making runs to Cuba for a very long time and there were a lot of Americans taking the trip <G> (stuff was really cheap there)

Ted, my entire family are New Yorkers.
If you are going to squeal about the rents on the Upper West Side, your company includes the likes of Chelsea Clinton and some members of the Trump Family.

Good God man, have you done lost yo damn mind?

Here, let me fix that for you.

13225 Maple Ave, Flushing, NY 11355


At first I thought you were joking but I am sure you would have let us know you WERE, maybe by including something like this?



Sorry mate, I am not going to feel any sympathy for anyone living on the Upper East Side and complaining about the high rents.

The rents in Manhattan - almost everywhere - are beyond reach to most middle class working folks. Even Harlem is being gentrified. Brooklyn has also become too expensive for most.
There are parts of Queens and the Bronx that may still be accessible but they are areas you might not want to live in.
It's crazy here and is becoming impossible to live in Bloomberg's oasis. They have driven out the working class - no surprise there.
NYC is a playground for international and domestic oligarchs.

That said, it's silly to put up rents in the Upper West Side as an example of the impoverished masses, don't you think?

Absolutely - Upper West Side is yuppie heaven nowadays . Upper East was always hoity toity.