Supporting seniors not on the governments agenda

Two stories in the local paper shows how little the conservative and the BC Liberals care about supporting seniors.  The first is about a local volunteer group that helps seniors with myriad programs, that is facing the loss of funding. Community Volunteer Services for Seniors (CVSS) operates a series of programs benefiting seniors across the Tri-Cities that includes grocery delivery, over-the-phone checkups and in-person visits.

But the group, which has relied on the United Way for 50 per cent of its funding, is losing its contract at the end of June.

Instead of funding the PoCo-based program, the United Way has chosen to fund the Better at Home program, which is administered locally by SHARE Family & Community Services Society of which I am a director. The paper doesn't say this but the funding SHARE is receiving to run this service is not close to what is needed, and the service we are offering does not meet the need. 

Without the funding, Marg Gordon, executive director of CVSS, suggested the organization could be shuttered by the end of the year.

So she was at the Port Moody council meeting Tuesday night, looking for support from politicians as the group tries to push the provincial government to revisit the program. "We're going to prevail. I don't want this message to be 'We're not around.' I want this message to be that 'We're fighting, we're fighting hard and with your support we're going to make it,'" she told council.

The organization is also looking at bridge funding until it can implement revenue-generating plans.

Council promptly approved the request to send letters of support to Premier Christy Clark and the various provincial ministries involved.

Coun. Zoe Royer called the organization an "incredible lifeline" to seniors living in isolation and suggested she's more than happy to contribute to the letter.

"It really goes to show what the power of people can do," she said.

The group serves 178 clients and has a volunteer base of more than 180 people. Most of those volunteers are seniors themselves, and former clients with the program.

Coquitlam agreed to lobby on the group's behalf, but not before at least a few Councillors had some harsh words for the governing Liberals.

"How could we possibly lock the doors on the volunteers? The provincial government has got to be crazy to do something like that," said Coun. Lou Sekora.

In April, the United Way of the Lower Mainland announced it will cut funding to 31 seniors programs across Metro Vancouver which will not be picked up by either Provincial or Federal Governments. This means a loss of support for seniors in need. 

The second story hits close to home as my cousin who is 80 lives in the coop and needs a subsidy to help her pay her rent.  an upcoming change to co-op lease programs around the province has the president worried for her residents' future.

Operating leases on seven of 11 co-op properties in the Tri-Cities are ending in 2018, while another three finish in 2024, and with their conclusion comes an end to a federal government subsidy that helps some residents stay in their homes.

That means several hundred Tri-Cities residents living in co-op housing could find themselves out of a home in a couple years.

Garden Court is one of the larger co-ops in the Tri-Cities with 99 apartments and 22 townhomes, with 37 units on subsidy.

"Everyone who's in a co-op is seriously worried about it," Raffan told the Tri-Cities NOW. She's even more worried for some of the seniors in the coop living on a pension who have no family and can't afford higher costs.

And that's where the Cooperative Housing Federation of BC (CHFBC) is hoping to get the word out about the upcoming change to the subsidy through a campaign called "You Hold the Key: fix the co-op housing crunch."

The organization will host an event in the Tri-Cities next week for co-op members.

Fiona Jackson, communications director for the CHFBC, explained that with the federal government out of housing, the issue is now in the hands of the province.

The CHFBC is proposing the province set up a subsidy program similar to the one offered by the feds.

"We're saying now that housing is a provincial responsibility ... the province needs to find a solution rather than having all these people in these federally-funded co-ops having to potentially find new homes," Jackson said.

The CHFBC suggested its proposal would cost the province an extra $2.5 million initially as the first few co-op agreements come to an end and top out at no more than $20 million.

A co-op is a non-profit federally funded mixed-income community with no landlords where everyone owns a share. A board of directors runs each co-op.

The CHFBC estimates about one third of people living in co-ops are eligible for the rent subsidy.

In the Tri-Cities, more than 260 households will face a loss of subsidy by 2018, with that number rising past 300 by 2024.

Back at Garden Court, Raffan said she supports the federation's proposal for the province to step in, and is urging her members to get involved in the campaign.

She's also trying to work on plans to get a subsidy that lasts for a few years.

"Someone has to care out there. It's just a really sad situation," Raffan said.

The CHFBC is holding a campaign event in the Tri-Cities on Thursday, June 19 at 7 p.m. at Falcon Crest Estates Co-op, at 1170 Falcon Dr. in Coquitlam.

- See more at: http://www.thenownews.com

The problem with pensions: symptoms and cures

This is an interesting perspective and one that should raise some discussion. The article was written by Jacquie McNish in 2013a for the full article go here. It is always interesting to see what those who serve the 1% believe. The issues as presented here are we are living too long, we don't have enough invested because of the market collapse in 2008, there are too many boomers retiring, and many of us do not have good or any pension plans.

The cures suggested are simple,  shared risk pension plans that  are allowed to suspend benefits when the plan is in trouble, make people work longer by raising the retirement age, reform pension management structure to implement more shared risk plans into the mix, expand the Canada Pension plan for workers who earn between $30.000 and $100,000, pooling the savings of defined contribution plans. Some interesting ideas were presented

THE SYMPTOMS
Longevity: We are living too long. When Grand Trunk Railway introduced Canada’s first workplace pension in 1874, the retirement age was 70 and average life expectancy 55, meaning the average worker was dead for 15 years before they could collect a pension. Today the average Canadian worker is retiring at 63 and life expectancy is almost 80 years. As life expectancy rises, workers’retirement years will soon exceed their career years, meaning they will be spending far more than anticipated.

Investment volatility: In an era of threadbare interest rates, pension funds have shifted most of their assets from bonds to stock market investments to generate returns needed to foot the pension bill. The strategy exposes funds to the increasingly volatile whims of the market. In the wake of the dot.com collapse in 1991 and financial crisis of 2008, the average Canadian pension plan in Canada is about 12 per cent short of assets needed to pay their pension bills.

Lax pension management: Bonds currently pay investors a real rate of about 1 per cent, but a large number of pension plans continue to project they will earn annual returns of 4 per cent. 

Many funds also rely on outdated mortality tables, which means they are assuming retirees will die sooner than expected. Added up, these practices mean funds have not saved enough for plan members.

Demographics: We are on the verge of the largest workplace exodus in history with more than seven million workers, 42 per cent of the Canadian work force, set to retire over the next 20 years. 

Many have not saved enough for retirement. For those who have pension plans, the exodus means there may be as many workers as there are retirees, a ratio that may leave younger workers with a much smaller pension pie than their predecessors.

Inflexible pension plans: When defined benefit pension plans gained popularity after the Second World War, they were sold as guarantees. Under these DB plans, workers and employers pay set amounts into a fund that promises a fixed pension cheque. As a result of rising longevity, investment uncertainty and demographic pressures, guarantees are increasingly unsustainable.

Pension inequity: Only 40 per cent of Canadian workers have pensions. The remaining majority must choose from a disappointing menu of registered retirement savings plans and other investment options to save for retirement. Canadians have such meagre savings that an estimated 30 per cent of modest- to high-income earners will experience a significant drop in their standard of living.

THE CURES
Shared-risk pensions: Introduced by the Dutch in the mid-2000s and adopted by New Brunswick and Rhode Island, shared-risk plans are based on a model of flexible benefits that can be paid or temporarily suspended depending on the health of the pension plan. If demographic and investment setbacks trigger pension fund short falls, plans suspend such perks as pension cost-of-living adjustments until a surplus is restored.

Later Retirements: Remember Freedom 55? It’s history. Federal laws and some provincial
reforms are pushing the retirement age to 67. The longer people live, the greater the chance of further retirement delays to ensure enough is saved to keep retirees above the poverty line.

Stricter pension management: Reforms in New Brunswick, the Netherlands and other
jurisdictions have made it much more difficult for pension fund managers to overexaggerate
investment forecasts and underestimate mortality rates. Under the shared-risk model, funds are also subject to much stricter solvency rules that require plan sponsors to quickly restore funding shortfalls.

Greater pension equity: There is a large menu of reforms that have been proposed by leading experts and provincial task forces to address the needs of Canadian workers without pensions. One is to expand the Canada Pension Plan for the most vulnerable, workers without pensions who earn between $30,000 to $100,000. This group stands to suffer significant income drops in retirement.

Other proposals include pooling the savings of defined contribution plans within organizations or under independent supervision to give plans more leverage to lower fees and shield members from longevity and investment risks. 

Quebec recently proposed a supplemental and mandatory pension plan that would not start paying benefits until the age of 75. The plan is designed to bridge the gap for retirees that are expected to outlive their savings.

World Pension funds did well last year

Assets of the world's largest 300 retirement funds increased by 9.8% in 2012, eclipsing the 1.9% growth rate from the previous year, according to an annual survey conducted by Pensions & Investments and Towers Watson & Co.

“It was a year in which taking risk paid off,” said Carl Hess, global head of investments at Towers Watson, New York. “Global (developed markets) equities were up about 16%, and bonds also performed well, if not necessarily spectacularly. Returns in 2012 were very nice no matter where you were. What's not to love?”

Although investors faced a series of economic threats during the year, they didn't materialize. For example, equity markets continued to climb despite fears surrounding a possible collapse of the euro and the impact of the fiscal cliff in the U.S. Out of 12 funds in the top 20 that published annual reports online, eight had stressed volatility and uncertainty in global markets. Low interest-rate levels were also often cited as a major source of concern.

“As we are entering (the second half of) 2013, those problems have not really gone away,” Mr. Hess added. “It does leave us a little more precariously positioned.”

Equity was the best-performing asset class in 2012. The Russell 3000 index returned 16.4%. The MSCI All World ex-U.S. index grew by 16.5% and the MSCI Emerging Markets index added 18.2% for the year.

In fixed income, the Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Bond index increased by 4.3% during the same period.

“2012 was pretty good for growth, and it was mostly down to equity, which was the single biggest risk taken by pension funds,” Mr. Hess said.

For the first time, the survey split the funds according to defined benefit, defined contribution, reserve funds and hybrid plans. DB plans, which accounted for 68.5% of the total worldwide assets, grew at a rate of 7.6% compared to the 12.4% pace for DC in the year ended Dec. 31, 2012. Overall, the share of DC assets was estimated at about 20.2% of the total, while reserve funds accounted for 10.6%. The remainder of the assets was in hybrid funds.

“It's hard to find an economy where there are new DB plans being created,” Mr. Hess said. “If we look at Asia, for instance, with the exception of Japan, most have avoided DB. ... It will be awhile before DC reaches the maturity level of DB, but the pendulum has definitely tilted in that direction.”

Latin America has one of the highest DC growth rates, particularly in Mexico, where retirement assets grew by about 11.1% in local currency terms and about 7.4% in U.S. dollar terms on an annualized basis in the past five years. Spurring the rise in DC assets was a wave of recent social security reforms throughout the continent, many of which are loosely based on the Chilean model in introducing personal retirement accounts, Mr. Hess said.

“Like Australia, these reforms have resulted in large new (DC) asset inflow,” Mr. Hess added, referring to the 12.8% annualized growth in DC for Australia over the past five years in U.S.-dollar terms. “These (DC) funds will likely grow rather large rather quickly.”

The U.S. share of the worldwide assets also grew slightly in 2012 to 35% in 2012 compared to 34% last year, partly due to double-digit returns in equities combined with the strengthening dollar vs. the euro and yen. In addition, new asset inflows bolstered many public funds that were “shoring up their finances in 2012,” Mr. Hess said.

“In the long term, however, we're not likely to see new U.S. corporate funds, and therefore, the long-term trend is still pointing downward in terms of U.S. significance rather than upward,” Mr. Hess said.

In the past five years, aggregate assets held by North American funds in the top 300 decreased by an annualized 0.5% while the total worldwide assets rose by an annualized 5.6%. Assets held by Asia-Pacific and European funds grew by an annualized 6.7% and 5.5%, respectively. Funds from the “other” category — including many emerging markets such as China, Chile and Mexico — grew at the fastest annualized rate of 10.9% during the same period.

“The direction of the U.S. pension system is comparatively more mature, with fewer and fewer funds at the top” compared to other regions, according to Mr. Hess.

The top three funds remained the same in 2012. The $1.29 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, continued to top the list at nearly twice the size of the runner up — Norway's $712.6 billion Government Pension Fund Global, Oslo. In third was the $372.9 billion Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, Netherlands.

Sovereign pension funds such as Japan's and Norway's represent 28.4% of the worldwide assets, with 26 funds controlling about $4 trillion, according to the survey.

Aggregate assets of the top 20 grew by 8.6%, lagging the overall increase of top 300 funds. However, the top 20 funds still accounted for 39% — or $5.5 trillion — of the total worldwide assets of the top 300 funds. Historically, the top 20 grew at a faster pace than the overall top 300, averaging an annualized 4.8% compared to 3.2% over the past five years, respectively. The U.S. share in the top 20 has dropped to 20.8% in 2012 from 36% five years ago.

On an arithmetic average basis, the top 20 funds invested about 40% in fixed income and another 40% in equities in 2012. The remainder was allocated to alternatives and cash.

In addition to traditional equities and bonds, returns from alternative assets also boosted assets at the top 300 funds. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index grew by 6.16% in 2012, and the Cambridge Associates LLC U.S. Private Equity index increased by 13.8%. Healthy returns were also recorded for real estate, with the NCREIF Property index rising by 10.5%.

“With assets having climbed higher in 2012, now there's further for them to fall,” Mr. Hess said.

For global market performances to continue through 2013, they must be supported by sustained economic growth.

“In China, recent data suggests growth is slowing. In the U.S., how much of the recent rally is due to real growth and how much of that is fueled by cheap money? In Europe, the immediate problems of the euro still have yet to be resolved,” Mr. Hess said. “It's difficult at the moment to see where strong growth is going to come from.”

Data Editor Timothy Pollard contributed to this story.

Part Two Concerns for Boomers in Retirement The good news

The good news from the survey is:

New retirees and those nearing retirement are looking forward to their “bonus years.” They see life in retirement as filled with opportunity and a chance to enjoy a Second Act. However, they don’t know exactly what to expect during, or how to successfully manage, a long, complex and ever-changing retirement. 
These findings suggest people would benefit from at least six things:

• A better understanding of the issues critical to retirement, risks they face and what they need to prepare for
• A clear definition of their goals and what is most important to them in retirement
• Knowledge of potential trade-offs they must consider
• An ability to examine various scenarios and the potential outcomes of decisions they are being asked to make
• A plan of action that puts all their resources to work to help them to live their very best lives in retirement
• An ability to correct course when circumstances warrant

In short, we believe people want and need to know more about their retirement years before they are upon them, to gain greater clarity about what they want to achieve, and to understand what is possible in this stage of life

The other interesting and I think good news is that today’s priority for retirees is achieving peace of mind

In previous decades, “getting rich” and “retiring early” were often heralded as the ideal retirement plan. Today, pre-retirees and retirees are more than seven times more likely to say their financial goal is “saving enough to have financial peace of mind” versus “accumulating as much wealth as possible” 

The new focus on peace of mind is likely driven by a number of converging forces, including:

• The financial wake-up call of the recent recession, which exposed the dangers and risks of aggressive investment strategies.
• The movement of the boomer generation from their  accumulation years into their retirement decumulation  years — when they are seeking to responsibly manage  savings and income to last throughout retirement.
• Increasing life expectancy, creating greater uncertainty regarding how much money will be needed

Retirement Peace of Mind Index
An index to measure the current level of national retirement peace of mind was calculated from responses to the following survey questions: 

1. I feel content and comfortable about how I will spend my retirement years.
2. I have many worries about what might happen during my retirement.
3. Thinking about my retirement gives me feelings of security and stability.
4. I feel anxious and uneasy about how I will support  myself and my family during retirement.
5. I feel well prepared for whatever may happen during my retirement.

Based on averages of responses to these questions, the national “Retirement Peace of Mind Index” at the time of the survey was 5.3 on a scale of 1-10. Retirement peace of mind  varies by gender, wealth, and use of a financial advisor 

Four key elements of retirement peace of mind. The following four key elements help create retirement 
peace of mind:

• Financial security: confidence in having sufficient resources for retirement.
• Health optimization: confidence in having resources and reliable care to maintain health in retirement.
• Family well-being, feeling assured that family members will be financially secure and can rely upon each other when needed.
• Personal purpose: having meaningful retirement goals, faith/spirituality, social connections, and personal legacy

Overturning the three-legged stool 
Among previous generations, retirement preparation was very much like a three-legged stool. Retirement funds were expected to come from 
(1) government entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, 
(2) employer pensions, 
(3) personal savings and investments. 

The retirement plans of the “silent generation” (ages 68 to 88) reflect this expectation. This generation estimates that just 33% of their retirement funds come from personal savings. 

However, other generations are far less likely to feel they can count on government entitlement programs or employer defined benefit pensions. The boomer generation (ages 49 to 67) expects they will need to fund 41% of their retirement through personal savings and investments. 

Generation X (ages 37 to 48) expects to be personally responsible for half of their retirement funds

Canada's Public Pension Plans well managed (Who knew?)

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board released a statement,Canada's Top Ten pension funds help drive national prosperity, landmark study finds: 

Canada's ten largest public pension funds, dubbed "the Top Ten," provide Canadians with one of the strongest retirement income systems in the world and also contribute significantly to national prosperity, a new study concludes.

The landmark study commissioned by several members of the Top Ten and conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) provides, for the first time, data on the aggregate impact of these global organizations. The study is an in-depth examination of the economic impact of these pension funds to the end of fiscal 2011. The study concludes the Top Ten are a Canadian success story on the world stage.

The Top Ten represent a major cornerstone of the Canadian financial system and the economy at large. Over the last 10-15 years, the Top Ten have established the reputation of Canadian pension funds management as truly world-class. This reputation has opened doors around the world to investment opportunities that benefit the Canadians receiving pensions as well as their communities as a whole.

"This study is the first of its kind covering a group of financial institutions whose daily activities have an enormous impact on the retirement prospects of current and future generations of Canadians, and on the economy at large," said Kilian Berz, Senior Partner and Head of BCG Canada. "Several factors have enabled their success, with a core factor being a strong governance structure that allows the funds to operate as a business in the best interests of their members."

Among the key findings:

• The Top Ten pension funds are healthy, growing, and increasingly important to Canada as it faces challenging demographics and economics
• They have created a centre of excellence in Canada for managers of quality, large-scale investments
• They manage ~35% of Canada's retirement assets
• Their net assets grew by more than 100% in the previous eight years
• They have invested roughly $400 billion in Canada , including $100 billion in real estate, infrastructure and private equity
• They are strong proponents of good corporate governance practices, ultimately improving the efficiency and effectiveness of capital markets
• They comprise four of the top 20 global commercial real estate investors
• They also comprise four of the top 20 global investors in infrastructure assets
• They directly employ 5,000 professionals in the Canadian financial sector and an additional 5,000 employees in their real estate subsidiaries.

BCG's study focused on the ten largest public sector pension funds (ranked here by size of pension assets): The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse), The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (OTPP), The British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC), The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), The Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), The Ontario Pension Board (OPB), and The OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust).

Global investment scale
The Top Ten funds managed, at the end of 2011*, $714 billion in pension funds - ~35% of Canada's total retirement assets. This total includes all public and private sector pension plans, RRSPs and other registered savings plans. This is broadly distributed among the ten and ranges from the $162 billion managed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) to $14 billion by the OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust). Since BCG's study, which was conducted in the fall of 2012, the funds have continued to grow, with recent reporting periods indicating a total of roughly $775 billion in pension assets.

Growing Canadians' retirement investments
The Top Ten's $714 billion in pension assets under management in 2011 is an increase of more than 100% since 2003, over a period in which the world faced one of its most challenging economic periods. Two-thirds of the increase has been driven by solid investment returns of $240 billion vs. net inflows to the funds made by members and their employers of $125 billion .

"During a highly volatile period of time that encompassed the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression, the Top Ten have managed to more than double their pension assets, driven primarily through their investment activities," said Michael Block , the project lead from BCG. "This strong performance underscores the Top Ten's role as a cornerstone of Canada's well-regarded retirement income system."

The funds have focused on prudent investments offering attractive, risk-adjusted returns in public and private equities, infrastructure, real estate and bonds. The Top Ten are "major long-term investors in Canada ," with over $400 billion invested across various asset classes in Canada . BCG also found the Top Ten to have a broader impact on the Canadian financial sector with a $1.5 billion payroll and ability to attract and retain top Canadian talent.

Canadian pension funds are highly regarded around the world, having invested in, for example: one of the largest electricity transmission and distribution companies in the U.S.; the operator of seven UK airports including Heathrow; three Chilean water utilities; and one of the largest and most profitable insurance providers in South Korea ; among many, many others.

Please Help (Social media words that work)

 I am not a big fan of Twitter but I know many people who read this blog are fans and many are progressives. One of the biggest issues facing social activists and social progressives  is the ability to get the message out and to have the message spread. One of the best ways to do this is through social media sites such as Twitter, so I thought this post by Dan Zerella at his site DanZarrella.com would be of interest to those of you who want to spread your message.

I’m a big fan of social calls-to-action. Previously, I’ve found evidence that they work on Facebook and Twitter. So I wanted to expand my research and see if I could find more words and phrases that were good at spurring people to social action.

Using a huge data set of more than 2.7 million Tweets provided to me by the awesome folks at Buffer, I analyzed the use of calls-to-action (like “please retweet”) and their relationship to retweets. To control for number of followers, I used a retweets-per-follower ratio.

I found that there are 7 words and phrases that when included in a tweet are correlated with that tweet getting more retweets than those that did not include those words. The expected CTAs are on the list: “please retweet” and “please rt” but leading up the list is the somewhat surprising “please help.”

For more social media data like this, order Dan's latest book “The Science of Marketing” now!

CPP and some interesting facts (Canada)

THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THE GOVERNMENT'S CALCULATION OF AVAILABLE CANADIAN PENSION PLAN  IS THAT THEY FORGOT TO FIGURE IN THE PEOPLE WHO DIED BEFORE THEY EVER COLLECTED A CHEQUE!!!

WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO?

Remember, not only did you and I contribute to CPP but your employer did, too. It totalled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500. Read that again. Did you see where the Government paid in one single penny? 

We are talking about the money you and your employer put in a Government bank to insure you and I that we would have a retirement cheque from the money we put in, not the Government. Now they are calling the money we put in an entitlement when we reach the age to take it back. If you calculate the future invested value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% interest (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.

If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

Another thing with me.... I have two deceased husbands who died in their 50's, (one was 51 and the other one was 59 before one percent of their CPP could be drawn). I worked all my life and am drawing 100% from my own CPP so I am receiving the maximum allowable payment per month. My two deceased husband's CPP money will never have one cent drawn from what they paid into the CPP plan all their lives.


THE FOLKS IN OTTAWA HAVE PULLED OFF A BIGGER PONZI SCHEME THAN BERNIE MADOFF EVER DID.

Entitlement my foot, I paid cash for my CPP! Just because they borrowed the money for other government spending, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!

Remember Senator's benefits? --- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days. Now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my CPP retirement payments entitlements?


We're "broke" and the government can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, or Homeless. Yet in the past few years we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile, Turkey, Pakistan, etc., etc., etc. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!! And they can't help our own citizens ! 

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' (CPP and OAS) receive no additional federal aid nor do they get any financial breaks, while our government and religious organizations pour hundreds of billions of $$$ and tons of food to foreign countries!

They call CPP an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives, and now, when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place? It was supposed to be in a locked box, not part of the general fund.

Pass this on

 My thanks to Russell  for this