Welcome to thedegouge.com: Your chance to understand "The Gouge" and how to degouge your finances.
American workers are being Gouged, it is time to Stop the Gouge, Start the Degouge.
This Months Opinion, Note or Comment:
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Facts:
Inflation is far greater than is reported in the CPI, instead of the reported 1.5%, real inflation is about 10%.
US workers productivity has increased over the years, but their inflation adjusted pay has not kept pace, so they have less everything.
Add to this that a US worker is now taxed at around a 50% rate, if all hidden taxes are accounted for. Chapter 4 details examples.
Unlike almost all other developed nations, US workers have no legally mandated retirement plan, holiday pay, maternity pay, sick leave or medical coverage.
All of this only to retire into a system that has lost value and is expected to be insolvent in a few years.
It is imperative that Americans adapt quickly, we are being gouged and it is time to degouge.
It is time to degouge on a personal level.
Degouging Tips Include:
(*) Using Non-Profit Services to cut your insurance costs by up to half.
(*) Get prescription drugs from other countries at 50% to 90% off.
(*) Other ideas include Exploring Low Tax Locations, Free TV, Freeware, and more.
Inflation Hedges Include:
(*) Gold, Silver, Precious Metals and how they hold value as fiat currency loses value.
(*) TIPS, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities have some value against inflation.
(*) Tangable Goods, Possible Crypto??? and more.
See chapter 6 for many more details.
Get a e-book copy of "The Gouge" here.
Introduction to the contents:
Here is one example, how Americans work a lifetime and a half compared to others.
---------- Another Example of The Gouge, from Chapter 5 ------------
Excerpt From Chapter 5: To retire for 20 years, we now have to work for 400 years.
What about company retirement benefits? It was traditionally that a person usually worked and retired and received company retirement benefits. It was common for a person to work 40 years and retire for 20 years or more comfortably.
Now days, in order to shed the cost of such retirement plans from the corporations profit ledgers, it is common for a company to instead provide a tiny payment into an employees 401K plan. This so called retirement plan is commonly at 5% of a workers wages. That is 1/20th of a years pay.
This means that if a person wants a single years worth of retirement, they have to work 20 years.
This equation: 20 years work times 5% of a years pay, per year worked = 1 year retirement.
So for every 20 years of labor, a person gets 1 year retirement. That means that if you now want to retire for 20 years, you have to work for that company for 400 years. Does anyone really do this?
The argument that the 401K should increase in value is faulty, as typical stock and bond 401K's value really only increases in line with true inflation.
---------- Sample question. Which has more value? ------------
Which is worth more, the printed money in the sterling tray or the four ounce sterling tray?
The money is worth millions of worthless dollars, dinara, boulivar, notes, etc...
The silver in the sterling tray is worth about $100.
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