Money Survey

For those that wanted an update about the survey, here is the current raw data.  I'm not going to spend time analyzing, because I don't have nearly enough data points.

Why christians should be happy about what happened yesterday.

I want to do this in sections.  I saw a victory for liberty yesterday.  I saw a victory for state's rights.  And I saw a victory for equal rights.  I also saw a victory for families and society.  And I saw some things that should make christians happy.  If you don't care about a section, don't read it.  Here it goes.

Liberty

The Supreme Court made some decisions on DOMA and California Prop 8 yesterday.  The decision to overturn DOMA removed an unnecessary bill from the US law code.  DOMA was a 90's partisan legislative battle that fell alongside Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  It gave Clinton the ability to pass budgets that simultaneously provided a surplus and destroyed military readiness for a decade.  Getting rid of unnecessary bills is always a  victory for liberty.  Our constitution was written to limit the government's ability to make laws.  And that is how America should have always been.  We should have the fewest laws to achieve the desired end result.  This decision helps do that.  That is why it was a  win for liberty.

State's Rights

DOMA made federal limits on a power that it was never meant to control.  There has never been a federal marriage certificate in this country.  The power to define marriage was never supposed to be under the scope  of the federal government.  There have been several bills that have given the federal government power that it should not have.  This was a step in the right direction for removing federal fingers from state matters.

Equal Rights

This is probably going to be an odd one.  I don't care if married people get married or not.  I don't care if straight people get married or not.  However, sociologists have decided that a family unit makes for a stable home and thereby marriages benefit society.  The federal and state governments have decided to provide benefits to families in order to support stable homes.  These benefits are determined by the issuance of a sealed piece of paper that they give to two people that promise to be a family.  Most states have said that they will only give this piece of paper to the two people if one is a man and one is a woman.
Tangent
The thing is, these two people have about an equal chance of staying a family and benefiting society or separating (http://www.divorcerate.org/).  Furthermore, unless you prescribe to the theology that the laws of man determine your standing with God, the only reason to care about the little piece of paper is to take advantage of benefits that the government is just handing out.  Holy Marriage has nothing to do with that piece of paper.  When two people make a covenant with God to fulfill roles, support each other, honor each other, love each other, and always be with each other, it has nothing to do with a piece of paper.
Back to Equal Rights
It is wrong to hand out benefits to one group of people and not to another group of people based on individual's personal preferences.  That is populace governing.  It is wrong.  A republican democracy was chosen for this country because it was thought that it would solve the problem of populace governing that would arise from a pure democracy.  DOMA and Prop 8 were populace governing.  They were modern day Jim Crow laws.  They said, your marriage isn't real because we don't like it.  And that's not fair.  If you want to be a bigot but have equal rights, then you should be behind the revocation of all marriage benefits.  Therefore, marriage remains a strictly religious matter.  But I know that if you're a bigot, then you're probably also an idiot, so that didn't make sense to you.

Families and Society

According to all evidence currently presented by those people who present evidence, when people make an agreement to start a family, take care of each other, and raise children to be active members of society, they benefit said society.  The decision this week will allow more people to openly make the choice to become families.  It's not that they weren't families before.  You don't need a piece of paper or benefits to be a family.  But when there are benefits distributed equally to all participants, there is a high probability that more people will choose to participate in the whole family concept. And that is good.

Christians

"But I'm a christian and I believe that marriage is a covenant between a man, a woman and God, and this decision challenges my world view and will lead to the fall of morals and christianity in America."  That's what I assume those people would say.  To them I write this last section.  Mark 12:17.  It tells you to pay your taxes and to follow laws.  What is also says is that the things that pertain to God are not the things that pertain to governments.  The laws of earth do not change what God feels about people's actions.  And when you start thinking that I am judging people's choices, it is not my place to judge.  God will do that for me.  And I am no better than anyone else.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Jesus showed an example of judging people with Mary Magdalene, John 8:7.  So, you go judging if you want, but I will hold on to my stones, sts.  The great part of all of this is that we now have an opening for sharing the gift of God, Eternal Life.  And that's what we've been called to do.  Go into all the world and tell the good news.
But what about all those bible verses that talk about how wrong it is to do "bad things"?  Jesus had an answer for that.  When asked what was the most important commandment, he answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  And if you're confused on who your neighbor is, look up the story of the good Samaritan.  
Liberty has won.  That is good for Christians.  The constitution still protects our religion and freedom from religion.  That is good.  That is why we should be very happy for what happened yesterday.

That's Josh's two cents.  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.  Thanks  and God bless.

10 Miles

10 Miles hurts.  But I got to throw real people out of my plane today.  Pretty good week so far.

Run My Route Running Map - pft prep in Cabot

Run My Route Running Map - pft prep in Cabot

military retirement benefits

There exists in our military a system which provides a constant pension for anyone who is willing to put themselves through 20+ years of active service to the country.  It gives the individual 50% of the salary they are used to (the average of the last three years of their duty).  Currently, the average retired (20+) colonel can receive a pension salary of $50k.  FY11 pay charts   For each year after 30, you get an additional 2.5% added on up to 75%.  This is only for base pay.  Retired members receive no partial allowances (BAS, BAH, FSA, combat pay, etc.  google them).  There is a whole separate thing under the VA for healthcare benefits.

Well, the government wants to change it all.  Here's their (really fucking horrible editing job) presentation
They want to pay us all an extra 16.5% of our base pay, but put it directly into the Thrift Savings Plan.

I want to do some math here. I'm going to put it into excel and run it as if I were a brand new Second Lieutenant as of June 2011.  It's going to be exactly 20 years of service.  And expecting the pay charts to increase 3% annually to make up for inflation (the same amount they have historically increased military pay for the past several years.  they do the same thing for Congress, by the way).  Standard promotion for O2 (first lieutenant) is at 2 years.  From there it gets complicated but we'll say they get promoted to O3 at 5 years, O4 at 9 years, O5 at 13 years and O6 at 18 years. To make the math work, if O2 is made at 2 years, then O2 pay starts with year 3, or on the pay charts it is >2.  This would give the retired colonel an annual salary of $77,787.12.  And this amount also rises to match inflation.  And it lasts until the person dies.
The new plan would have paid the member an extra $311,587.70 by the time they had reached their retirement.  Assuming none of this money was taken out to pay for a house or education, they still wouldn't be able to touch it until they reached Social Security age.  (if SS is around by the time they reach that age, more on that in another blog).  Assume our 2LT was 22 at the time of commissioning, they would be 42 at the time of retirement.  Over the next 23 years (let's say SS age is 65 in the future), that money would have grown to (assuming it has always been growing at 7% interest annually) $10,382,149.33.  This amount is in future dollars, which have not been valued for inflation (because I don't want to do that math).
My question is, what is a 65 year old going to do with $10M? Do you know what 3% interest on $10M is?  It's $300K.  I would love to live on $300K a year.  I don't know what I'd do with it all.  I'd probably just keep investing it.  I would still have 4% growth on the $10M if I only took out $300K.
This makes it sound like a great plan.  I could have all of this money in the future.
Now, let's say our service-member contribute $5,000 to a Roth every year, which I do.  Over their 20 years in the military, my accounts should have $204,977.46.  By the time they can take that out, they should have $5,044,495.33.  That's assuming no other contributions have been made since retirement.

This has been a big exercise in math for the sake of saying that the government is essentially making us pay into our own privatized social security, instead of paying a proper retirement.
Ummm, why don't we just do this with everyone's money? Heck, my parents would actually have money saved up for retirement.
The reason we don't do things like this is because nobody wants to put away money for the future.  Everyone just wants to spend money.
The old system was in place because there is little incentive to remain in the military for a full career, other than a sense of duty.  A sense of duty will only get you so far in a community so shat upon by congress and the president, not to mention other members of that community.  Plus, you're volunteering to put your life on the line for your country.  You are also volunteering to have a below-nominal family life of being gone whenever the government wants you and not being compensated for that.
A  retired colonel in the Army will have spent about 5 years of his career deployed overseas.  He will also have spent 1-2 years of his career away from his family at training or some other temporary duty assignment.  That is about 7 years total where you are away from your family, spread out over the course of 20 years.  It can get worse if you're a sergeant at 20 years.  
There is huge discussion about a mass exit from the military if the plan changes.  People are shooting for a full career of 20+ years.  With the way the system works now, only about 20% of the people who try to, will make it to the 20 year mark.  There are a lot of things that you can't control.  And a lot of people don't even try to get to the 20 year point.  For many service-members, the military is only a small part of their life.  I think it would be great to give everyone a better incentive for being in the military.  But I don't think it's very wise to remove the best incentive for career officers.  I would love to be a 44 year-old colonel with a whole lot of career opportunities before me.  That would be awesome.  Will I try if they change the policy? Probably not.

Michael Moore

Ok, I should have labeled it Documentaries.  But I got started on this by first watching Capitalism: A Love Story.  I just finished Michael Moore Hates America.  That guy makes a good point.  He doesn't hate Mr. Moore.  I don't hate Moore.  I think he is a muckraker of sorts.  One that makes a lot of money from his version of it.  It's interesting stuff to watch.  I don't necessarily agree with any of it.  But it's interesting for me.  I like to hear what people have to say.  Even if their argument is shit.

cars and gasoline

God Damn!  Why does my car still have tires and why am I paying $4/gallon for gas that comes from the middle east/Venezuela?  Watch the movie Gas Hole and decide whether we should have bailed out the car industry and whether we should have really put a strangle on BP with their oil spill.

Join the revolution! Mason in 2026!!