Aha! The learning never stops around here, but this morning we’ve managed to sneak up on a key bit of personal learning.
First, let’s talk about the trip to the Social Security office yesterday.
It turned out to be a pleasure.
First off, the fellow at the front desk recognized us from before. And, when we weren’t getting enough/right answers from him, he was kind enough to provide access to the fellow who ran the office.
There had been a clerical error on my address – but there was also a calendar issue, so we will find out when that rolls around in about 2-weeks if all our problems miraculously disappear on that date.
Meantime, we had some waiting to do…and I got to talking with the guard. Nice fellow, planning to retire in three years himself, get a Winnebago and travel all 49-states you can get to without swimming.
I was going to explain to him that by then, he might want to include the states of Tijuana, Sonora, Baja, and perhaps as far south as the state of Quintana Roo along with Campeche and Yucatan.
There was a bit of blood on my tongue, as I continued to bite it, realizing that explaining how the North American Onion was gong to work, how British Columbia would also be a state by then, and within 5-years, it would just have to be the “State of Columbia” because the British were not the grand guardians of social welfare as any of the real historians of BC would attest. And the word British part would have to be axed on political grounds simply in honor of the suffering of the coastal bands such as the Haida Gwaii.. (You can probably see why I dummied up: It would have been a long discussion.)
Instead, I asked him about the short office hours, and if someone shows up at 2:30 for an appointment whether they would be kicked out at the 3 PM office closing time. No, he assured me, they actually stay open until 4:30 most days (sometimes later) to make sure everyone is seen.
That was reassuring and I get better about my tax dollars. Private sucktor folks still end up about 200 vacation days short in 50 years, but did I have a cheese to go with that whine?
By the time I’d met all the folks in the office, it was pretty clear that the office doesn’t have a 27-hour workweek, as the sign says. That’s basically the “Public should show up time.” They get seen, the guard fellow explained.
Good one to know. Rather than “hours” the sign really ought to read: Show Up Between (and then list the hours). But not everyone is as literal as us.
In the case of my own application, I screwed up by questioning Social Security’s income record. I had noted in my application, at the time of filing, that my records of income and theirs had some discrepancies.
Turns out that part of Social Security’s public face says Social Security benefits are based on wages. But, after two of the trips to the office, turns out they were based (in my case) on the IRS SE Worksheet.
This has had me buried in the research into how Schedule SE was supposed to work in 2008, for example.
Schedule SE is the Self Employment worksheet. And my income there was $xx,xxx. However, the amount of income that I paid income tax on was $xxx,xxx.
What hadn’t been clear to me at the time (and I think there’s still something smoldering in all this) is that the SE schedule was lower and that is the number used by Social Security.
A little history check here: No wonder government called it a “tax credit” rather than what the reductions as a “tax credit” for self employed persons is: It makes a definite reduction in Social Security payments in later years, when the SE number, not the actual “paid tax on number” is used. Definite lack of candor at the time, typical of the PTB.
In fact, to my way of thinking, it’s typical of Washington doublespeak: Tell small business they are getting a tax credit for small business owners. And then screw them on the back-end when comes time to collect Social Security. But I’m not going to change that – it’s just the way it is…the problems are almost always with the people who write the laws, not the federal workers who are generally good folks. Vacation and bennies differentials aside.
Speaking of which…let’s not forget that president what’s-his-name has just made matters worse in regard to turning federal employees into praetorian minions: Remember the feds minimum wage is $10.10 but for the private sucktor, the min-wage is still $7.25.
When I tell you federal employees are “special” I’m not a-kidding. But, how soon we forget them pen-strokes.
“OK, you fixed your Social Security problem (for now) so would you please get to the retrograde stuff?”
Ah…Well, I got home and then spent a full hour on the line with CenturyLink tech support. Our internet connectivity has become unacceptable. Day before Christmas. Too many retried and I’ve been working on that problem for six days, now. They issue credits, I call the next day for another because it’s still broken.
The good news: I will be getting free internet access until they fix it so it will stream again. The bad news: The won’t be until January 30th until 7 PM says the tech.
I bet you didn’t know that CenturyLink actually has a Bandwidth Exhaustion Department, did you? This is what one of the techs told me.
Apparently, there’s no point to stopping additional sales just because there’s insufficient capacity…just add a department to fix it. Then you can justify six ways to Sunday, rolling in the money, and loving it!
No worries in terms of UrbanSurvival/Peoplenomics: We have a high speed satellite connection which gets us 10-down and 3-up, but only when the weather is clear. Less in rain and not at all in storms….but I will be needing to buy more bandwidth. We eat 3-4 GB per day around here, up to 6-when I run multiple Nostracodeus runs.
About here, I got to wondering (lights went off between my ears, a truly unique experience) if I was somehow in the “Mercury retrograde penalty box?”
You see, Mercury is retrograde in January (the window is the 16-24th with the hot day being Jan 21).
I’ve been a reasonably lucky guy most of my life, but I do have some retrograde periods, and I’m in one now but coming out of it.
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