THE CEREMONY

[Captain Oates 911]

OMG Red, you write what many of us think but dare not express.

Congrats on your Citizenship to this great land of ours! (Ours since seizing it from the former occupants.)

I am a second nation American too so perhaps I will get a grant or open a casino..

1st nation - Native Americans

2nd Nation - the English

3rd Nation - the British

4th Nation - the colonials who were revolting (the others went to Toronto or hid)

5th Nation - Al Capone and the cosa nostra and half of Germany and Poland

6th Nation - quién podrá ser ? (Who will that be ?)

Given that history, I am sure the US will survive my arrival on the scene.

[NickD 202]

USA is not the best place to retire even if you have paid FICA taxes at the maximum all of your working life. One detriment I have is six years of active military service where the pay was 78 bucks per month with very low FICA taxes, the less you pay in, the less you get back. Plus if you sign up for part B to get any medical services at all, they take out a big hunk of those premiums off of your maximum benefit. Serving this country for six years was not my choice, either serve, run up to Canada when you could or go to jail.

Wisconsin does have what they call Homestead property tax credit, the maximum you can get back back in the early 70's was $2,000.00 that was pretty nice as the property taxes back then on a $50,000 house was around $500.00 per year. So if on SS with a low income, and you did own your own home, basically tax free in that respect. Some 40 years later, that $50,000 home is now assessed at $300,000 or more so property taxes on that same place is more like $7,000.00 per year, still have the same Homestead credit, but that hasn't been increased at all, so if you income is poverty, you only can get a $2,000.00 tax credit meaning you still have to pay $5,000.00.

If you continue to work your SS benefits will go down and you will also be taxed on your SS benefits at the full rate, plus you cannot deduct that huge amount of money they take out for Medicare. Since they don't deduct for your SS income, better have a few bucks in the bank to pay your huge state and federal income taxes. You get taxed from your city, your township that city is in, your county that township is in, the state that county is in, and the federal government your state is in. You find your servants of the people are living a in major state of luxury plus get full retirement and free healthcare for life.

So if you really want to stay here after retirement, better run and get elected for office. Mother-in-law is paying 80 bucks per year on property taxes on a home valued at $40,000 in Bogata, that same home here would be valued at around $200,000, she couldn't afford to live here just for property taxes.

We had very good schools back then and good teachers when taxes were low, today our schools are #######, don't teach anything. Just commenting the huge tuition we are paying for my stepdaughter for a state college, that half year semester of only three months is about to end in a week for a long seasonal holiday break. Then another huge check is due for another three months.

One would think our country would want us to be happy with our loved ones and offer immigration services for free. In one sense they are getting even more benefits from those immigrants by legally paying huge taxes. But as it is, the fees and all corresponding evidence you have to supply cost a small fortune, you have to do all the work with head scratching to figure out their poorly written forms, they only spend about five minutes reviewing all of your hard work. And the fees and attorney costs if needed aren't even tax deductible, so they get you there as well.

Welcome to the USA.

[BethandBilly 86]

I reread your original post here and then showed it to my husband, we loved it, the dry humour from home is sorely missed. Hope to see more your humour in the future

[Captain Oates 911]

Hey Nick I may be hijacked to Wisconsin one day as 'her indoors' is from Hubertus, Wisconsin and she has a packer fixation.

I have to keep her alive until she is 62 so I can piggy back on her SS contributions for Medicare - until then I will have to pay $6,500 per annum to buy in from age 65.

I first became aware of how the American worker was treated when I visited LaGrange, Georgia in 1983. It was a work trip to Head Office as I worked for a US firm in Europe.

I sat down with the more attractive workers and chatted about their rights and their vacations etc and I was appalled at how they were treated. They could be fired with no notice and no reason and they got 10 days vacation per annum. I just assumed it was a hang over from the slavery days as it was Georgia after all. Now I know that kind of treatment is pretty universal. When I parted with the UK company after 14 years, I got 150k severance pay and the use of a Mercedes for a year. I had been on 30 days vacation as had all my co-workers.

No wonder that corporate profits in the US were the highest they have ever been in the whole of history during the last quarter. The bosses and owners must not be taxed though because they can't afford it.

We Americans pride ourselves on being 'free' and our 'liberty'. When you get right down to it, Europeans have many times more personal rights and benefits by right and by law and yes they can vote and yes they have free speech too.

The downside is they can't walk into Walmart with a gun so that means we are still better off with our system.