Oleh Wiyoso Hadi, Pegawai Direktorat Jenderal Pajak
Tingkat pembunuhan terus meningkat di sudut-sudut kota. Hanya
sepertiga dari armada ambulans beroperasi. Hampir setengah (40%) lampu
jalan dari seluruh lampu kota tidak menyala di malam hari. Polisi pun
rata-rata baru bisa menangani panggilan-panggilan darurat setelah 58
menit masuknya panggilan tilpun dari masyarakat atau lima kali lebih
lama dari standar nasional kepolisian Amerika yang rata-rata hanya butuh
11 menit saja untuk menangani panggilan darurat masyarakat.
Paling cepat, kepolisian Detroit baru dapat menangani panggilan
darurat setelah 31 menit dan paling lama setelah 117 menit atau hampir 2
jam setelah masuknya panggilan darurat dari masyarakat. Kriminalitas
bertebaran di berbagai pojok kota. Gembong-gembong dan bandar narkoba
berkeliaran bebas. Keributan antar geng-geng, mengendarai kendaraan
bermotor dengan ugal-ugalan, penjarahan, pencurian terus meningkat di
kota yang semakin ditinggalkan pergi oleh penduduknya, tak terelakan.
Ini bukan fiksi. Apa yang pernah digambarkan dalam film tahun rilis 1987 Robocop tentang krisis di kota Detroit, negara bagian Michigan, Amerika Serikat, kini 26 tahun kemudian, minus sosok fiktif Robocop-nya tentunya, jadi kenyataan. Dulunya Detroit adalah kota industri sangat maju yang gemerlap. Produksi the Big Three
otomotif Amerika yaitu produsen mobil Ford, GM, dan Chrysler dulunya
berpusat di situ, sehingga banyak pekerja berduyun-duyun datang ke
Detroit kala itu. Detroit pada tahun 1960 adalah kota dengan pendapatan
per kapita tertinggi di AS, namun kini jatuh bangkrut.
Detroit sekarang menghadapi utang sebesar US$18 miliar. Kevyn Orr,
yang ditunjuk sebagai Manajer Darurat Detroit, mengungkapkan bahwa
Detroit bulan lalu, harus menunda pembayaran utang sekitar US$2 miliar
karena uang tersebut dibutuhkan untuk menutupi kekurangan anggaran.
Dewan kota Detroit berencana memangkas utang dari US$11,5 miliar menjadi
US$2 miliar. Artinya, akan ada pemotongan tunjangan sebesar 17 persen
terhadap para pensiunan. Meski pahit, utang kota harus dipangkas agar
kota dapat mengembalikan pelayanan publik, menurunkan pajak dan
asuransi. Populasi Detroit yang pernah mencapai 1,8 juta jiwa pada tahun
1950, kini tinggal sekitar 700.000 jiwa saja atau sama dengan jumlah
penduduk Detroit pada tahun 1910 atau lebih dari seabad dulu kala.
Jatuhnya Detroit disebabkan setidak-tidaknya oleh empat hal.
Pertama,
hancurnya industri otomotif Ford, GM, dan Chrysler akibat kalah
persaingan dengan industri otomotif Jepang dan Korea Selatan,
kebangkitan industri otomotif Cina, dan merosotnya permintaan warga
lokal akibat lesunya ekonomi sejak 2008. Dulunya ketiga raksasa produsen
mobil Amerika tersebut menjadi pilar utama pertumbuhan ekonomi dan
penerimaan pajak terbesar bagi Detroit.
Kedua, jatuhnya bisnis properti
karena 28 persen penduduk meninggalkan kota selama tahun 2000 hingga
2010. Mereka tinggalkan Detroit untuk mencari penghidupan lebih layak di
kota-kota lain dan meninggalkan puluhan ribu bangunan di Detroit kosong
melompong. Sedangkan penduduk yang masih tinggal di kota banyak yang
menjadi pengangguran atau tetap kerja namun berpenghasilan rendah untuk
standar Amerika. Tingkat pengangguran di Detroit mencapai 16,3 persen
atau dua kali lipat dari rata-rata tingkat pengangguran di Michigan.
Akibatnya hanya 53 persen yang membayar pajak properti pada 2011.
Ketiga, buruknya manajemen kota dan korupnya pejabat kota yang
menyelewengkan uang pajak masyarakat untuk kepentingan pribadi, kelompok
bisnis atau partainya.
Keempat, karena berkurangnya penduduk dan
menurunnya kemampuan ekonomi warga yang masih tinggal, maka jumlah Wajib
Pajak dan penerimaan pajak pun merosot tajam. Penerimaan pajak
pemerintahan kota Detroit tak sanggup untuk menutupi biaya pelayanan
publiknya maka jatuh bangkrutlah Detroit.
Apa yang terjadi di Detroit bisa saja juga terjadi di Indonesia jika
Pemerintah RI tidak menjaga pertumbuhan, stabilitas dan distribusi
ekonomi yang merata melalui instrumen fiskal pajak. Oleh karena itu,
mari bangsa Indonesia bersama-sama kita jaga terus pertumbuhan ekonomi,
stabilitas ekonomi dan pemerataan ekonomi dengan pajak dan mengawasi
bersama-sama penggunaannya demi keutuhan NKRI, Kemandirian ekonomi dan
Kesejahteraan sosial Indonesia. Bersatu Kita Bisa! Indonesia Jaya!
*) Tulisan ini merupakan pendapat pribadi penulis dan bukan cerminan sikap instansi dimana penulis bekerja.
Gov't Stealing More Than Your Gold...
Entrenched Elites, Mediocrity, Corruption in Motor City
By Brittany Stepniak 2013-07-25
http://www.outsiderclub.com/detroit-proves-cronyism-causes-collapse
“Can we help Detroit? We don't know.”
— U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
— U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
The birthplace of the automobile industry is now the largest American city to ever file for bankruptcy protection.
Bailing out Chrysler and GM with taxpayer
money was apparently a politically attractive move. Bailing out the
city is a different story....
While Biden is talking about Detroit in
the statement above, the message between the lines is one that echoes
ominously across the entire nation.
Can our political leaders help us out of this ever-worsening financial crisis?
It's become painfully evident that they just don't know what to do anymore.
The debt crisis has evolved into a humanitarian crisis too convoluted to fix using conventional methods.
Major
corporations that were once the backbone of America, our nation's
strongest and oldest cities, and millions of hardworking individuals are
filing for bankruptcy at a pace that has been beyond sustainability for
at least four generations now.
In a Nutshell
There's a lot of controversy swirling about in regards to Detroit's Chapter 9 filing for bankruptcy.
The once-bustling city was previously the
country's fourth largest city and home to a thriving and lucrative
automobile industry. Today, however, Motor City has the weight of the
world on its shoulders.
It is $18 billion in debt, among other obligations, and owes $9 billion in unfunded retiree benefits.
As part of the bankruptcy petition, Detroit may be legally permitted to steal the pensions from those unlucky retirees in a futile attempt to "revive" the city.
Public workers protected by unions —
firefighters, police officers, and general service workers — have filed
counter-lawsuits claiming the filing violates the state's Constitution
by cutting workers' promised pensions from its budget.
But Governor Rick Snyder argues that, while he is empathetic towards the grim situation, there are no other viable options — aside from bankruptcy — if the city is to have a chance at improving its catastrophic levels of financial need...
Supporting her governor, spokeswoman Sara
Wurfel asserts: “We have full confidence in the legality and
constitutionality of the governor’s and emergency manager’s actions.”
Not Fair, Not Right, Just Is
However, a Michigan circuit court judge in Ingham County begged to differ.
Late last week, she ordered the Chapter 9
petition unconstitutional as it would essentially screw over public
workers — honorable people that have spent their lives dedicated to the
city's security and well-being.
Judge Rosemarie E. Aquilina said, “It’s
cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work...[and] will cause
irreparable injury [to the pensioners]. It’s also not honoring the
(United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of
bankruptcy. I know he's watching this.”
From the sounds of Aquilina's impassioned
rant, she expects Obama to float down like an angel from above and make
sure the existing commitments are honored; then all will be well again.
And while I think Aquilina is a tad out
of line to suggest our executive power intervene in a judiciary process,
I understand why she's upset. The ramifications for public workers is,
at best, an unfortunate side effect of these deplorable provisions of
bankruptcy.
Tens of thousands of current and former
city employees are enraged about the attack on their pensions and
medical benefits promised to them decades ago.
Kevyn Orr, appointed "Emergency Manager"
for the city, has told public unions to brace for “significant cuts,”
but neglected to go into details. We know he's talking about billions of
dollars in lost benefits for a sizable portion of Detroit's working
people.
Nobody is arguing that the entire messy situation is anything less than a terribly sad shame.
But is anyone really surprised this is happening?
For 60 years, Detroit has survived by the
skin of its teeth in the midst of serious mismanagement while spending
non-existent money in all the wrong places.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
It should. That's exactly what's been going on in the rest of the country for equally as long.
More Detroits to Come
If you think you won't be affected by
this story because you don't live in Michigan, think again. This problem
is not unique to Detroit.
Cities, including ex-powerhouses, across the country face dire financial hardships.
It's important to realize this case could
create some substantial benchmark laws. Just as Cyprus set a precedent,
as well as cast a dark shadow of doubt on the banking institution, this
Detroit debacle casts an even bigger shadow of doubt on the entire
American system.
American cities, including city officials
and leaders, as well as citizens would be smart to pay attention
throughout this process.
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm
has publicly stated that the federal government needs to think long and
hard about adopting policies that prevent other cities from going down
this same treacherous path:
We need a strategy, nationally, like
other countries have, to create and keep good middle-class jobs here,
and we need a Congress that would support that strategy... This is not
just Detroit. There are 50,000 communities across the country that have
lost factories since the year 2000. This is not just a Democratic
problem. This is a problem across the country.
David Brooks of the New York Times said Detroit to him is “Declimism 101.”
Brooks elaborated: "Whether it's the
Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Spanish Empire. You've got
entrenched elites. There are entrenched special interests. They're
together forever and ever. They get a culture of mediocrity. They get a
culture of cronyism, and it just collapses."
Gov't Stealing From You to Combat Their Debt
If you're like us, you're tired of listening to these cronies ramble on about how to fix the system they screwed
up, while only offering changes that take more money from hardworking
American taxpayers instead of out of their own overstuffed pockets...
Yesterday my colleague, Nick Hodge, wrote
about gold confiscation and today I wanted to shed light on how the
government won't stop there. They're going after your retirement savings
too; as demonstrated by the unfolding Detroit drama.
Perhaps you should think about finding a way out of this financial mess outside the system so you and your loved ones can thrive independently even if (read: when) this ship does go down.
Farewell for now,
Brittany Stepniak
@AngelPubGirl on Twitter
Brittany Stepniak is the Project Manager and Editor for the Outsider Club.
Her “big picture” insights have helped guide thousands of investors
towards achieving and maintaining personal and financial liberties while
pursuing their individual dreams in lieu of all the modern-day chaos.
For more on Brittany, take a look at her editor's page.
This week, we've talked to you about government opulence despite sequestration and how your retirement plan fees are preventing you from seeing the wealth-results you deserve.
Today, I want to show you how your retirement package compares to Congress'...
Past, Present, Future
Amidst the ongoing payroll tax cuts and sequestration, Congress bumped up the rate at which federal employees must contribute to their pension plan – a motion that will save approximately $15 billion over the next 11 years.
However, (breathe easy, Congressional readers) the current members of Congress made sure those contribution increases would NOT apply to them – only to other federal employees and new members. Those employed prior to the new law would be permitted to pay into their pension plans at the old miserly rate.
Obviously they deserve that, right? Clearly all their hard work in the past paid off for their constituents, so they must be entitled to financial protection from present pension-contribution rates, ensuring a bountiful future, indeed.
Private vs. Federal
Times are tough. Pensions are disappearing, and Americans are raiding their accounts years before they retire to pay off debt, mortgages, and medical emergencies. Saving for retirement feels nearly impossible for many workers. Meanwhile, the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS), an old-school defined benefit pension program, pays 215 former Congressmen and women an average of $39,576 for an average of 16 years of service, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.
The number equates to nearly the same amount an average private-sector worker makes in retirement from all sources after an entire lifetime of service, according to the Employees Benefits Research Institute.
CNBC reports:
If the rest of the country has committed to plans similar to the 401(k) contribution system, it's ludicrous for Congress members to fund their own retirements in the manner in which they do; relying largely on a benefit program instead, funded with our tax dollars.
I know I sound like a broken record, but if Congress doesn't shape up and demand of itself what it's demanding from us, the entire system will collapse. Unsustainable trends like these lavish pension plans are hurting the foundation of our country.
This ongoing Insider greed and selfishness is a cancer that has already spread to all corners of our nation. As individuals, we are only able to overcome it using self-reliance and educated insight.
Don't Get Mad, Get Even
If you can't beat them, one-up them. Find the loopholes and opportunities they're not exposing to you so you can pad your retirement on par with retired members of Congress.
We'll keep offering you ways to do this, including investing in silver and gold, dividends, graphene and more. Don't settle for a doomed future – keep your eyes open to the massive gold and silver sell-off going on right now (gold fell to its lowest point in three years Wednesday).
If you're smart, you'll buy on the dips before the precious metals rally heats back up in the next few months.
If you play this market right, you can still retire well despite the continued chaos and economic crises.
Farewell for now,
Brittany Stepniak
How Your Retirement Compares to Congress'
Retiring Younger, Contributing the Least, Pocketing the Most
By Brittany Stepniak 2013-06-28
http://www.outsiderclub.com/how-your-retirement-compares-to-congress
No matter what you do for a living, if you're not a member of Congress, I guarantee there's a massive monetary gap between you and them.This week, we've talked to you about government opulence despite sequestration and how your retirement plan fees are preventing you from seeing the wealth-results you deserve.
Today, I want to show you how your retirement package compares to Congress'...
"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself." -Eleanor Roosevelt
Recently, when members of Congress were
instructed to receive their medical coverage through the new exchange
system set up by the Obamacare provisional bill, Rep. John Larson (D., Conn.) was quoted saying, "This is simply not fair."
This in and of itself didn't surprise me one bit. I can think of a
dozen bills that may have sounded good (even great!) when spoken by a
confident, charismatic man of power after some of his most brilliant
speech-writers manipulated the context just enough for public approval.
What did surprise me is that a member of Congress had the gall to complain about anything being unfair.
A.) Welcome to the real world. (His mother should have taught him life wasn't fair 30+ years ago.)
B.) If life were fair, Rep. Larson would actually have to contribute a reasonable amount of money to his retirement plan instead of rewarding himself with our taxpayer dollars to fund his undoubtedly lavish benefits package.
If he really wants to talk about "fairness," he should probably
compare the benefits and contributions he's receiving with those
received by anyone else in America working in the private sector...
I think he'd get over his health care woes in no time.
Become an Outsider Today!
Amidst the ongoing payroll tax cuts and sequestration, Congress bumped up the rate at which federal employees must contribute to their pension plan – a motion that will save approximately $15 billion over the next 11 years.
However, (breathe easy, Congressional readers) the current members of Congress made sure those contribution increases would NOT apply to them – only to other federal employees and new members. Those employed prior to the new law would be permitted to pay into their pension plans at the old miserly rate.
Obviously they deserve that, right? Clearly all their hard work in the past paid off for their constituents, so they must be entitled to financial protection from present pension-contribution rates, ensuring a bountiful future, indeed.
Private vs. Federal
Times are tough. Pensions are disappearing, and Americans are raiding their accounts years before they retire to pay off debt, mortgages, and medical emergencies. Saving for retirement feels nearly impossible for many workers. Meanwhile, the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS), an old-school defined benefit pension program, pays 215 former Congressmen and women an average of $39,576 for an average of 16 years of service, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.
The number equates to nearly the same amount an average private-sector worker makes in retirement from all sources after an entire lifetime of service, according to the Employees Benefits Research Institute.
CNBC reports:
The average income that worker gets from a pension is about $8,800 — if they have one. In 2010, fewer than 15 percent of private sector employees were enrolled in a defined-benefit pension.To get a better idea of what we're saying, take a look at the chart below:
"It's not keeping pace with what's happening in the private sector," said Veronique de Rugy, a senior researcher with George Mason University's Mercatus Center. "It's not sustainable."
If the rest of the country has committed to plans similar to the 401(k) contribution system, it's ludicrous for Congress members to fund their own retirements in the manner in which they do; relying largely on a benefit program instead, funded with our tax dollars.
I know I sound like a broken record, but if Congress doesn't shape up and demand of itself what it's demanding from us, the entire system will collapse. Unsustainable trends like these lavish pension plans are hurting the foundation of our country.
This ongoing Insider greed and selfishness is a cancer that has already spread to all corners of our nation. As individuals, we are only able to overcome it using self-reliance and educated insight.
Don't Get Mad, Get Even
If you can't beat them, one-up them. Find the loopholes and opportunities they're not exposing to you so you can pad your retirement on par with retired members of Congress.
We'll keep offering you ways to do this, including investing in silver and gold, dividends, graphene and more. Don't settle for a doomed future – keep your eyes open to the massive gold and silver sell-off going on right now (gold fell to its lowest point in three years Wednesday).
If you're smart, you'll buy on the dips before the precious metals rally heats back up in the next few months.
If you play this market right, you can still retire well despite the continued chaos and economic crises.
Farewell for now,
Brittany Stepniak
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