If you take 5 million Black men who make between 30K and 150K per year. And say that at the time of their death they were either never married or divorced. Let's give each one an average social security benefit of 1,000 per month (averaging the lowest to the highest). Let's also say that the time of death is between 55 and 67 (which is very close to the actual figures) and their children are grown. Calculate how much per month WOULD HAVE BEEN available to their survivors had they been married. Calculate how much per month is put back into the system and used by other folks who live longer.
Without interest that's 5 billion dollars per month and 60 billion dollars per year. I selected 5 million Black American men as a rough 25 percent of the available population of the group. Since married men tend to live longer the married Black men, statistically and hypothetically speaking, would not be part of this group. I averaged the dollar amount over the two tax groups of 15 and 22 percent income tax. If you find something wrong with the number please correct me.
Sixty billion dollars put back into the system, never taken out of the system because you've assumed room temperature, and not benefitting a wife or your children. Who gets that money? The people who live longest and draw social security longest. 1. White women 2. Black women 3. White men and 4. everybody else (as Black men have the lowest average life spans in the US).
Do you think that sometimes we stay single out of selfishness? Being able to do what we want to do when we want to do it? If you think that's a pleasure then you also have to accept that every pleasure has a cost. Have you ever thought of the cost of perpetual dating? Holding two houses when you have been together for ten years? All of that has a cost. I'm sure of it.
If you're a single Black man and you have a job and you die by or around the time of retirement, all of the money you have paid into the system goes elsewhere. This is another reason against co-habitation without a marriage license. You don't get survivor's benefit if you're not married. And why would anyone invest in something where there's no return? It sounds morbid and it might sound crazy but it's the truth. Ask someone who has lived through this and see if she or he would do it the same way all over again.
What about the numbers of young Black men who die due to homicide? There's a cost and it isn't the money required to pay the funeral director. It's actually not a cost, it's a gain. I've read that there are thousands of murders of young Black men by young Black men. Where do all of those brand new internal organs go? Kidneys, lungs, livers, corneas and hearts. Who benefits when a healthy young man dies? Someone with health insurance and a need. What would happen to the organ donor system if young Black men stopped killing each other? Think about it. Some numbers say five thousand a year and some say as high as ten thousand a year. All in possession of some barely used and perfectly workable human material.
Although I don't have any documentation to support my next statement I'm willing to bet on the actuality being truth. The young and single who die and the older, employed, unmarried are both groups which leave very little, if any, life insurance to their children. I'm also willing to bet that a preponderance of these men leave children behind. What do they leave their children? And are they really worth more when they are dead, to the American system, than when they were living simply because they lived dangerous lives and therefore supply the most necessary facet of transplants? Simply because they leave here without a designated and legal beneficiary of all they have paid into the system? I don't know. But I'm going to start asking these questions and finding the answers for myself. I really want to know. Here are the first questions I would like to ask of you. I intend to find the real answers for myself. I just have to know the truth.
1. Do you think Black and single men buy life insurance at a higher rate than Black and single women?
2. Do you think Black and single men save at the same rate or at a higher rate than Black and single women?
3. Do you think Black and single men experience the same rates of home ownership as Black and single women?
4. Do you think the heirs of Black and single men receive a higher rate of wealth inheritance than heirs of Black and single women?
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