I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government • Hacker News Board

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#371

Post by sam1r » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:01 PM UTC

leephillips wrote: post #250

adrianmonk wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They assumed the government's software would do this: (1) Purchase #1 for $25 successful --> reduce remaining limit from $10000 to $9975. (2) Purchase #2 for $10000 rejected and refund pending --> DO NOT reduce limit since you know the purchase didn't go through. (3) Purchase #3 for $9975 within limit --> allow purchase, reduce limit to exactly $0. Instead, at step 2, the software seems to handle the purchase by unco…

The email clearly says that the excess purchase will be refunded. He lost me here; I was mystified when he decided to purchase another $9975.

Wait a second, does that mean that his original plan to invest $10k, after the excess refund, was accomplished?

The last statement of the post mentions how he will not get any return. But he's only going to be refunded the excess.

So ultimately, did he, or will he still make his $850, as initially intended?

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#372

Post by scoot » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:02 PM UTC

msrenee wrote: post #209

zarzavat wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s bad English. The unambiguous terminology would be simply “excess” or “excess part of the purchase”. The term “excess purchase” sounds like the entire purchase is excess i.e. the adjective “excess” is modifying the noun “purchase” [the purchase was excess]. But they intended it as a noun adjunct where the noun “purchase” is modifying the noun “excess” [the excess was a purchase]. But this parse is not at all pref…

They could purchase up to $10k in bonds. They exceeded that by $25 dollars. Each dollar or penny or half-penny is a separate portion of a bond in my mind, although I don't know how that works legally. So the excess purchase would be the $25 he was in excess of the maximum purchase. Just the way I interpreted it, but by no means the legal or actual way it's handled.

Parent is correct however. "Excess" or "excess amount" would be clear. "Excess purchase" is confusing.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#373

Post by avgcorrection » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:03 PM UTC

PawBer wrote: post #319

jaimehrubiks wrote: post #308

I've been in the US for 4 years and it seems like the government is just like a computer that you cannot talk to or get issues fixed somehow. It's like, if something goes wrong you're fucked. If USPS loses your documents or even your car's title, or your immigration approval notice, you're fucked, you might need to wait 2 months, or 6, or 8, and nobody cares, nobody will help you. There's no one that can help you. At…

It's no wonder that people vote for less government influence in the US. They just never had a good experience with it so they want to get rid of it as a band-aid solution.

Government Can Do Nothing Right has been the propaganda line of the right-wing of the American business community since the end of WWII. A lot of the business community resented the social democratic reforms of that time (those ’50s white picket fence times) and so they sought to first argue that government was useless, and then later prove it through their government-sucks politicians.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#374

Post by leephillips » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:07 PM UTC

sam1r wrote: post #371

leephillips wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The email clearly says that the excess purchase will be refunded. He lost me here; I was mystified when he decided to purchase another $9975.

Wait a second, does that mean that his original plan to invest $10k, after the excess refund, was accomplished? The last statement of the post mentions how he will not get any return. But he's only going to be refunded the excess. So ultimately, did he, or will he still make his $850, as initially intended?

The author is invested, but there is some question about whether he or she has realized that.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#375

Post by agentdrtran » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:15 PM UTC

jaimehrubiks wrote: post #308

I've been in the US for 4 years and it seems like the government is just like a computer that you cannot talk to or get issues fixed somehow. It's like, if something goes wrong you're fucked. If USPS loses your documents or even your car's title, or your immigration approval notice, you're fucked, you might need to wait 2 months, or 6, or 8, and nobody cares, nobody will help you. There's no one that can help you. At…

This has been my experience with basically any large company in the country.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#376

Post by salford » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:22 PM UTC

Seeing the US treasury website's incredibly poor UX for buying I-bonds convinced me that, as bad as TurboTax is for doing "free" tax returns (see https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...), maybe we would not in fact be better off if the IRS make its own website for doing tax returns.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#377

Post by everfree » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:24 PM UTC

bradwood wrote: post #342

I stopped reading when I got to "They're zero-risk bonds..."

US treasury bonds are generally considered "zero-risk" in finance, it's a pretty common notion.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#378

Post by galangalalgol » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:26 PM UTC

PawBer wrote: post #319

jaimehrubiks wrote: post #308

I've been in the US for 4 years and it seems like the government is just like a computer that you cannot talk to or get issues fixed somehow. It's like, if something goes wrong you're fucked. If USPS loses your documents or even your car's title, or your immigration approval notice, you're fucked, you might need to wait 2 months, or 6, or 8, and nobody cares, nobody will help you. There's no one that can help you. At…

It's no wonder that people vote for less government influence in the US. They just never had a good experience with it so they want to get rid of it as a band-aid solution.

Are large organizations in other countries more human friendly? That sounds delightful. My impression from friends in the EU is that it is similar there, at least for housing and healthcare regulations.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#379

Post by robocat » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

sgent wrote: post #346

swarnie wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this open to non-US citizens? Arguably an i-bond would out preform anything in my portfolio based on the last six months.

You have to have a social security number so citizen, current or former resident or work visa holder.

Not former. From https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ibonds...

  Yes, if you have a Social Security Number and meet any one of these three conditions:
  - United States citizen, whether you live in the U.S. or abroad
  - United States resident
  - Civilian employee of the United States, no matter where you live

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#380

Post by collinvandyck76 » Sun, May 01, 2022, 7:34 PM UTC

blakesley wrote: post #369

I'm glad to see I'm not the only internet user who wonders "will this fail?" to the point that they try the problematic action before their original, intended action. It's this kind of thinking that got me into software QA a decade ago.

I'm just amazed that they decided to poke the black box with 1) their savings and 2) the black box being owned by the federal government. /salute