Posted on 12/07/2004 8:28:41 AM PST by CHARLITE
The greedy AARP.
If any more confirmation were needed, we've just received it: The AARP's most fundamental principle is "Get all you can, while you can — young people be damned."
The nation's largest seniors organization has just sent its 36 million members a scorching message opposing private Social Security accounts, raising the prospect of benefit cuts, Wall Street profiteering and mayhem just short of the apocalypse. The blast is prompted by Bush's endorsement of Social Security reform and proposals to allow younger workers to voluntarily divert some of their payroll taxes into a private retirement account.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
AARP is LONG past due for a serious audit by the IRS.
What do we expect from the me, me, me generation ?
I expect all three solutions to be enacted in effort to "save Social Security".
My the way, did you hear Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader state that Social Security is, "The most successful social program in the history of world"?
Democrats. Still clueless after all these years.
I honestly don't understand AARP.
I'm close to that age, and they have sent information and such, but I would never join.
What in hell do they care what the structure of Social security becomes as long as their member's present benefits are secured?
Seems as if they fear a decline in clout and lobbying power if they can not use such programs as leverage, and that is just wrong.
Very good observation. For example, don't expect to find a serious analysis of the pro's and con's of long term care insurance at the AARP web site. They are too busy selling the product to offer any insight into whether, or for whom, such products make sense. For an analysis, and not a sales pitch, you'll have to go to Consumer Reports.
For cryin' out loud, put some Republican literature in them! ;)
If they keep it up, they are going to have a generation war with the younger folk. Or be looking at mandatory euthanasia when you get past a certain age, a la Logan's Run.
Ping
That's right -- AARP should be thinking about (and representing) those, too, who WANT to retire some day. They may not know it (yeah, right), but we (young and old alike) are all in this thing together. There must NEVER be a financial battle of the generations. We'd all get wiped out by it.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
The exit polls were fabricated to show the younger voters leaning left, but the official tallies proved just the opposite.
The Gen-Xers will probably be unforgiving, perhaps antagonistic, toward the elderly issues; the Gen-Yers will probably be slightly more compassionate than the X-ers, but pragmatic.
In 2000, the Boomers and older Silents had a combined total of 109,045,630 eligible voters. Their numbers are only decreasing with each passing day, and the daily death rate will accelerate as they age.
In 2000, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population had a combined total of 89,741,842 eligible voters.
In 2004, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population will have a combined total of 105,834,510 eligible voters.
In 2008, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population will have a combined total of 122,310,351 eligible voters. This will be the first national election where the post-Boomer voters are a clear majority of the eligible voting population.
In 2012, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population will have a combined total of 138,894,753 eligible voters.
Another classic exchange:
Bart: Gee, Granpa, where'd you get all the money?
Grandpa: The government. I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but if they miss one payment I'll raise hell!
AARP's claim is that were these accounts to be privitized, there would be a need for massive tax increases to fund them. (Not going to happen, no Republicans would ever propose tax increases for this.) They also assume that were the privitized accounts to fail (go down, as in the market collapse of 2000), the government would have to bail out the system.
I don't think things would necessarily work that way. I also think Social Security is a scam but the GOP seems determined to save it. The system only works if there are enough workers to tax to pay the expenses.
4. Halt all Social Security deductions by employers immediately. Anyone who enters the workforce for the first time after that date gets no Social Security, no way, no how. For everyone else still not retired, the retirement age gets raised to 70. In order to fund the outlays to those who have already paid into the system, wasteful and unnecessary welfare and other "social" spending gets shut down, especially any outlays to illegal aliens. Demand verification of lawful residency or citizenship to claim government benes. Actual SS outlay proportional to number of years paid in (e.g. in order to accomodate the differences in years of deduction between those who just entered workforce at effective date Vs those older). Etc. It can be done, but welfare babies, whiners and others unwilling to bite the bullet need to be ignored.
There is an alterative to generational warfare, or, an excessive burden on future wage earners. This alternative would end the Social Security program over a period of about 55 years, but most of the decrease would be during the first 25 years. Let us not forget that Social Security was only supposed to be Depression Era stopgap, but once the "FDR Democrats" siezed on it, it was made into a birthright. See referenced post for details. I am quite serious about this. IMHO it ought to be pushed in Congress.
I also attribute the phenomenal rise in medical costs to Medicare.
The skewing of the free market system, by putting government control and fee structures at the core of this system, has doomed the system to failure without massive and regular increases in funding, which ends the free market Capitalist system, as we know it.
I'm sure the dems just love this effect.
As my uncle once said when I was a child:
"We have just handed the keys to the National Treasury to the medical profession."
BTW, the phrase "Rocket Scientist," applies to him, as he was an engineer for NASA in those Glory days...
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