As I’m 64 with no plans to retire or collect yet, I think I can say this.
My generation and the boomers younger don’t deserve SS. We squandered the Social Security Surplus. Starting in the 60s under LBJ until now in 2008 we have consistently paid enough into SS to keep it solvent. But we demanded immediate gratification and using SS money to ease our guilt feelings about the poor, Blacks, seniors older than us and worst of all, drug and alcohol abusers and malingerers on SSI. SS is bankrupt because of us. We do not deserve it to be baled out. We have no ethical or moral basis to demand that our grandchildren (or immigrants or anyone else) to pay for our own mistakes. We should reap what we sowed.
I plan on working til I am 70 or 72. I plan on living with one of the children and have told them that the house and property goes to the one who cares for me. They are interested.
Morally, you are correct, at least insofar as you are addressing the boomers who engaged in this squander.
Politically, however, you know they won't reap what they sowed; they'll push it off on the next generation.
This is why the outlined plan is more humane and more politically possible.
Morally, you are correct, at least insofar as you are addressing the boomers who engaged in this squander.
Politically, however, you know they won't reap what they sowed; they'll push it off on the next generation.
This is why the outlined plan is more humane and more politically possible.
Speak for yourself, Bob. I didn’t approve of ANY of those give away programs you list. We should be demanding the same funding of “pension” liabilities on the part of government at all levels which is required of private companies, and legislators who approve benefit levels without proper funding should be in prison (with their own generous pensions cut off).
That “WE” would be you and the mouse in your pocket, right? It’s patently offensive for you to lump all the boomers together. As another boomer, I can honestly say that I’ve never recommended, or agreed, that the way to fund thoughtless, unconstitutional Federal programs was by stealing from the SS trust monies.
In fact, I’ve railed against this obvious skullduggery since I’ve been paying into the system (also not by own choosing) over the past 40+ years. But, all my harping and yelling has been about as productive as pi$$ing into the wind...no good results.
Johnson’s Great Society crappola was an extension of the original sinner in this model...FDR, and his decidedly wrongheaded interpretation of the General Welfare clause of the US Constitution. That sea change represents the genesis of the Nanny State, IMO. “Hello, I’m from the Government and I’m here to help you.”
It’s time to reclaim this grand experiment; reestablish a politics of individual responsibility, and a government that governs less rather than more. Surely to God, we’ve seen enough of the Welfare state and it’s predictable outcome of breeding multiple generations of dependent citizens, all because someone convinced others that spending government money wasn’t spending the people’s money, and wasn’t spending your money and my money.
Stupidly shortsighted.
Dad? Is that you?
:o)
My initial reaction to the article was the same as yours. But let me go beyoind that. IMO "saving" the program only grants it legitimacy. Let's call it what it is. It's socialism, pure and simple. Stop taxing private citizens for Social Security, and let people take responsibility for their own retirements with their own dollars.
Well, not exactly......Ol' LBJ needed money for his war back then, and didn't want US to see what that did to the budget of the day. SO,.....he hid it by combining the SocSec bucks with the general fund--- ,made it look all OK to us dummies, Right?
The Dem congresses of the day and those that followed saw this as OPPORTUNITY!.. See how well off we are...they said. This fraud is continuing to this day except now even the SocSec funds are not enough....just my view of course....
Bump.
Same could be said of every generation whom squandered FICA money in a fiat banking system for almost a hundred years. Based on your attitude, your one of the boomers I don’t mind supporting. As for the hippie/welfare climate of the 1960’s they were a minority rather then the majority and the fleas come with the dog.
If I have any complaint about the boomer generation is that it did not pay attention to the writing on the wall in 1979 and 1980 to drastically decrease foreign oil dependance. In fact it increased another 20% between then and now, mainly from population growth but also because of bad policy driven by greedy politicians at the top.