Posted on 08/15/2018 9:20:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
Social Security is running out of money.
You may not believe that, but it's a fact.
That FICA money taken from your paycheck was not saved for you in a "trust fund." Politicians misled us. They spent every penny the moment it came in.
This started as soon as they created Social Security. They assumed that FICA payments from young workers would cover the cost of sending checks to older people. After all, at the time, most Americans died before they reached 65.
Now, however, people keep living longer. There just aren't enough young people to cover my Social Security checks.
So Social Security is going broke. This year, the program went into the red for the first time.
Presidents routinely promise to fix this problem.
George W. Bush said he'd "strengthen and save" Social Security. Barack Obama said he'd "safeguard" it, and Donald Trump said that he'll "save" it.
But none has done anything to save it.
"There is a plan out there to save it, but it requires some tough choices," says Heritage Foundation budget analyst Romina Boccia.
Heritage proposes cutting payments to rich people and raising the retirement age to 70.
Good luck with that. Seniors vote. Most vote against politicians who suggest cutting benefits.
This summer, interviewing people for my new video about Social Security's coming bankruptcy, was the first time I had heard the majority of such a group say they were aware there is a problem. One said, "We're already at a trillion dollars (deficit) ... (I)t's almost like a big Ponzi scheme."
Actually, more like a pyramid scheme. Ponzi schemes secretly take your money. But the Social Security trick is written into the law -- there for anyone who bothers to look.
Social Security isn't the only hard choice ahead of us. Medicare will run out of money in just eight years. At that point, benefits will automatically be cut. Social Security hits its wall in 15 years.
Amazingly, as we approach this disaster, Democrats say -- spend even more.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proudly announced, "Nearly every Democrat in the United States Senate has voted in favor of expanding Social Security."
How would they pay for it? "Raise taxes on the wealthy!" is the usual answer.
I tried that on Boccia: "Just raise taxes on the rich!"
"There isn't enough money, even that the rich would have," she countered, "to pay for the $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities."
One partial solution proposed by Heritage and others is to let younger workers put some of their Social Security money into their own personal retirement accounts.
"Imagine being able to own and control your own retirement dollars," urged Boccia, with genuine excitement. "You could invest it in businesses, grow the economy, whatever rocks your boat."
If history is any guide, private accounts would almost certainly pay retirees more than Social Security will ever pay.
"Even a conservative portfolio of stocks and bonds that got you about a 5 percent annual return, you would make many times more," said Boccia.
She's right. Money in government hands just sits there or gets spent wastefully; it's rarely invested wisely.
Private accounts have been tried in a few countries. In Chile, the investment they created helped make Chile the richest country in Latin America. (Before, Chile was poorer than most.)
Yet even after that success, leftists in South America hold street protests against private accounts. They're angry because capitalists get a slice of the pie.
I told Boccia that I couldn't understand why people in Chile don't loudly cheer private accounts because of the wealth they'd created.
"We lack gratitude," she replied, "for what the free market provides. That is difficult to wrap your head around. It's easy to think, 'Here is the government. This is where I go.'"
But eventually, even governments run out of other people's money.
Like most American politicians, Donald Trump campaigned saying, "I'm not going to cut Social Security ... not going to cut Medicare."
He and other politicians pretend they're protecting people's futures, but they are not. They're ignoring the inevitable.
Better to fix old-age programs now -- rather than have them suddenly go bankrupt later.
#MeToo
Maybe they shouldn’t have spent OUR money on other stuff !
And there was a Jim Crow Supreme Court ruling also.
The Federal Government has been operating this legislated Ponzi scheme for a very long time -
Isn’t it amazing - if a private citizen operates what is, in essence, the same kind of operation, they eventually get arrested and go to prison? Yet the government can do the same thing - with the LAW forcing you to be a contributor to their Ponzi scheme - and nobody goes to jail.
I look at an estimate of what I have paid into that corrupt “system” in my 35-ish years of working (from my earliest days in a part-time job while in high school, through adult life always employed) - and had that money been invested in a real account - I could almost retire today. But no -
Corrupt politicians have been dishing out the cash through general spending - while simultaneously enlarging the Social Security rolls by giving out “disability payments” to an ever-enlarging pool of deadbeats with a library of invented “conditions and disorders”.
What are we to do? We are outnumbered by the leeches and the senior citizens who believe every lie regarding their own benefits being “taken away by evil Republicans” - even though the Republicans and Democrats both are never going to do such a thing. They will both be happy to get old die while those of us with years before any prospect of retiring get to that stage and there is nothing left for us. Social Security and related taxes take a big enough chunk of my income (I am taxed as self-employed) - that there is little left for saving for my own retirement. I am quite literally being robbed by the government. And I’m sure I am nowhere near alone. And I’m fed up.
VP Al Gore personally cast the tie-breaking vote to make that a reality. It is 100% all upon him.
I know LOTS of people who are not obese who have cost “society” a ton of money. I also know lots of overweight people who do not. Sure, it’s better to be fit, but it’s no guarantee.
The gay lifestyle is probably costing us a lot more than fat people are. Then add in the cost of alcoholism.
I agree. If you paid in - you get it back. If “those people” want to give it to charity - great.
Ideas:
Anyone over the age of 25 can start a retirement account into which they can voluntarily contribute up to 10% of their gross wages. Money in the account will compound at a rate of at least 5% The account can be liquidated, TAX FREE, after they reach 65 years of age. The FICA tax will not be deducted from their wages as long as they are contributing to their retirement account.
Raise the mandatory 'retirement age' from 62 to 67. Persons 55 years old or more at the time this becomes law are exempt from this.
Isn’t that what 401k’s were for?
And actually, enforce labor laws regarding illegal labor - any employer who is found to be using illegals - wage a fine big enough that - #1 - it is no longer worth the risk to hire illegals, #2 - earmark said fines to Social Security (with penalties to politicians who dip into it with legislation).
Drastically reform the definition of “disability” - there are WAY too many fully able-bodied people doing absolutely nothing (as in - not paying any taxes) while drawing a check from the system. Hang the doctors who are willing to invent new made-up “disorders” to enable the milking of the system.
If I know double amputees who work 40+ hours per week and refuse to get on the government dole - then Butthead up the road can get a stinking job and help fund his own miserable life.
If that veteran I spoke with the other day who has seen combat and who has diagnosed PTSD, yet he shows up for work every single day and gets the job done - then little easily-offended “I can’t stand to be around people” Sally Sue can get off her fat butt and get over it!
I am sick and tired of the excuses - and both politicians and too many in the medical world are truly happy to make/accept a diagnosis of anything to get the cash flowing.
BuffaloJack didn’t say they took social security out again. He said the social security benefits can be subject to income taxes.
Is WELFARE for the lay-a bouts, “refugees” and illegals running out?
While being queer is in fact hazardous, those overweight and unable to function well greatly exceed the queers.
It is true that being overweight is not a death sentence. I believe that we never actually quit growing and weight gain is insurance for a coming bad and hungry winter or severe illness where the fat is needed to sustain life. Such people can be observed at Walmart and in doctor's offices.
Social Security is a ponzi scheme....
It’s a way for corrupt criminals who disguise themselves as ‘elites’ and ‘politicians’ to steal money from American citizens while opening our borders to bring in more ‘marks’ to keep the ponzi going.
Lots of elites belong in prison...
“Social Security hits its wall in 15 years.”Money in government hands justsits there orgets spent wastefully; it'srarelynever invested wisely.The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter II (1776)
Which is the year I’ll turn 67. nice
Two things:
- The problem is not the nominal balance held by the Social Security Trust Fund. The problem is that whatever balance it does hold is “invested in safe government bonds.” That is, the US Treasury owes the SSTF all that money. Where, exactly, does the line item in the budget appear for retiring those “safe government bonds?”
- Given the insolvency of the entire mess, anyone who is on Social Security and finds themselves comfortably situated should seriously think about what Social Security is doing to their children and grandchildren - and should pass down to them as much of their Social Security as they can readily spare.
Or SEP’s, Single K’s, IRA’s, 403Bs etc
“Obesity is a governor, a damper, on prosperity”
How does that work?
Re: “Remember President George W. Bush wanted to give the people the choice to voluntarily get social security?”
I do remember.
It was a total scam, in my opinion
Suddenly, with zero political preparation, Bush went on a whirlwind two week national campaign to privatize Social Security.
Then - the issue completely disappeared.
It was a worthless and deliberately distracting political sop that Bush tossed to Republican Conservatives.
Then, Bush moved on to his real passion - Amnesty!
Bush spent the next FOUR YEARS ruthlessly trying to shove Amnesty down our throats.
Heart disease, diabetes, etc etc
Yes, I guess those things do consume resources.
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