Ben Shapiro recently said that social security should be abolished and people should be expected to work until they die.
My first thought was how stupid it was to say something like that during an election year. The Republican base is elderly people and a lot of them rely on social security. Expecting 80 year olds to have to work to survive is a pretty grim vision for the country and one that nobody would vote for.
On the other hand, interest on our debt is probably going to be larger than the GDP way before I'll be eligible for social security. The program seems like a product of another time that's practically doomed to fail eventually. It's a ponzi scheme, but it's one that people are counting on.
At the same time, Ben is the last person who should be talking about cutting social security while advocating we send more money to Ukraine and Israel. Benefits that actually go back to the taxpayers are the last things that should ever be cut. But our ruling class is set on sending as much money as possible overseas. They'll never have the political capital to get rid of social security without committing electoral suicide. That's just my thought.
In any normal situation we would be discussing how we could taper the People out of it, and also first making exiting the program voluntary. How and how much folks would receive back in exchange for voluntarily signing off on never receiving Social Security is a negotiation. What we have instead is a 1 or a 0 retarded conversation. You cannot have people in their 60s or more just left high-and-dry after 30+ years of paying into this insane system. Equally, you should not require young people to pay into a system that they know will never be there for them.
It could be there for the younger people too, if you would get the damned crooked fingers out of it.
It should set up as a 401K dedicated to the individual that pays it in, and no one else should be able to touch it. This raiding SS to put the money in the hands of criminal POS politicians must be stopped.
If a $10k IRA was set up for every US citizen at the time of their birth, invested in a low-fee Vanguard-ish S&P 500 tracking ETF, and with no ability to do any sort of early withdrawal of any kind, every American would retire a millionaire. So that would fix one problem.
The other problem is that the ghouls who run our economy are inflating the USD to nothing. So a million of a dollar when it is worth nothing is no security at all.
Both need to be fixed for any sort of durable government answer to this. It would be better to mandate financial education for all citizens and leave them to manage their own retirement, and keep government out of it except for those incapable of doing this for themselves (mentally incapable, etc.).
The vampires can still get at it.
Firstly they can increase the penalties and taxes for withdrawals of course. But that's not all.
They could restrict the sort of investments that could be made with the money in the account, as the British do. This amounts to corporate welfare, where only the favored companies (British Telecom, British Petroleum) can be a part of the investment portfolio, and nothing else. Government picking winners and losers, and of course those winners will be winners for them, not for you, you mudman.
They could "increase taxes on corporations to make sure they pay their fair share" (Current Biden slogan), which would result in lower corporate profits, which would then result in lower stock performance and fuck you out of a better return in a way that you would never see. Bastiat's Broken Window ... but this time it's in your house. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/joe_biden_wants_to_raid_americans_retirement_accounts.html
They can continue to erode the value of the USD, and often it seems to me that asset appreciation in the stock market doesn't fully keep up with the debasement of the USD, even though mathematically it should. This is well underway and accelerating, and showing no signs of stopping.
It was voluntary...until it wasn't, just like taxes.
I had meant exiting the program could be initially voluntary. I corrected my post to make that clearer.
100%.
Bernanke was the first person to admit the truth. That they can guarantee the payments, but cannot guarantee the purchase power of those payments. He's admitting that they are going to print to the moon, to inflate their way out of the problem.
Folks who make decisions like these, with nary a vote by the People on the topic, should be staked out in the sun for the ants.
I paid into SS my whole working career! I started collecting SS when I was 62 and have been collecting for 13 years! Coupled with my Military Retirement pay I actually enjoy Retirement as a Senior Citizen! I have worked all my life and have given back to The United States of America by serving in the Armed Forces of the United States! So these Jasper's that want to end Social Security need to actually get a real job and quit riding on the backs of a Patriotic citizen!
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They have robbed the fund to the point of breaking it, and now keep trying to cut it out.
You don't want to pay something back to the people you took it from then you shouldn't have taken it to begin with. Besides a lot of folks would be better off today if they had had their money to invest.
And that is the catch, with sheeple many are to damned stupid to save a penny even if they made enough to save.
When Ben was talking positively about the vaccine and speaking from authority on it because his wife is a Dr...thats when I knew he Fckd up
There are lots of people that did not save or invest ..this was a safety net for them..I was told by my parents ss is extra not your main retirement
Social Security under government control is a scam. Required investment in personal 401Ks or other investment accounts is a good idea. If people can't be responsible, make them. Social Security on the other hand is a Ponzi scheme in which the government controls and abuses.
It’s another fucking tax. Just like fucking Medicaid. Slush fund for grifters.
Yep. Just return the money people paid in and call it even.
It's one helluva ponzi scheme.
Nowadays the SS waiting room is full on twenty yo filing for benefits
I do not ever expect to draw from social security. I'm several decades away from retiring but there's no way the system hasn't collapsed by then.
Here's the thing. Anyone who worked (with a few exceptions like educators in some states) paid into Social Security their whole life. Congress robbed the Social Security fund to use for pet projects over the years, which hamstrung the fund. If I worked and qualified to receive Social Security, I should get it. Period.
Who gives a shit what that little rat says?
I think the concept of an economic safety net for older Americans is a sound concept but the way this system is structured is fundamentally flawed.
A working system is Social Security requires a robust economy, elected officials who put Americans first, sensible fiscal budgeting and means testing.
We currently have none of these economic basics. As it stands, SS, like America, is doomed unless drastic positive changes happen soon.
Imagine a strong, vibrant, and steadily growing America First economy. An economy based on Agenda 47 that levels the playing field for the American worker. That economy will have no problem funding Social Security and Medicare.
These programs are not entitlements, they are government mandated retirement programs we are forced to fund. But, the America Last crowd of Dems and RINOS want to pretend it’s their money and claim they have more important things to do with it.
PONZI SCHEME.
Only the government is allowed to operate a ponzi scheme.
Next item on the list: Is there any program the government can manage better than private companies?
Yes. There is one, and only one: grifting.
What I think is that young (teens, twenties) people -- who can't imagine themselves ever getting old -- hate Social Security, and consider it legalized theft for the benefit of undeserving Stupid Old Farts.
As those same people apprach retirement age, they begin to see the light.
Ben Shapiro can kiss my non-Kosher ass.
Ben is wrong because I'll be collecting it for at least 30 years if not longer lol. I paid in for 44 years so screw him.