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.
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.