Here's the thing about Social Security..

[BWdem4life]

Or, a thing or two.

Besides the obvious point that we've all been paying into it with the promise of getting a guaranteed payout in our senior years when we need it most...

Fewer and fewer jobs have been offering pensions, and some that did have squandered those funds, leaving workers with nothing...

Worker pay has not kept up with inflation and productivity...

Rents have skyrocketed due to naked capitalism...

College costs, ditto...

Healthcare costs, ditto...

Millennials are less able to care for their aging parents as a result..

And now, 12 years before I'm eligible to collect SS they want to take it away. Forcing me to keep working till the day I die, while keeping a job away from someone younger.

Pretty cruel joke.

Social Darwinists suck. And so do naked Capitalists. (Or am I repeating myself?)

P.S.

Here's another good post to read (a DUer who actually needs help, which I currently don't):

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217265923

[Casady1]

1. Republicans love the poor house

[Kablooie]

12. They'd never pay for a poor house.

They love families starving in tents and boxes in the street.

[Casady1]

15. The poor house

Is what America was like before social security. No one paid for the poor house. It is where destitute people ended up.

[Captain Zero]

19. Poor houses got their funding from COUNTIES

It was messed up, corrupt, and neglectful of it's aged charges. Most counties spent as little as they could on everything about them. Maintenance of the facilities was horrid or non-existent.

[Shermann]

2. It's too valuable of an asset to "take away"

You can put a rough appraisal value to SS benefits by shopping around for an annuity with a similar payment schedule. If you've paid into SS for the max 35 years, that value can be surprising. For many retirees, it will be their most valuable single asset. And as you said, we paid for it. Some got sweetheart deals, some got OK deals, and the rest got raw deals based on income. But we all have skin in the game.

Republicans know this. That doesn't stop them from irresponsibly kicking at the foundations of the house though, but they'll stop short of razing it to the ground.

[modrepub]

3. It's Not Going Away

The SS taxes are still being collected so benefits will still be paid. What you're promised may not actually happen and your yearly SS summary states so.

What is more insidious is Gen Xers have been paying more into the SS system than has been going out for decades. That surplus was going to pay for shortfalls anticipated decades ago. This confusion about SS going bankrupt hides the naked stealing of billions of $ in excess payments made by me and many others.

What all politicians should be asked is if the Government intends to honor those US Bonds that the government issued to us for our excess SS taxes? That's the important question (that's not being asked by the M$M).

[progree]

11. It's already happening - SS Trust fund securities are being redeemed to pay benefits

. In a year when Social Security revenues fall short of benefits then trust fund securities are redeemed to make up the difference. This is already occurring:

"At the end of 2021, Social Security’s trust fund reserves were $2,852 billion, having decreased by $56 billion over the year." - Source: 2022 Trustees report, https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

What all politicians should be asked is if the Government intends to honor those US Bonds that the government issued to us for our excess SS taxes? That's the important question (that's not being asked by the M$M).

Like the Treasury bills, notes, and bonds purchased by private investors and governments around the world, the Treasury securities that the trust funds hold are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. It's not just some accounting gimmick.

By the way, the 4 trustees are all high level Biden administratrion appointees. This isn't a report by right wing economists or the right wing media or such

The report is signed by:
Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, and Managing Trustee of the Trust Funds.
Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Trustee.
Martin J. Walsh, Secretary of Labor, and Trustee.
Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, and Trustee.

Actuarial Note #142 of January 1999 (how interest rate determined, the trust fund securities etc.) http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/note142.html

(and if some idiot says, well what do you expect liberal Democrats to say? Well, the same language is in Trump era SS Trustees reports too, for example this snapshot from 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20191125074043/https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/ )


Some more debunking of Social Security myths https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142925306#post18

[CousinIT]

4. I'm in the same boat. WITH RELATIVES THAT ARE VOTING REPUBLICAN.

These assholes are LITERALLY VOTING OUR RETIREMENTS AWAY by voting Republican. They're the "I got mine fuck you" crowd.

UNbelievable.

[whathehell]

5. I can definitely relate...Social Security used to be called

the " Third rail" of politics -- Touch it and you diie"

Much as they might want to,, Repukes wouldn't even CONSIDER going after it..Now, they seem to be almost open about it, and SS remains THE most popular government program across party lines!

My question is, why are the Dems not highlighting this more?..Boomers are, I believe, still the largest age demo in the nation -- Hammer home the Rs plans to gut Social Security and Medicare, and I think they'll RUN to the polls.

[Native]

9. I only hear Biden talking about this!

[whathehell]

13. To be fair, I have seen one TV ad on Republican attacks SS and Medicare,

but, imo, they need MORE of them in addition to more
Dem candidates calling it out.

[WVreaper]

6. Their target audience is the young voters.

Why do your have to pay into something that isn't going to be there when you turn... probably 80 by the time you are eligible for Social Security. Same old same old scare tactics. All they care about is corporate profits. Not you, not me.

[wnylib]

7. I naively complained about SS withholding

when I got my first job. My parents and all relatives who lived through the Great Depression and the start of SS set me straight on it.

[SouthernDem4ever]

14. That's what really pisses me off

They have convinced young people that they won't have it when they get old - I hear that crap repeated to me constantly.

[Joinfortmill]

8. Gop ate like rabid dogs.

[Permanut]

10. And Social Security doesn't have a $24 million a year CEO..

Like the average of the top 350 US firms. All that money out there just waiting for the "private sector" to get their hand on.

[honest.abe]

16. Its not going away. Social Security is critical to both Democrats and Republicans.

What will happen are changes needed to keep the system solvent. The actual changes are what we are not sure about. If Dems remain in power we could see the obvious fix of raising the taxable maximum. If Repubs somehow get in power, we will see things like raising the FRA age and possibly cuts to SS payments. No matter what SS is not going away.

[BWdem4life]

17. Sure. Make the retirement age 99. How bout a work requirement? lol nt

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. Republican Congressional retirees are set for life, so they don't give a shit for you.