A new idea is being floated for Social Security. Read on:
Workers today are on the hook for Social Security taxes with the promise that they’ll be entitled to benefits down the line. Now, imagine someone who’s a higher earner pays those taxes for 45 years, only to then be told, come retirement, that they’re not getting benefits, or their benefits are getting reduced, because they also happened to save really well and have a large amount of nest egg-produced income.
So you will pay the tax and save like you are supposed to. Because your retirement savings are paying interest, you get nothing. Meanwhile, some low life 30 year old drug addict claims that he hurt his back and collects disability for the rest of his life after getting his student loan forgiven.
How is that for fairness?
9 Comments
nunya · June 18, 2022 at 7:14 am
I have been discussing this concept for decades with anybody who would listen. Unethical but the most likely way this will go down. Since the ss fund was stolen. I am not well off but with 2 pensions I earned doing shitty jobs (mil/prison) I know people like me get screwed with a paltry pension and injuries trashing my quality of life. The $$ were decent at first but inflation they caused has left wife and I at the lower end of middle class.
Don Curton · June 18, 2022 at 7:52 am
At this point, with this economy, won’t matter much anyway. If you’re below 50, don’t count on ever retiring. If you between 50 and 60, better have a very healthy 401k and then plan on living like paupers. Even better, have an off-the-books side gig to assist. I’m 56 and things were looking rosy back when Trump was still in office. Now? I can only imagine how much worse it’ll get, and I’ll probably not imagine it bad enough. The crash of ’29 took over a decade and a world war to fix that depression. Don’t expect our economy to turn around that fast this time.
Steve · June 18, 2022 at 8:06 am
Welcome to America.
You do things right, save for your kids’ college, your kids don’t qualify for diddly, even supposedly academic scholarships. Even when the profs recommend them for the “scholarship”. The people running scholarships have to save those funds for all the kids whose parents lived beyond their means.
And then those of us who did things right are soon going to have to pick up the tab for all the loans for those worthless “degrees”.
SiG · June 18, 2022 at 12:32 pm
Welcome to America, where doing things right and responsibly is always punished, in this case by making you pay for the debts of those who didn’t. Where a congresscritter (Rashida Tlaib) making over $170k/year thinks you should pay for her student loans to go to law school.
After paying into SocSec for all our working lives, my wife and I have been able to live off that and my one job that had a pension. Until this year. I’ve been expecting to have SS taken away by means testing for about 20 years.
Big Ruckus D · June 18, 2022 at 10:45 am
Means testing to receive SS? Ha. This is the “just the tip baby, I swear” moment. The unspoken reality of the plan is that the horse cock is going to get rammed all the way in with no foreplay and no lube: there will be no payout on your decades of paying those taxes. It’s all gone, pissed down various and sundry ratholes of govt expenditure that the whores everone elected thought were more important in the now, than a promise that wasn’t due to be fulfilled for many more years in the future.
And that is the crux of government, you are forced (yes, forced, just try opting out) to accept the raw deal of conceding some portion of your liberty and productivity as the collateral for a promise that will not be fulfilled. That this has been the play has been obvious for a long time, most people simply ddn’t want to accept what was clear enough: any promise made by govt can and will be broken for it’s own convenience. “Oh, they’d never dare do that” has been the repeated self-reassurance half-heartedly uttered by everyone who wants to beleive they won’t get hosed for playing by the rules.
But the rules are made – and amended at will – by those with troops, courts and prisons (all paid for by those who don’t have those things at their ready disposal) to make sure anyone who squawks enough about “unfairness” of the rules, and especially about them being changed unilaterally long after the game is underway, pipes down right quick, or gets blown the fuck out for being an uppity peasant. Functionally, it is a mafia racket. “Nice life you got there, be a real shame if anything happened to it. Now fuck you, pay me.” That’s where we are in regard to the so-called social contract. Best get used to it, or figure out how to get a new boss (same as the old boss).
Rob · June 18, 2022 at 11:34 am
I don’t know, maybe keep my forced contribution separate and invest it wisely? Oh, and if you want to give away free money to those who don’t work claiming disability or to kids who no longer have a father, do that out of the general fund. I never agreed to share my retirement money with ANYONE, especially scammers and deadbeats.
John Fisher · June 18, 2022 at 1:02 pm
It is already partially means tested. Over certain income thresholds your Social Security gets taxed as income. See https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/taxes.html
Steve S · June 18, 2022 at 1:45 pm
What do you expect when those operating the federal government intentionally exceed the limited powers?
Anonymous · June 19, 2022 at 2:21 am
Gary North explained that back in 1955-ish his high school teacher showed the math for why Social Security wouldn’t be able to pay for the baby boom retiring.
Comments are closed.