A few weeks ago we had a thread on housing costs, and why the youth can't afford housing. I'd like to include this article and video in why that's happening.



https://americanmind.org/salvo...er-luxury-communism/

thread in question.
https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...935/m/6760056815/p/1

An interesting point. We have wealth transfer to old people, broken people, lazy people, and troublesome people. The only ones not getting anything, and are being taken from, are those that should be having nuclear families. No wonder the west is collapsing.

I’ve paid into Social Security for nearly six decades, with my employers matching those contributions. If someone believes that makes me a “communist,” they’re welcome to propose a refund—with interest—of everything paid in.

Short of that, this isn’t an ideological debate; it’s a contractual one.

Good post BYTES. I too have been contributing for 6 decades as well. Like you, I feel I have earned what I am getting.

Please interpret what these young men are saying for me. I thought they said that boomers are fighting to get back with interest what they paid up front for and were promised. Mocking boomers for expecting to get paid back?? They also said that SCOTUS is clear, that nobody has a constitutional right to welfare. Well, social security is not welfare. Either I’m missing their point, or I’m not picking up on their sarcasm, or they really mean it and are idiots. Someone please help me out here.

Social security is welfare.

You paid a tax, in the past, for the promise of welfare. The government isn’t a bank, and there is zero chance that the money you put in would accumulate interest (spoiler: it didn’t).

The government took in insufficient money to cover future obligations, and now is absolutely insolvent.

No American government should ever be involved in schemes of this sort.

The first thing to be done is to make SS limited to tax receipts that year, I.e. if the payout should be 800 billion, but only 600 billion is collected - everyone gets 75% of their projected check.

The next thing is to purge the rolls of absolutely anyone that isn’t destitute, and then eliminate the program entirely in a phaseout.

I’ve paid the max to Social Security for several decades, and I’m absolutely ok never getting a cent back from the government.

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

JFK’s quote was about service, not about dismissing obligations the government created and required people to fund. Social Security is one of those obligations.

I only watched a few minutes, but the argument in the video seems to be that SS and Medicare should be income or means tested. It may very well come to that in the future.

I always thought Welfare was a handout (supposed to be needs based) that you didn’t need to pay into to receive benefits.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

JFK’s quote was about service, not about dismissing obligations the government created and required people to fund. Social Security is one of those obligations.

You are more than welcome to discuss with Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush or Clinton that they squandered your tax dollars. There is no such thing as an obligation from the government - they can only take from another to give to you.

The problem is all the people who did NOT contribute yet are getting benefits. Medicaid being one.

Boy it sure is easy to see who didn't watch the video or read the article. You boy's keep on living up to the stereotype.

Yep I’m definitely confused not only from the video but to who Fender Bender is poking fun at. Give me the Cliff’s notes later before I embarrass myself. I’m out of this one boys. Next topic.

quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Yep I’m definitely confused not only from the video but to who Fender Bender is poking fun at. Give me the Cliff’s notes later before I embarrass myself. I’m out of this one boys. Next topic.

Here's the cliff notes; there is a tremendous wealth transfer from the young and poor, to the wealthiest group of people the planet has ever seen. About 1/4th of the boomer generation are millionaires, there are households getting 120k a year in social security, which is paid out of the taxes of the W-2 workers today, where the recipients already multi-millionaires.

This is dragging the youth, you know those people who we need to MAKE MORE HUMAN BEINGS into a level of poverty where doing that job 3.5 billion years of evolution is effectively impossible.

Like many here, I paid into social security starting in my teens, finally "retiring" in my early seventies. Among other things I object to is that the life expectancy tables have not been updated since their introduction in the 1930s which distorts the viability of the program. Also, 40 quarters seems a tad low given today's life expectancies and the opportunities this creates for freeloaders like immigrants who would never qualify if the requirement was 80 quarters (with narrowly defined exceptions, such as work-related injuries, etc). I could go on, but we can never expect Congress to "rationalize" the system so that it is "fair" and "equitable."

Social security is a Ponzi scheme. I have paid in for 50 years or so, I have very low expectations that I will see anything meaningful from it.

It’s a hit piece to demonize boomers. The cherry picking the $120,000 without explanation and the property tax breaks for seniors prevents young people from buying houses made it clear in the first few minutes. For the record, I’m Gen X and my parents are/were Silent Gen.

And yes, Social Security was a Ponzi scheme from the get go.

Millennials and Zoomers always forget about GenX. Everyone older than them is just a "boomer."

Thanks now it’s in perspective.
I’m right in the middle of gen X, ‘72.
I wore my gen X t-shirt to surgery today. The skull one advertised all over social media these days. I’m not truly that grumpy old man but I like the t-shirt.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
It’s a hit piece to demonize boomers. The cherry picking the $120,000 without explanation and the property tax breaks for seniors prevents young people from buying houses made it clear in the first few minutes. For the record, I’m Gen X and my parents are/were Silent Gen.

And yes, Social Security was a Ponzi scheme from the get go.

Absolutely. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. I just didn’t realize it was mismanaged as badly as every other piggy bank we give to congress. Yes I realize that makes me the fool. At least they are consistent crooks.