While I agree - why should I continually be stolen from to continue the ponzi scheme? I should be able to completely opt out. I want as little to do with the federal government as possible. I don’t need gubament daddy planning my retirement or taking care of me. Anyone that relies on an entity financially that is completely corrupt to the core and that couldn’t run a brothel profitably is a complete fool.
If they want to contribute to it, that is fine. I don’t. I want no part of it. If they want to gamble that their government will be solvent and able to actually pay out - that is their choice. I should also have the choice to not participate in financial idiocy.
I would make it about 4 hours into the first day of the month, but I have planned and acted accordingly with respect to my financials. So, that is really irrelevant to me.
That is sad, but also not my fault or my issue. That is their personal finances.
Have a program for them that they pay into, but again - I don’t need or want to be part of it. I should not be docked, forced into a shitty program I don’t want, or punished because others can’t plan appropriately or figure out their financial issues.
And I am all for helping people and being generous. I have high doubts very few here donate more than I do, but I also don’t like throwing more money into the abyss of governmental idiocrasy.
I am one that would be for contributing to a government program, if the government was fiscally responsible and actually doing what it was intended to do. That has never and will never happen because you can’t hate government enough. Government is absolute shit and always has been after a generation or 2 of its formation - even for the best of intentioned ones.
When the government shows me it can balance a budget and spend appropriately, I would revisit the conversation. Would anyone still go invest with Bernie Madoff knowing what they know now if he were still alive? The government is multiples worse than him on wasting / stealing your money.
Definitely something, and probably the first in a string of somethings.
Some very interesting local updates today.
First, a statement from Department of Homeland Security regarding the two traffic fatalities caused by Angolans who overstayed tourist visas in Maine:
Lewiston’s District Attorney (for all of Androscoggin County) is one of the few Republicans with any power, even though he’s criminally underfunded and understaffed by Democrats in Augusta. I think the case backlog is something like 2 years long right now. He’s also a reader of yours truly.
He chimed in with this public statement a few minutes ago, highlighting some grim realities with Democrats’ ideas of “bail reform” in Maine.
I agree with the sentiment on a lot of this and again, I have no solution to offer. I do think when Social Security was created, there were a lot less people and they didn’t live nearly as long. Assuming retirement at 65 we were paying people for 10 years max. I have 3 living grandparents in their 90s, nearly 30 years of payments each!
Was it a bad idea at the time? Probably not. Did it need to be changed YEARS ago? Definitely.
I’m getting the feeling that what I pay in isn’t going to come back around to me later in life. That’s why I’m trying to set myself up early and max 401ks and invest. I don’t want to be reliant on anything but myself, good way to avoid getting burnt.
I think we are too far gone. Some talk of a collapse, and of a hopeful renewal after it. That’s the only way I see forward, but I don’t know if a collapse will occur. And sometimes places don’t collapse. They get bad, and stay bad.
@Bauber What do think about replacing SS with a sovereign wealth fund that can be tapped into at retirement age? Say the government takes ownership of 10% of stock when there’s an IPO (I’m pulling that number out of my ass).
Here’s classic Trump talking about grass, which he’s the world’s foremost expert on, especially beautiful grass, the best grass anyone’s ever seen, frankly.
I suspect someone will come along to explain that grass maxing the capital is a move straight out of Mussolini’s playbook, or that he’s delusional about his own expertise in grass science.
“Nobody arrests better than me, nobody, okay? I’m like Wyatt Earp, but with better hair. Tremendous hair. You, yeah, you, you’re under arrest, pal. I’ve got the best cuffs, shiny, beautiful cuffs—made in America, by the way.
You thought you could get away? Sad! I’ve been watching you, I know all the moves, everyone knows it.”
My parents (commentary aside) have maybe 50k cash in savings, but they have a couple million in 401k.
Maybe they are the one outlier and everyone else is just keeping their money in coffee cans and savings accounts, but I think most of them would have had their money in a Roth IRA.
I’m saying that the number you used for your argument is a flawed number.
Most of them are working because they need something to do, not because they need the money.
Most of the older men working these entry level jobs were NOT working there their whole life. They retired, but needed something to do and keep social.
This is a liberal outlook.
The government must come and help, obviously.
Frankly, its not our fuckin responsibility.
I, as a 31 year old with a young family, should not be burdened with supporting someone who had their entire life to prepare for the end of their life.
Your bleeding heart “we should do something” feeling is nice to the people that need help, but cruel to the people who have to provide such help.
Medicare and social security should be optional, and you only get what you pay into it. Nothing more, nothing less.
