Posted on 05/21/2009 1:36:19 PM PDT by Puddleglum
As a working American, you have paid roughly 12% of all your earnings into Social Security. Is this your money? In my opinion it certainly is. The government took it from you with the promise that it would manage it wisely for you and provide for your future retirement. Please underscore that last part: the government took your money because it deemed itself more capable than you for providing for you in your golden years.
Let us begin with the assertion, then, that this is your money. Upon your retirement the government owes it to you, with interest.
The trouble is, we are now told that the Social Security system is teetering on the edge of backruptcy and soon won't be able to pay. You see, the government has been borrowing from the piggy bank of the Social Security trust fund and filling it with IOU's it has no ability to pay back. Even the Treasury, under the leadership of the current administration, can't print Obamabucks® fast enough to provide even an illusory blanket to conceal this improvidence.
In light of this conflict between a ream of obligations and empty coffers, my advice to the government is to be ready to pay the people back their money, and to encourage the kind of economic growth that can settle Uncle Sam's outstanding debts.
The government that has been all too happy to saddle future generations with debt to the Chinese must begin exercising the fiscal discipline it will take to reimburse those of us from whom it compelled a substantial portion of our earnings.
To do so, Uncle Sam needs to stop playing "Uncle Santa" giving out goodies left and right and instead begin behaving like it is beholden to you. It needs to court your respect with at least as much humilty as it displays when it bows to Arab moguls.
Is it too much to demand that the United States government meet its Social Security obligations? No? If anything, it extends too much generosity to a government that has exploited your trust, work ethic, and goodwill. As Americans, we have gotten too used to expecting too little from government. If we were treated by a waitress or a department store clerk like we are treated by say, local road construction crews, the DMV, airport screeners, or switchboard operators in Washington DC, we would demand our money back AND demand to see the manager. Why are we conditioned to expect so little of the government? We cannot afford to do so any more.
Our leaders in Washington must be held to higher standards. They must pay their debts. As the baby boomers retire, they must be paid their money back. With interest. Period. America must unfetter the economy now and get out of the business of paying for everything everyone thinks they need to have a carefree and happy life – on someone else's dime. This means saying so long to sweetheart contracts for donors back home, so long to Murtha airports, to bridges to nowhere,to foreign aid to countries that hate us anyway and always will. This means saying so long to cash not to grow crops, to federal and state dollars for roads that don't last and schools that can't teach kids to read or write but can show them how to put a condom on a banana.
Uncle Sam - pay us before you pay China. Do not borrow from China to pay us. Grow American wealth, do not indenture her citizens.
In closing, the time has come to tell Obama and big-spending Republicans to be honest and loyal to their own citizens. The debt economy not only has got to stop, it HAS stopped. Dear federal government, pay Americans what they paid you, pay it with dignity, and quit playing games with other peoples' livelihoods because you think you are smarter than everyone else.
Well then, I either marry Jet Li or Russell Wong. Decisions decisions.... :)
If they’re not going to be able to pay out, why should young people pay in now? The pyramid scheme is falling, and the jackboots will come after you if you try to get out of it?
I agree to a point, but since it can be modified at will by Congress (as you say), it can and should be made to reflect what people believed when they paid into it year after year after year... Every year we all get these letters saying "here are your projected benefits based on what YOU paid in" etc.
Trust me, if I did not know what you said, I would not be so interested in holding some collective feet to the fire. Uncle Santa speaketh out of both sides of his mouth.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Debt can either be paid or defaulted. The debt is at a level now that can not be serviced. Therefore, it will be defaulted. So, neither will get paid.
There is no debt. No one is owed anything. It is welfare. It is taken from me and given to you (if you are retired). If I could get enough votes I could pass a law tomorrow and stop paying you tomorrow. If you could get enough votes you could pass a law and double your benefits.
Let me repeat myself...it is WELFARE.
Obama didn't pass a law (like you claim that you could), he just made promises that he can't cash. The people and countries that pay for his promises (and the laws you pass) have reached the “no mas”point. At the end of the day the tab has to be paid or at least the people who pay the tab to service the debt have to believe you are “good for it”. We are reaching the point that the world isn't believing that we are good for it. Clinton received the same bond market beatdown when he tried Hillarycare. So, your theory of passing laws to give away free money is flawed. The market has the final say.
Entitlements will soon be over. Bernanke has followed his thesis on how to avoid a depression and every step has been a fail up to the latest one, quantitative easing. That one has been thoroughly shoved up his a$$.
So, I will stick to my original comment. Sure a bunch of people have paid in expecting to get it back via SS. Reality will soon be here and many people are in for a shocking (and simple) lesson in math. Our government is heading for default if this keeps up or they will simply not have money for their programs anyway and have to cut them severely. If the .gov defaults, no one will get paid. Social security, done. Medicare, done. WIC, done. Buildings with Byrd's name on them, done. Best case scenario at this point (no .gov default) is a 50% cut in all social programs. The leech*%&ks in our society will no longer be able to sit on their couch. Voting for the latest Idol winner and collecting checks for producing carbon dioxide will not cut it when this happens.
Reality is here, it's just not evenly distributed.
The only crisis that exist here is political. I am guessing that we will trim benefits, raise taxes, and write down our debt via inflation. After inflation (slow default versus instant default) ravages about 50% of our individual wealth, most of which is what other people owe us such us bonds, treasuries, mortgages, CDs, etc. and not real physical assets, then we will go on the next borrow and spend binge.
I was speaking of a government default on its debt which would end entitlements or a bond market dislocation, which would cause .gov to lose a drastic amount of $ and cut entitlements in half (at the least), not a default on entitlements. I thought I was clear, sorry if I was not.
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