Posted on 12/07/2004 8:28:41 AM PST by CHARLITE
The greedy AARP.
If any more confirmation were needed, we've just received it: The AARP's most fundamental principle is "Get all you can, while you can — young people be damned."
The nation's largest seniors organization has just sent its 36 million members a scorching message opposing private Social Security accounts, raising the prospect of benefit cuts, Wall Street profiteering and mayhem just short of the apocalypse. The blast is prompted by Bush's endorsement of Social Security reform and proposals to allow younger workers to voluntarily divert some of their payroll taxes into a private retirement account.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Well at some point, a combination of declining head count, lack of ongoing high income, excess debt, and the like, will move the boomers from being the in control group to a large, but (properly) disenfranchised group. At that point, those of us who have money and vigor can tell lobbyists and Congressmen, "what will it be, the votes of a declining pool of whiners, or, our money?" Sorry to put it so harshly. I fight fire with fire.
AARP has been the problem for a long time!
Boortz is on a tear about this today also:
THE AARP DECLARES WAR ON YOUNGER AMERICANS
http://boortz.com/nuze/200412/12072004.html#aarp
Well, DUH! ;)
Somehow, someway, I've never been sure how, I was made a member of AARP over four years ago. I'm only 25.
LOL!!
Boortz outlines the ugly choices:
1. "Extend the retirement age in hopes that many more Americans will actually do the government the favor of dying before they can collect any or all of their benefits.
2. Deny Social Security benefits to those who worked hard and made good financial decisions in their lives, thereby insuring themselves a sufficient retirement income outside of Social Security. No ... their "contributions" will not be refunded.
3. Extend the wage base for taxes so that achievement-oriented Americans can poor even more money into this financial sewer; more money that they will never, ever get back."
I expect number two (Democrat class warfare) will soon be implemented and the others are on the way too.
I am of AARP age and status; but despite being courted by them for the last 10 years or more, I have never joined and never will. AARP, above all else, in cahoots with the Democracks, has been heavily responsible for our as yet failure to fix Social Security. The '94 Congress seemed a good bet to get the job done, until AARP and the Dems demagogued it to high heaven. Since then, every time I get something from AARP asking me to join up, I have written back, at their expense (business reply mail) what I think of their selfish interests and activities.
I hate those bastards.
I hate anyone who stands for a system that siphons off 12-14% of MY money under the phony "its for your own good" pretense of "investing" it for me.
The gall! I mean, really, seriously. Think about it: the government actually thinks YOU are too stupid to provide for yourself and then they take it on themselves to do it FOR YOU!
And, of course, being the government, they screw it up. A 2% rate of return? IF I'm lucky? If they don't decide to take it all away from me with a vote someday (raising the retirement age, or "means testing" benefits)??!
I'm with Boortz. If younger people woke the eff up and realized what was happening to them, they would RIOT.
I'm a member but I think I'll let it drop. I remember several years ago there was some sort of catastrophic health insurance plan in Congress (Kennedy's I think) that would have helped the elderly of limited means. AARP was instrumental in torpedoing it. Since then they've become very political and, as far as I'm concerned, on the "wrong" side !
AARP is just an insurance company. Nothing more.
AARP is anti-gun and has campaigned aggressively for gun control. Their spokesmen have been very vocal and insulting in that regard.
The only thing they'll ever get from me is a full magazine.
I believe Grandpa Simpson put it best when he said, "I'm old! Gimme, gimme, gimme!"
"AARP is just an insurance company"
It is. I belong for two reasons: I save on my auto insurance and I get a good discount on hotel/motel rooms. I guess maybe that does fall under getting all I can, while I can (isn't that human nature?) but I ignore their political advice and don't endorse their candidates. As far as Social Security is concerned, I'm all in favor of a planned phase-out of this ill-conceived ponzy scheme. The sooner this last remnant of FDR socialism is gone, the better.
I do send them back their little prepaid subscription envelopes. Empty, of course.
he also said "I don't need it, I don't deserve it, I didn't earn it, but if they miss one payment I'll raise hell!!!!"
When push comes to shove at the end of socialist 'experiments', always put your money on the Party of Young Men.
AARP is LONG past due for a serious audit by the IRS.
What do we expect from the me, me, me generation ?
I expect all three solutions to be enacted in effort to "save Social Security".
My the way, did you hear Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader state that Social Security is, "The most successful social program in the history of world"?
Democrats. Still clueless after all these years.
I honestly don't understand AARP.
I'm close to that age, and they have sent information and such, but I would never join.
What in hell do they care what the structure of Social security becomes as long as their member's present benefits are secured?
Seems as if they fear a decline in clout and lobbying power if they can not use such programs as leverage, and that is just wrong.
Very good observation. For example, don't expect to find a serious analysis of the pro's and con's of long term care insurance at the AARP web site. They are too busy selling the product to offer any insight into whether, or for whom, such products make sense. For an analysis, and not a sales pitch, you'll have to go to Consumer Reports.
For cryin' out loud, put some Republican literature in them! ;)
If they keep it up, they are going to have a generation war with the younger folk. Or be looking at mandatory euthanasia when you get past a certain age, a la Logan's Run.
Ping
That's right -- AARP should be thinking about (and representing) those, too, who WANT to retire some day. They may not know it (yeah, right), but we (young and old alike) are all in this thing together. There must NEVER be a financial battle of the generations. We'd all get wiped out by it.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) 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.
The exit polls were fabricated to show the younger voters leaning left, but the official tallies proved just the opposite.
The Gen-Xers will probably be unforgiving, perhaps antagonistic, toward the elderly issues; the Gen-Yers will probably be slightly more compassionate than the X-ers, but pragmatic.
In 2000, the Boomers and older Silents had a combined total of 109,045,630 eligible voters. Their numbers are only decreasing with each passing day, and the daily death rate will accelerate as they age.
In 2000, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population had a combined total of 89,741,842 eligible voters.
In 2004, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population will have a combined total of 105,834,510 eligible voters.
In 2008, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population will have a combined total of 122,310,351 eligible voters. This will be the first national election where the post-Boomer voters are a clear majority of the eligible voting population.
In 2012, the Gen-X and Gen-Y population will have a combined total of 138,894,753 eligible voters.
Another classic exchange:
Bart: Gee, Granpa, where'd you get all the money?
Grandpa: The government. I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but if they miss one payment I'll raise hell!
AARP's claim is that were these accounts to be privitized, there would be a need for massive tax increases to fund them. (Not going to happen, no Republicans would ever propose tax increases for this.) They also assume that were the privitized accounts to fail (go down, as in the market collapse of 2000), the government would have to bail out the system.
I don't think things would necessarily work that way. I also think Social Security is a scam but the GOP seems determined to save it. The system only works if there are enough workers to tax to pay the expenses.
4. Halt all Social Security deductions by employers immediately. Anyone who enters the workforce for the first time after that date gets no Social Security, no way, no how. For everyone else still not retired, the retirement age gets raised to 70. In order to fund the outlays to those who have already paid into the system, wasteful and unnecessary welfare and other "social" spending gets shut down, especially any outlays to illegal aliens. Demand verification of lawful residency or citizenship to claim government benes. Actual SS outlay proportional to number of years paid in (e.g. in order to accomodate the differences in years of deduction between those who just entered workforce at effective date Vs those older). Etc. It can be done, but welfare babies, whiners and others unwilling to bite the bullet need to be ignored.
There is an alterative to generational warfare, or, an excessive burden on future wage earners. This alternative would end the Social Security program over a period of about 55 years, but most of the decrease would be during the first 25 years. Let us not forget that Social Security was only supposed to be Depression Era stopgap, but once the "FDR Democrats" siezed on it, it was made into a birthright. See referenced post for details. I am quite serious about this. IMHO it ought to be pushed in Congress.
I also attribute the phenomenal rise in medical costs to Medicare.
The skewing of the free market system, by putting government control and fee structures at the core of this system, has doomed the system to failure without massive and regular increases in funding, which ends the free market Capitalist system, as we know it.
I'm sure the dems just love this effect.
As my uncle once said when I was a child:
"We have just handed the keys to the National Treasury to the medical profession."
BTW, the phrase "Rocket Scientist," applies to him, as he was an engineer for NASA in those Glory days...
Wake up. AARP is the largest lobbying organization in the country. It is far, far to the Left and actively supports socialist causes. Its insurance functions are all carried out by companies that contract with it. The more paid membership it has, the more clout it has with Congress.
A critic recently wrote: Many pressure groups are true "movements of the people", even controversial ones like the pro-life and pro-choice groups, and even the NRA. However, these should be distinguished from "Special Interest Groups". Although they often have wide membership and lots of money, special interests basically exist to press the interests of a few of their members. For example, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is one of the largest special interest groups in the country, and much of the U.S. population over 55 are members. Most members don't care about the political side of the movement, they join for the discounts and monthly magazine. The AARP is by far the most powerful special interest group in the country. However, the AARP supports things like keeping the retirement age at 65, whereas most of its members support raising the retirement age as a method of keeping social security expenditures down.
and yet the AARP has not said a peep about giving homosexuals survivor benifits at the expense of other benificiaries.
Are you saying that this is being done?
Every time we get paid we see this money coming out of our checks for this forced retirement program, that we could put to so much better use in 401K, or even an interest bearing bank account.
The way I see it, is right now we are paying for a socialist mistake that was born in the past, and should have either never happened or ended a long time ago.
Even a partial privatization isn't good enough for me. I WANT TO KEEP MY MONEY, and have MY OWN retirement choices, or do with MY money as I see fit. I won't be happy until I see this madness stopped completely.
Sounds like Grampa Abe Simpson is the spokesman for AARP.
Jack.
I see them trying to kill off my retirement, and I raise them one - I kill off any more attempts to give them free medical care.
We'll just see who blinks first.
Allow seniors to continue working past retirement age, and if they do continue working, remove them from the SS & MC payroll tax. One rule change would have to be made to allow them to base their future SS income on the quarters they've already earned, so that the quarters they work w/o paying into SS & MC wouldn't count against their future retirement income.
I mean, if they retired instead, they wouldn't be paying into the system, so it's not a loss of income for the system. And it would serve as a great incentive to continue working - a huge take-home pay increase.
Those who continue working would then be in a position to spend more money, thus adding to the economy, and that's a good thing. Plus, their income will generally above the minimum for taxation, so they would be paying federal and state income taxes.
It's a win-win-win situation.
AARP: The next monolithic and monopolistic demographic! It's a monster moving through. Let's hope it doesn't "break the bank." Many of its members and those driving it are the same selfish blue-state libs who couldn't care less about anyone but themselves.
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